Divine Creation Research Articles

Through the Looking Glass

Masamune Shirow's manga, Ghost in the Shell, is a ‘cyberpunk' classic of the 1990's. It focuses on a fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation led by Major Motoko Kusanagi known as Section-9. This classic manga was made into an anime by Mamoru Oshii and became a cult hit in the mid-90s. Its popularity fuelled the production of a number of feature length animated films as well as two anime series. It regained popularity in 2015 following the news that Scarlett Johansson signed to play the lead in a live-action version of the anime that was released in 2017. What is interesting about Ghost in the Shell is not only its ‘cyberpunk' motifs but the very transhumanist themes it conveys. Though considered a ‘cultural/intellectual' movement transhumanism has some interesting ‘religious' elements associated with it, albeit ones that may not fit the usual conventional understanding of ‘religion'. This is especially the case if ‘religion' is seen as the sui generis concept that it is popularly known as, rather than a cultural activity. One of the fundamental beliefs of this movement is that humans will advance physically, intellectually, and psychologically, not through the will of a divine creator, but through human ingenuity and technology. Another popular belief held by some transhumanists is one that suggests that in the 'not-so-distant future' humans will transcend their physical and mental imperfections by uploading themselves into a supercomputer. With transhumanist themes in mind this paper will focus on two main points. The first is that Japanese traditions can be used to strengthen the ‘transhumanism as religion' argument as proposed by Robert Geraci. The second will examine how-through the adoption of Japanese mythology and its articulation in Ghost in the Shell­-cyborg technology can be used to enhance spirituality, thus introducing a new method for understanding the traditional science v religion debate.

Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn by Edward Kanterian

Reviewed by: Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn by Edward Kanterian Luke R. Moffat KANTERIAN, Edward. Kant, God and Metaphysics: The Secret Thorn. New York: Routledge, 2018. 444 pp. Cloth, £105.00; eBook, £20.00 Kanterian provides an exhaustive analysis of Kant's early works, leading up to the famed "critical turn." Kanterian's main thesis throughout the book is that Kant remained consistently dedicated the connections between theology and metaphysics. Central to this thesis is the "weakness motif," the notion that human reason is by nature imperfect, corruptible, and capable of only limited knowledge. Kanterian seeks to show how this motif, entangled with Kant's religious devotion, consistently informed his philosophical development. The book runs over seven chapters, following a roughly chronological account of Kant's works prior to construction of the critical philosophy. Each of these chapters traces the gradual edification of Kant's "fortress," the metaphysical armaments within which Kant—according to Kanterian's reading—sought to protect his religious faith. The first chapter provides historical and theoretical antecedents to Kant's work, through a wide-ranging discussion of the intersections of knowledge, religion, and morality. Here, Kanterian draws together various iterations of the weakness motif, rooted in figures of the Reformation such as Erasmus and Luther. Kanterian frames the period in terms of continuous dynamic relationships between divine creation, human frailty, and scientific exactitude. The story told here is "rhapsodic," avoiding a "clear teleological pattern." A prevailing theme does materialize, however, over how exactly to construct God's presumed perfection in relation to the natural world, how to conduct theological-metaphysical thinking. Chapter 2 departs from the theological-metaphysical ground established in chapter 1. Beginning with Kant's earliest works from the 1740s, Kanterian delves into Kant's "synthetic project," to find "synthesis between mathematical physics and metaphysics." Through his negotiations with Leibniz and Newton, Kant's first struggles to develop an apt method for reconciling mechanics and divine creation emerge here. By once again tracing the thematic elements of Kant's work to predecessors such as Johann Friedrich Stapfer, Kanterian excavates and contextualizes Kant's ecstatic picture of a universe that is both revealed through natural science and yet majestic in its immeasurability. This in turn leads to a discussion of Kant's ontotheology and determining ground, [End Page 796] signposting the centerpiece of Kanterian's analysis, Kant's theory of existence in The Only Possible Ground (1763). After brief discussion of the works immediately prior to Ground in chapter 3, chapter 4 embarks on a critical reading of two pillars in this work: existence and the modal argument for possibility. Various ambiguities are identified with Kant's use of these notions, and interpretations sought to clarify them. These include a Frege–Russell analysis, which analogizes Kant's concept–data relation to that the linguistic one between sense and reference. While intriguing, it is not always clear how this interpretation impacts Kant's ultimately "religious agenda" in the The Only Possible Ground. Chapter 5 reiterates the conflict between mathematics and metaphysics introduced in chapter 2, briefly detailing Kant's first attacks on the system he had constructed in the Only Possible Ground. Here, the dramas of metaphysical endeavor come to the fore. Kanterian's insistence on Kant's continued quest for certainty during this self-criticism informs chapter 6, which deals with Kant's so-called skeptical period during the 1760s. Despite Kant's growing problems in handling the issue of God's presence—to human reason and to the world—Kanterian defends the claim that, even at his most skeptical, Kant still saw metaphysics as a demand of reason. In the final chapter, Kanterian returns to the themes with which he began, turning inward—as Kant himself arguably also did—to examine the complex status of reason at the nascence of the critical turn. This is achieved largely through a commentary on the notes with which Kant supplemented his copy of Baumgarten's Metaphysica, alongside portions of Kant's Reflexionnen. Here, Kanterian makes his most explicit moves to demonstrate core components of Kant's first Critique in antecedent work. This is particularly successful when it comes to reason's weakness, and the approximations...

