Thanks for the reference to your friend's book, Paul. One thing puzzles me - I thought you said he was a physicist, but Amazon credits him with an MA in Social Work, and two years of "doctoral study in Systems Science."
Oh, what the heck....Sounds interesting. Although I do not like the Amazon term "cutting-edge spirituality" (to match "cutting edge science"). As if one had to trade in one's spirituality every five years to get a new one, or upgrade it periodically, to stay abreast of the latest developments. Piffle.
In my hunt for soulmates, I have run across process philosophy, most specifically as developed by Whitehead & Hartshorne (an American who is still alive at 100+ years of age): events, experiences, momentarily-developing minds, are conceived as the only concrete realities.
Whitehead always scared me off because of the work he did with Bertrand Russell on mathematical logic (talk about difficult!!), but his later work moves into the philosophy of science (evolution) and religion (God as limited, "co-suffering," evolving), and looks more accessible. Anyway, I was struck by his follower Hartshorne's notion of immortality:
[After death] consciousness ceases to exist but each person's thoughts, feelings, and experiences are "eternally and vividly remembered by God." To memorize and honor everything that has ever happened is, Hartshorne thinks, God's ultimate role, the infinite divine memory representing a reserve of metaphysical truth to which any person may contribute.
usnews.com
Hey, said I, when I saw that --that sounds familiar! He's almost got it. Not quite, but almost! <g>
Joan
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