2019 Sessions
Welcome and about the SSA
Dr. Rev. Reuben Bell
Theistic Science Group Introduction
Ron Horvath
Where do we go from here?
Dr. Rev. Reuben Bell
Saying “Theistic Science” and doing it are two different things. We need to know what theistic science looks like. Here is an outline of how I think it works, at least in my area of interest, which is the evolution of organic forms. I am proposing the concept of Intelligent Default, that sees organic forms as “default settings” for matter in its various configurations, under various conditions. Human Form flows in (Swedenborg called this formative substance), and matter responds according to set laws and physical constraints, producing natural images of spiritual uses. These natural laws and physical constraints are none other than the Creator Himself, accommodated to the conditions of the natural world.
Conservation is Perpetual Creation: A presentation on how to see the spiritual in the natural
Rev. Andy Heilman
That the universe, with each thing and all things of it, was created from the Divine love by means of the Divine wisdom can be confirmed by all things submitted to sight in the world. Select any particular object and examine it with some wisdom, and you will be convinced. Take a tree, or its seed, its fruit, its flower, or its leaf, gather up the wisdom that is in you, examine the object with a good microscope, and you will see wonderful things; while the interiors that you do not see are still more wonderful. Moreover, if you are willing to go far enough in spiritual thought, will you not see also that this power is not from the seed, nor from the sun of the world, which is pure fire, but is in the seed from God the Creator, whose wisdom is infinite; and in it not only at the moment it was created, but continually afterwards? For conservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence [or coming forth].
Enneads of Spiritual and Physical Sub-degrees
Ian Thompson, Ph.D.
From Triads to Enneads-Use … and connecting with modern physics. Love-Wisdom-Use
- A common pattern of influx: from Swedenborg
- It can be seen in many places, spiritual & natural:
- Spirit, mind and nature.
- Celestial, Spiritual and Spiritual-natural heavens – in spiritual.
- Loving, thinking, and acting – in mind (mental) • Principles, causes and events – in natural physics.
- Each of these has love-wisdom-use within itself
- DLW 79: “Divine is the same in things greatest and least”. Each reacts according to its nature.
Protein Synthesis and “Fine Tuning”: Paradigms for the Discrete Degrees of Divine Influx
Dr. Stephen Smith
“Understanding the spiritual cascade of discrete degrees behind the physical degree of life may be a framework that is useful to be]er understand what is still unknown about protein structure, function and synthesis -Ian Thompson, PhD
Q&A Panel and Closing Statements
Dan Synnestvedt, Ph.D.
Watch the Full Stream
The Swedenborg Scientific Association cordially invites you to
BREAKING THE SHELL, October 12, 2019:
Connecting the Spiritual Cascade to the Physical with New Church Science
A Theistic Science Symposium hosted by the Swedenborg Scientific Association and the Theistic Science Group. Saturday, October 12, 2019, 9AM–5PM, Pendleton Hall, Bryn Athyn College, Bryn Athyn, PA.
Free registration requested, see below.
The Swedenborg Scientific Association would like to introduce the Theistic Science Group; a collaboration of New Church scientists and theologians working on a model of scientific principles based on the axiom of spiritual-natural causation. If natural things and processes are derived from spiritual causes, how can these be described in scientific terms? Using doctrines from Swedenborg’s scientific and theological works, the Theistic Science Group asks “How does spirit descend into nature, creating as it comes?” Questions of the origin of matter, divine order, in nature, and the emergence of organic forms are being addressed by the group. Their process will be reported at this first Theistic Science Symposium.
Housing is available for a charge at the BA College.
Talks will be live-streamed and later available on YouTube.
Contact: SwedenborgScientific@gmail.com for questions.
Agenda
6SpeakerSchedule-3_Part1New SSA Books for 2019
Intelligent Default: Swedenborg’s Theistic Science and the Problem of Organic Form, Reuben P. Bell ISBN: 978-0-915221-54-7
Daedalus
On Common Salt, Emanuel Swedenborg ISBN: 978-0-915221-72-1
All available early fall 2019 at Amazon.com and swedenborg-philosophy.org.