Where Inspiration Generates Art: A Critical Analysis of Shaffer’s “Amadeus”

This research article is mainly concerned with the dialectic of art and theology with reference to Peter Shaffer’s play “Amadeus.” It delineates comparing divine and artistic creativity as a vital ...

Фрактальная геометрия Сонаты № 10 А. Н. Скрябина

The physical-mathematical concept of the “fractal,” which has determined the formation of the contemporary paradigm of natural science, has initiated new perspectives of research of biological systems, informational technologies, society, the history of culture, religion and art. The article is devoted to revealing the psychological premises of fractal modeling in the late music of Alexander Scriabin and the description of its algorithm in the spatial-temporal organization of Sonata No. 10 for piano. The personal myth of the composer’s life was realized in the mystical actualization of the archetype of God (the Highest Selfhood), becoming the key towards the interpretation of its artistic content. The composition’s conception is connected with the cognition of the Divine genesis of Nature. The sound code of the fractal as “an imprint of God’s thumb” is presented by archaic migrating musical-lexical formulas of the signal and the invocation. The intertext of the culture is demonstrated by “pantheistic signs” together with echo effects. The reminiscence of archetypical geometric figures of the circle, the triangle, the square and the cross in the semantic fractal Universe are identified with segments of the mandala. In the spatial-temporal construction it is possible to discover the mythologemes of: the Divine score, the number, Apollo, Dionysus, Zephyr. Having reconstructed in the Piano Sonata opus 70 the universal mythopoetic model of the Divine Creation of the world, common for European and Eastern cultures, Scriabin has revived the celebrated Pythagorean triad of “mathematics – music – cosmos.” The artistic picture of the Sonata has reflected the mythical cosmogenesis and the mechanism of “the expanding Universe,” the crucial aspect of which is the conceptual fractal. Keywords: the fractal, Alexander Scriabin, mysticism, Being in myth, archetypes of God and mandalas, Sonata No. 10 for piano by Scriabin, mythologemes, pastoral topics, geometric figures in music, symbolism of the universe.

Bilingual Match to Biblical Flood

In this testimony, vowel next to two l letters is proposed as a novel affix that represents dissected offering at burnt altar. In turn, biblical etymology of flood is presented to be double hands in offering flock to worship, and the etymology of boat is both male and female in pair. All the words for ships are linguistically related to either Noah’s ark or worship. 牙 tooth is originated from two people in mating to match Noah’s covenant about food and multiplication after the flood. An affix for burning, c+vowel+n, is also verified. For the first time in human history, a large variety of words related to great flood, ark and Noah’s worship are presented to match bible in semantic origin, indicating divine creation of languages.

