Cosmic Purpose and Human Consciousness

Cosmic Purpose and Human Consciousness
Author: Richard A. Mould
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2015-11-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498231470

Scientists have constructed a vast and wonderful objective universe by building on the "quantitative" features of their experience. That universe cannot support cosmic purpose because it is without consciousness--it is completely inert. However, the "qualitative" features of human experience suggest the existence of an equally vast and wonderful subjective universe that complements the objective universe in scope and in reality. This edifice can and, I believe, does support a form of cosmic purpose that is determined by its structure, and by its relationship to human consciousness. Every experience of yours is an amalgam of quantitative and qualitative parts that comprise your own objective and subjective worlds. Each one is as real a part of your life as the other; and each is as real a part of the wider universe as the other. There is no reason to assign reality to one and illusory to the other. Using a minimal construction based on qualitative experience, the subjective universe is found to have a cosmic purpose that is consequential for humans. We look for and find evidence of that purpose in human history.

Cosmic Purpose

Cosmic Purpose
Author: Toyohiko Kagawa
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725249189

On Christmas Eve in 1909, twenty-one-year-old Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) rented a room in Kōbe's worst slum where, apart from two years of study in the United States, he remained with his wife and co-worker Haru for more than ten years. They engaged in pastoral work, evangelism, social reform movements, and literary activities, founding numerous institutions that are still in operation today. After publishing a best-selling novel in 1920, Kagawa began to draw the attention of people from around Japan and the world. His literary output was prodigious, amounting to more than 300 books. Often compared with his contemporaries Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, Kagawa was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1947, 1948) and three times for the Nobel Peace Prize (1954, 1955, 1956). Challenging the materialism of Charles Darwin and the claim of H. G. Wells that "we must give up any idea that evolution is purposeful," Cosmic Purpose draws on research in physics, chemistry, astrophysics, mineralogy, genetics, and biology to offer evidence of purpose in the vast span of evolutionary history from the atom to human consciousness. In his attempt to renew our sense of wonder at this process, Kagawa proposes a "logic of finality" that links life to purpose.

Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose

Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose
Author: John F. Haught
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2000-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781589014114

Many scientists today think of the universe as essentially purposeless. Likewise, modern and postmodern philosophers have often been suspicious of any religious claims that the natural world embodies and eternal meaning or teleology. Not all scientific thinkers subscribe to this cosmic pessimism, however, and some would even argue that contemporary knowledge is consistent with a religious sense of cosmic purpose. This stimulating book offers candid reflections on the question of cosmic purpose written both by prominent scientists and by scholars representing the world's religious traditions. Examining the issue from a wide variety of perspectives, this is the only current book to deal with cosmic purpose from an interreligious and interdisciplinary perspective. Here scientists such as physicist Andrei Linde and biologist Francisco Ayala come face to face with Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Hindu philosopher Anindita Niyogi Balslev, and others. They examine such perplexing issues as the possible existence of multiple universes and the implications of seemingly purposive features in life. The contributions address the question of whether a religiously-based notion of a purposeful cosmos is consistent with the latest scientific understanding of nature, and whether theology can affirm the presence of divine action without contradicting science. These essays will challenge readers to ponder their own place in the cosmos as they seek to interpret the visions of the world's great spiritual traditions in the light of natural science.

Cosmic Consciousness and Human Excellence

Cosmic Consciousness and Human Excellence
Author: Mahmoud Masaeli
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-01-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1527527166

Cosmoconsciousness, or cosmic consciousness, is a term used to characterize a transcendence of the limits of self-consciousness. As an ultra-state of illumination of the mind, the roots of the conception are embodied in the quest for a spiritual connection with multi-dimensional cosmos. This quest searches for spiritual development as a pathway to human excellence, and can be associated with the mystics of ancient wisdom, as well as contemporary psycho-spiritual analysts. After its emergence in the late 19th century, cosmic consciousness rapidly became a source of inspiration for transpersonal psychology, moral therapy, and a thoughtful link to mystical quantum physics. By encouraging a spiritual way of perceiving the real world, cosmic consciousness also provides a source of inspiration for human excellence as the central idea of global ethics. In this perspective, the world cannot be changed for the better without changing individual consciousness. Global concerns, including ecological issues, violence and acts of terrorism, materialistic gratification and hedonism, could not be addressed effectively unless people’s consciousness is changed. Cosmic consciousness, by the very perception of the inner life, has the potential to struggle with global concerns, and hence, it holds a promise of human excellence. This book discusses cosmic consciousness against the backdrop of the emergence of the rational and autonomous conception of the self, and the modern psychological depiction of selfhood. It places the idea of cosmic consciousness at the centre of contemporary arguments on the nature of consciousness.

The New Cosmic Story

The New Cosmic Story
Author: John F. Haught
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 030021703X

A foremost thinker on science and religion argues that an adequate understanding of cosmic history requires attention to the emergence of interiority, including religious aspiration Over the past two centuries scientific advances have made it clear that the universe is a story still unfolding. In this thought-provoking book, John F. Haught considers the deeper implications of this discovery. He contends that many others who have written books on life and the universe--including Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins--have overlooked a crucial aspect of cosmic history: the drama of life's awakening to interiority and religious awareness. Science may illuminate the outside story of the universe, but a full telling of the cosmic story cannot ignore the inside development that interiority represents. Haught addresses two primary questions: what does the arrival of religion tell us about the universe, and what does our understanding of the cosmos as an unfinished drama tell us about religion? The history of religion may be ambiguous and sometimes even barbarous, he asserts, but its role in the story of cosmic emergence and awakening must be taken into account.

Cosmic Consciousness

Cosmic Consciousness
Author: Richard Maurice Bucke
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2009-04-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 048647190X

Acclaimed by William James as "an addition to psychology of first-rate importance," this pioneering work constitutes a classic modern study of the mystical experience. Author Richard Maurice Bucke, a distinguished progressive psychiatrist, explores the phenomenon of transcendent realization, or illumination. Bucke draws upon his firsthand experience of a life-altering insight to explore the theory of cosmic consciousness, an advance in mental evolution with the potential to raise existence to a higher plane. As valuable today as it was upon its 1901 publication, this landmark survey treats illumination from the standpoint of psychology, as a rare but definite and well-documented mental condition. It cites instances of sudden enlightenment experienced by mystics, philosophers, writers, and artists throughout history, noting an increasing frequency of episodes consistent with an evolutionary trend. Numerous case studies offer intriguing, real-life particulars of people and their personal epiphanies — from Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, to Dante, William Blake, Walt Whitman, and lesser-known individuals. A work of uplift and promise, this book offers readers a vista of extraordinary possibilities and a renewed capacity for hope and wonder.

Religion and Civility

Religion and Civility
Author: Sylvester L. Steffen
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2011-11-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1467041750

RELIGION& CIVILITY: The Primacy of Conscience (the third book of the breakthrough "Second Enlightenment Trilogy") reveals trial-and-error failures and successes of past and present civilizations. Man inherits from nature hard-won intelligence (cortical consciousness) to learn from errors of irreligion and incivility. Though more painful, error is sometimes the most convincing teacher.

Reconstructing Catholicism

Reconstructing Catholicism
Author: Robert Ludwig
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2000-04-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1579103383

A leading pastoral theologian re-imagines Catholicism for a new millenium.