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Summary points for Week 6 preparation: Chapters 19 and 20
Please also read (as preparation for later weeks):
Chapter 19: to find the sub-parts of the spiritual, mental and physical realms,
Chapter 20: a review of the kind of universe now to be expected.
God is Equally Present in All Subparts (Chapter 19)
á God is the same everywhere, at all scales in space and at all degrees and stages of generation.
á Same pattern of love/wisdom/effects can be applied at each of the these 3 created generative levels
á This produces sub-levels.
á Three levels give nine sub-levels (an ennead)
Enneads in general form:
Sub-levels: Table 19.2
Sub-sub-sub-levels in the Physical: Table 19.4
(these will be explained in more recognizable detail later)
Dynamic Existence
Everything has substance and form (physical, mental, spiritual, even God): [Section 20.1]
á ‘No process without structure, no structure without substance, no substance without power, no power without process’
Time is ‘normal’, not strange just for spirituality: [Section 16.3]
á Past is definite
á Future is not yet existing (only as form, maybe)
á Present is the conscious point of becoming
á Maybe God can know forms for future things, but not their substance. Future substances do not exist.
Correspondences
á Detailed events in both of each pair of degrees.
á Successive generative influxes (from prior degree) reciprocating with sequential selections
á This alternation will repeat itself longest if the patterns of the constituent events are most similar in the two degrees, as then they do not get out of step.
á This gives rise to correspondences of function between adjacent degrees.
o by a sort of survival of the fittest
á This is a causal explanation of correspondences.
o They are often used in the bible to represent the spiritual by the physical.
Personal Identity
á Love is the substance of a person
á Cannot change a person without changing their loves.
á Cannot changes loves, and keep the same person, without some acceptance by old loves
á The deepest love can be unchanging
á This may be used to permanently identify persons
Law and Divine Intervention
á Physical laws describe behavior of physical degrees, if no influx from spiritual or mental
o If only physical laws, matter is ‘causally closed’
á But not here: Need influx into matter!
o to sustain physical processes
o to select and contain mental & spiritual processes
o This not ‘intervention’ but intended causal influx!
á Note how sustained mental and spiritual processes depend on physical selections.
The physical is the needed ‘bottom line’ for creation.
| Previous: 5. Spiritual, Mental and Physical | Up: Starting Science From God | Next: 6. Mind and its connections |