Panentheisms, Creation and Evil

Abstract Can panentheism cope with the problem of evil? This problem is often understood as one for classical theists, who maintain that the cosmos, together with its evils, was created by an all-powerful and benevolent God. For classical theists need to reconcile the world’s evils with divine creation. But corresponding problems re-emerge for theologies of both pantheistic and panentheistic kinds. Thus a problem arises for panentheists, with their teachings about a close relation between God and the cosmos. The closer the relation, the more intense the problem. Thus panentheists who regard the world as necessary to or part of God must hold that its evils are likewise necessary to or part of God. I explore in this paper whether panentheism can overcome the corresponding problem. This exploration involves sifting different varieties of panentheism. While for some varieties the problem is insoluble, this turns out to be less so for others, which retain central features of classical theism, while stressing interaction between God and the created world. In particular, grounds will be offered for holding that the version of panentheism put forward by Jürgen Moltmann and by Arthur Peacocke is defensible and can overcome this problem.

The Phenomenological Moral Argument

The moral argument for the existence of God is a popular and rhetorically effective element of natural theology, but both its traditional ontological and epistemological forms rely upon controversial premises. This article proposes a new variant—the phenomenological moral argument, or PMA—that is exclusively empirical in form. The PMA notes several empirical aspects of moral experience (seven are discussed in the version presented here) that cohere much more naturally with a theistic than with an atheistic account of conscience’s origins. It therefore concludes that divine creation best explains the nature of moral experience, and thus, that God exists.

Leibniz on Spontaneity, The Eduction of Substantial Forms, and Creaturely Interaction

Leibniz argued that (i) substantial forms only begin to exist via Divine creation; (ii) created substances cannot transeuntly cause accidents in distinct substances; and yet (iii) created substances immanently produce their accidents. Some of Leibniz’s support for (i) came from his endorsement of a widely-made argument against the eduction of substantial forms. However, in defense of eduction, Suárez argued that if creatures cannot produce substantial forms, they also cannot produce accidents, threatening the consistency of (i) and (iii). In this paper, I argue that Leibniz successfully defends the consistency of (i) and (iii) against Suárez’s argument, but at the expense of the consistency of (ii) and (iii).

Le corps humain dans le corpus étiologique russe

We propose to study the representation of the creation of the first humans and their physical peculiarities in Russian oral literature . This representation came partly from apocryphal texts , mostly translated from Greek , which had been in use in Russia since the twelfth century , and partly from folklore . This dualism underpinning the representation of the creation of man is peculiar to the etiology of the Eastern Slavs ; man in these texts is at the same time divine creation and diabolical creature . The popularity of this mode of representation can be explained by its etiological character , in other words by the explanation that it provides as to the origin of the impurities in the human body , and diseases . Dualism is also discussed in relation to sexual differentiation . The appearance of secondary sexual characteristics is placed in the context of the fall . Etiological tales also explain the origin of human sexual behavior and the specificities of human development during childhood .

Problem of “perfect person” in creativity al Khakim at-Termizi and Ibn-Arabi

 The article discusses the problem of the "perfect man" in Sufism, presented in the work of two great thinkers - at-Termizi and Ibn-Arabi. It shows the continuity of ideas in the teachings of these two thinkers who lived at different times. The doctrine of the friends of God at-Termizi is analyzed, a comprehensive definition is given to him. Various approaches to the problem of holiness and perfect man are revealed. It justifies the making of at-Termizi God's friends into four groups: 1) Avliya'u hakk Allah or Sadikush; 2) auliya'u-allah; 3) siddikun (sincere); 4) moonfarid (single). A detailed analysis of the qualities of representatives of each of these groups is given. The authors also dwell on the understanding of the “seal of the saints” (khatm al-auliya), i.e. the most important “friend of God” who completes the cycle of holiness. The historical significance of the teachings of at-Termizi about the friends of God through the theory of “wahdat al-wujud” of ibn-Arabi is revealed, in which the perfect person is considered as the crown of divine creation, its completion. The authors also dwell on the fundamental concept of Ibn-Arabi, according to which "peace" and "God" express the same essence, are two sides of the only truth, i.e. "The being of creatures is the essence of the being of the Creator." The authors conclude that the teachings of at-Termizi and Ibn-Arabi played a significant role in the further development of the problems of the “perfect man” not only in Sufism and Arab-Muslim philosophy, but also in the teachings of Western European thinkers.

