“Who Am I?”
Answer Involves
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Beliefs
Present Condition
Personal History
Ancestry
Larry’s First Answer
• I am a man, husband, father.
• I was born in CA, chemist, traveled much.
• I am Irish, Welsh, English, & Cherokee.
Another’s Answer
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I am a child of God.
A traveler among men.
I seek Truth.
Come from a long line of seekers back to the
mists of time.
N. Scott Momaday’s Answer
• “I am the Story of myself.”
• Larry’s note: “Story” means the whole 13.7
billion year story.
A Great Work
• Usually Cosmology 1 + Cosmology 2 is
Cosmology 1 and, oh yeah, the other one.
• Cosmology 1 + Cosmology 2 could be
Cosmology 1 + Cosmology 2
The Great Work
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
Original Cosmology
(western scientific,
technological, economical,
industrial, & biblical)
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
New Cosmology
Larry’s First Answer
(Example of Literal Cosmology)
• I am a man, husband, father.
• I was born in CA, chemist, traveled much.
• I am Irish, Welsh, English, & Cherokee.
Another’s Answer
(Example of Mythological Cosmology)
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I am a child of God.
A traveler among men.
I seek Truth.
Come from a long line of seekers back to the
mists of time.
Cosmologies
(Including Creation Stories)
Literal
Mythological
Dysfunctional
Earth is flat.
Witches, devils, slavery, etc
Functional
Earth is a globe.
Australian Dream Time
American Cosmology
is a Mixture
• Biblical Literalists = Creationists
• Scientific-Technologists-Evolutionists = no
non-physical explanations
• Folks, probably lots of them, who don’t
concern themselves much with explanations.
• (There must be considerable overlap.)
Dysfunctional
• Even though American cosmology is a mixture,
with overlaps, complicated, etc, it is
fundamentally dysfunctional because it carries
an implicit and very powerful assumption:
• Earth was created for humans.
• This is revelation and/or common sense (law).
Embedded in our Culture
• When is last time we asked permission of the
natural world to build a housing project?
• This assumption and its corollary are deep in
our culture.
• Miriam MacGillis did.
• The Irish used to, not long ago.
Should be Easy to Fix;
Just the Facts
• Humans are newcomers on Earth.
• No significance until recently (30 – 50 kya).
• Created through long process of natural
selection.
• Alas! Not very successful. Should have
known. Evolution taught in most colleges
already.
Big Learning
• Many people find the facts sterile.
• They want meaning.
• And meaning, real meaning is best conveyed
mythologically.
• Joseph Campbell’s quote.
Joseph Campbell Quote
“I would say that all our sciences are the
material that has to be mythologized. A
mythology gives spiritual meaning - what one
might call rather the psychological, inward
meaning, of the world of nature round about us,
as understood today. There's no real conflict
between science and religion ... What is in
conflict is the science of 2000 BC ... and the
science of the 21th century AD.”
Need Multivalence
• Thomas Berry stressed that we need to
educate for a new cosmology in a
“multivalent” mode – levels of meaning.
• A few do this very well: Thomas, Brian
Swimme, Miriam MacGillis, Mary Evelyn
Tucker, and others.
• This has been effective over the last 30 years.
Thomas Berry Quote
“It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble
just now because we do not have a good story.
We are in between stories. The old story, the
account of how the world came to be and how
we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have
not learned the new story. Our traditional story
of the universe sustained us for a long period of
time. It shaped our emotional attitudes,
provided us with life purposes, and energized
action.
• It consecrated suffering and integrated knowledge.
We awoke in the morning and knew where we were.
We could answer the questions of our children. We
could identify crime, punish transgressors.
Everything was taken care of because the story was
there. It did not necessarily make people good, nor
did it take away the pains and stupidities of life or
make for unfailing warmth in human association. It
did provide a context in which life could function in a
meaningful manner.
• My addition: “We awoke in the morning and knew
where we were.” and who we were.
Slight Expansion of my Answer
• Gratitude is the key to a heartfelt response.
• Carry genes of my ancestors. So I am (part)
them.
• Also carry results of their lifestyles and choices
which were dependent on their environments.
I am Grateful
• I am Irish, Welsh, English, Cherokee
• I carry the genes of these ancestors but also
some aspects of their culture, those aspects
that affected their health, etc. And I am
grateful that those ancestors made the
choices they did that I might be alive now.
Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis, 3 mya
Savanna influenced her life & choices
I am Grateful.
Tiktaalik, lobed-fin fish, 375 mya
walked ashore
I am Grateful
Juvenile Sea Squirt, 500 mya
Developed Cartilage Vertebrae
I am Grateful
And so on back to the beginning
13.75 bya
I am Grateful
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The mammalian ear so I can hear.
The fish eye so I can see.
Bacterial respiration so I can breathe.
DNA so I can live
Supernovae so we can exist
Universe birth so all can exist
I am the Story of Myself
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The Whole Story
The Story of humanity
The Story of life
The Story of Earth
The Story of the Cosmos
• And I am Grateful.