The Christological Aspects of Hebrew Ideograms

Abstract: The linguistic form of the Hebrew Old Testament retained its ancient ideogram values included in the mystical directions and meanings originating from the divine way of addressing people. As such, the Old Hebrew alphabet has remained a true lexical treasure of the God-established mysteries of the ecclesiological way of existence. The ideographic meanings of the Old Hebrew language represent the form of a mystagogy through which God spoke to the Old Testament fathers about the mysteries of the divine creation, maintenance, and future re-creation of the world. Thus, the importance of the ideogram is reflected not only in the recognition of the Christological elements embedded in the very structure of the Old Testament narrative, but also in the ever-present working structure of the existence of the world initiated by the divine economy of salvation. In this way both the Old Testament and the New Testament Israelites testify to the historicizing character of the divine will by which the world was

PECULIARITIES OF PREPARATION OF WOMANKIND FOR SPIRITUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG GENERATION IN ORTHODOX MONASTERIES OF UKRAINE (THE XIXTH - THE BEGINNING OF THE XXTH CENTURY)

The article analyzes the peculiarities of preparation of womankind for the spiritual and moral education of the young generation in the orthodox monasteries of Ukraine in the XIXth – at the beginning of the XXth centuries. During the study we used: historical methods (historical-typological, historical-structural, chronological, retrospective), which allowed to trace the development of the issues under study in the specified period; general scientific (analysis, synthesis, systematization, comparison, generalization) in order to find out the degree of the study of the mentioned problem; comparative-semantic, which made it possible to compare the content, forms and methods of preparation of womankind for spiritual and moral education of students in the orthodox monasteries of Ukraine in the studied period. It has been established that spiritual and moral education was carried out with the obligatory observance of religious orthodox principles in all educational institutions of the Russian Empire (as well as in the Ukrainian territories that were part of it) in the XIXth – early XXth centuries. The purpose of education and upbringing in the schools at the monasteries was to form a spiritual and moral personality who believes in the divine creation of the world, honors everything created by God. The analyzed issues of preparing women for the spiritual and moral education of the younger generation are notable for the harmony of pedagogical ideas of past years with the present, namely: spiritual and moral education should be based on the orthodox principles; effective organization of spiritual and moral education is promoted by such forms of extra-curricular work as: literary evenings, vocal and literary morning perfomances, exhibitions, excursions, school magazines and newspapers; it is pedagogically expedient to use such methods of education as: persuasion, positive example, reminding, instruction, request, warning, inurement (strengthening of will), encouragement (rewards) and punishment in organizing the spiritual and moral education of students. It has been proved that the content, forms and methods of spiritual and moral education of the students in the monastic schools of the mentioned period were generally progressive. In particular, the curricula clearly defined the amount of knowledge from each discipline in the academic years, tasks and educational goals of each course were specifically formulated, methods of studying the course were revealed. The educational process was built on the principles of clarity and accessibility, consistency and taking into account the age characteristics of children.

O corpo (não) humano e sua importância na questão identitária: o monstro de Frankenstein ou Prometeu moderno

O presente artigo tem como objetivo a análise das concepções de corpo, suas bestializações e as questões de aceitação e formação de identidade que o envolvem, tomando como objeto de análise a obra de Mary Shelley – Frankenstein ou o Prometeu moderno. O estudo procurou uma discussão acerca do lado humano e não humano da criatura de Frankenstein, sua estrutura e comportamento corporal bestializados e sua identidade frágil, acompanhada de uma intensa agressividade. Para desenvolver o trabalho, foram utilizados como revisão de literatura teóricos que dissertam sobre corpo e identidade (Kathryn Woodward), bios e zoo (Giorgio Agamben) e comportamento corporal (Michel Foucault), além de uma comparação do processo de criação elaborado por Victor Frankenstein com o processo de criação divina do Homem.

THE COMPOSITOR'S REVERSAL: TYPOGRAPHY, SCIENCE, AND CREATION IN POE'S NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM

ABSTRACTKnown for his tales of mystery and horror, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) was a meticulous, self‐conscious literary craftsman. He was also skilled in the methods of science, engineering, and typesetting. Poe's writing reflected on printed letters’ aesthetic effects, their ability to direct and divert meaning, and their power to build and alter worlds. In the printer's office, a limited set of material elements was manipulated to assemble infinite combinations; lining up letters in the composing stick in reverse, compositors had to arrange and read type backwards. The mirrors, doubles, and “weird symmetry” that structure Poe's plots and his theory of the universe can be traced back to these central facts of nineteenth‐century typography. In his only completed novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket—a broad canvas on which he worked out strategies later deployed in more concentrated works—typography was a crucial site for the conversions and exchanges between spirit and matter. Forging connections between the material and imaginative practice of “composition” and the cosmological uncertainties of the antebellum US, Poe's meditations on the transmutations effected by type linked literary invention, technical construction, and divine creation.

The sacrificial herb: Gathering prayers in medieval pharmacy

This essay examines the plant-gathering prayers that appear throughout thirteenth- and fourteenth-century treatises on medicine and pharmacy as an avenue into uncovering possible late medieval European configurations of the human relationship to plant matter. Although herbals and recipe books might on first glance suggest a relationship of human dominion over the plant world, one in which humans treasured plants for their instrumentality in medical matters, nevertheless the presence of scattered prayers indicate a current of discomfort with this evaluation. Plant-gathering prayers offered scripts for humans to express gratitude for the role plants played in human health and they required humans to recognize the divine creation of – and presence in – plants.

The Islamic Perspective of Lingual Dens Evaginatus in a Mandibular Left Second Premolar: A Case Report

Dens evaginatus (DE) is a developmental anomaly. It is an extra cusp or tubercle that protrudes from the occlusal surface of posterior teeth, as well as the lingual surface of anterior teeth. Tubercles are susceptible to pulp exposure from wear or fracture because of malocclusion;leading to pulpal complications early after eruption.DE may also complicate the process of daily routine oral health care. A 13-year-old girl presented to our polyclinic with sinus track at the posterior lower left buccal gingiva forthe past1 year. All 35 teeth were sound. At the lingual side, there was an accessory tooth in close relation to tooth 35 covered with supra-gingival inflammation. Electric pulp test (EPT) showed that tooth 35 was already non-vital. Intraoral periapical (IOPA) radiograph and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan showed an abnormalappearing root which shows DE with radiolucency at the periapical area. Root canal treatment was performed using crown down pressureless (CDP) technique and obturation was done using lateral condensation technique. The tooth was restored using composite restoration. DE is a rare condition. It is quite a challenge for dental practitioner since the diagnosis is difficult and the treatment options are limited. In the case of DE with necrotic pulp and periapical abscess, root canal treatment is a treatment of choice. We have to accept and appreciate any gift from Allah SWT whether it is good or bad, no equal divine creation except from Allah SWT.Therefore we need to take care of our oral hygiene to prevent diseases. In every disease, there is a cure; we thus need to try to do the best to find the cure and to not easily get rid of the tooth and replace it with a denture. Early diagnosis of DE can lead to proper treatment which can result in high success rate if it is followed by adequate restoration.

Leibniz y la contingencia en los años previos al "Discurso de Metafísica"

Leibniz’s treatment of contingency proceeds by degrees and develops in parallel to the systematizations of his thought. In the time about the Confessio Philosophi, he sustains the idea of contingency on the possible as such, in the hypothetical necessity and in the divine creation. In the years previous to the systematization of the Discours de Métaphysique(1680-1686), Leibniz defends the idea of contingency through the following factors: the complete notion of substance, the infinite analysis of the truths and the first decree of the divine will.

Charles Bell (1774-1842) and Natural Theology.

Sir Charles Bell, a 19th century surgeon, anatomist and artist, was heavily influenced by the religious practice of Natural Theology, a belief which implied that the world is created by an Intelligent Designer. In the 18th century, William Paley, later Rector of Bishop Wearmouth, wrote the seminal book about Natural Theology. Charles Bell who practised in London and Edinburgh used his artistic skills to underline his teaching of anatomy and surgery. Later, Bell wrote one of the eight Bridgewater Treatises on the Hand. Bell went on to illustrate the final edition of Paley's Natural Theology in which he demonstrated that proof of Design were to be found in the animal frame, reflecting his earlier work on art and human structure. It is concluded that Charles Bell and William Paley's ideals were in harmony with each other, holding the same belief about Creation. This paper argues that Bell's understanding and devotion to Natural Theology allowed him to accurately explain function, realism and expression in the human body, all revealing the direct influence of the Divine Creator.

Canine embodiment in South African lyric poetry

This article discusses South African lyric poetry in English including translations since the 1960s. Rather than being private statements, South African lyrics, like all lyrics, are essentially dialogic—in relation to the philosophical, the political or the psychological. The poems examined here are in dialogue with dogs, their embodiment, their subjectivities, their contiguities with humans. This article considers how trans-species entanglements between human and canine, whether convivial or adversarial, manifest poetically in myriad ways in gendered and/or racialised contexts and analyses how the vulnerabilities of both humans and dogs are made to intersect. Ruth Miller portrays dogs as divine creations who are uncertain and “embarrassed”. Ingrid Jonker’s poems intertwine human and canine, foregrounding gendered vulnerabilities. Where dogs are figured metonymically, entanglements of human and dog break down binary categorisations, in Jonker’s poems as well as in those of other poets. Mongane Wally Serote’s creatural humans, for example, seem both animal and human. Oswald Mtshali figures dogs within apartheid structures as antagonists, protectors or savage scavengers. More recent poems, influenced perhaps by new thinking about the animal subject, imagine dogs in compassionate interspecies connections. Many of these recent elegiac poems, in particular those by Jenna Mervis and Harry Owen, are attentive to beloved dogs but without sentimentality or the imposition of an anthropocentric focus.

Thirty two years of continuous assessment reveal first year university biology students in Australia are rapidly abandoning beliefs in theistic involvement in human origins

BackgroundFor the past 32 years, we have polled first-year biology students annually at the University of New South Wales concerning their views about evolution and creationism. The purposes of the research were to identify the level of commitment among incoming students to creationist beliefs that could interfere with their receptivity to evolutionary science and to assess in retrospect whether these creationist beliefs were changing over time.ResultsThe results have demonstrated a downward shift over time from 60% of the class in 1986 believing a god had something to do with the origin of humans, to 29% in 2017. Conversely, the percentage of students convinced that a god had nothing to do with the origin of humans rose from 25% in 1986 to 62% in 2017. The creationist belief that a god created the world de novo within the last 10,000 years declined from 10% in 1986 to 3.6% in 2017. The decline in the Australian students’ commitment to religious views about divine creation, especially creationism, considerably exceeded the corresponding beliefs among American students and their general public, where belief in creationism while slowly declining appears to have remained in the 40% range, four times that seen in our Australian survey.ConclusionsThe very low and declining levels of commitment to the creationist view that god created humans de novo suggests this view is unlikely to be a significant obstruction to accepting the scientific evidence for evolution. The results of the survey of UNSW students correlate with changes documented in the census of the general Australian public suggesting that our survey results of first-year biology students reflect overall changes in the Australian community as a whole.