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Pastimes : A CENTURY OF LIONS/THE 20TH CENTURY TOP 100 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (2748)	3/28/2000 7:55:00 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3246

What about Teilhard de Chardin? No one has done more to synthesize modern thinking with traditional belief. He never gained mainstream acceptance, but he was enormously influential in avant garde circles. He also generated buzz among his fellow Jesuits, who were instrumental in having Vatican II convoked. He was way ahead of his time when he spoke of a "global brain" and "organic unity." His neologisms are common terms to us today. Here is an excerpt from a very interesting article by Tom Wolfe: "With the evolution of Man," he (Teilhard) wrote, "a new law of Nature has come into force--that of convergence." Biological evolution had created step one, "expansive convergence." Now, in the 20th century, by means of technology, God was creating "compressive convergence." Thanks to technology, "the hitherto scattered" species Homo sapiens was being united by a single "nervous system for humanity," a "living membrane," a single "stupendous thinking machine," a unified consciousness that would cover the earth like "a thinking skin," a "no”sphere," to use Teilhard's favorite neologism. And just what technology was going to bring about this convergence, this no”sphere? On this point, in later years, Teilhard was quite specific: radio, television, the telephone, and "those astonishing electronic computers, pulsating with signals at the rate of hundreds of thousands a second." The world was now unified...online. There remained only one "region," and its name was the Digital Universe. One can think whatever one wants about Teilhard's theology, but no one can deny his stunning prescience. When he died in 1955, television was in its infancy and there was no such thing as a computer you could buy ready-made. Computers were huge, hellishly expensive, made-to-order machines as big as a suburban living room and bristling with vacuum tubes that gave off an unbearable heat. Since the microchip and the microprocessor had not yet been invented, no one was even speculating about a personal computer in every home, much less about combining the personal computer with the telephone to create an entirely new medium of communication. Half a century ago, only Teilhard foresaw what is now known as the Internet. What Teilhard's superiors in the Society of Jesus and the church hierarchy thought about it all in the 1920s, however, was not much. The plain fact was that Teilhard accepted the Darwinian theory of evolution. He argued that biological evolution had been nothing more than God's first step in an infinitely grander design. Nevertheless, he accepted it. When Teilhard had first felt his call to the priesthood, it had been during the intellectually liberal papacy of Leo XIII. But by the 1920s the pendulum had swung back within the church, and evolutionism was not acceptable in any guise. At this point began the central dilemma, the great sorrow--the tragedy, I am tempted to say--of this remarkable man's life. A priest was not allowed to put anything into public print without his superiors' approval. Teilhard's dilemma was precisely the fact that science and religion were not unified. As a scientist, he could not bear to disregard scientific truth; and in his opinion, as a man who had devoted decades to paleontology, the theory of evolution was indisputably correct. At the same time he could not envision a life lived outside of the church. Full article: forbes.com

To: Neocon who wrote (2748)	3/28/2000 9:21:00 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3246

I also think Ayn Rand belongs. Regardless of one's attitude toward her, she has influenced millions.

To: Neocon who wrote (2748)	3/29/2000 11:43:00 AM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

A Man a Plan a Canal - Panama Canal Col George W. Goethals (eventually a general) chief engineer in charge

To: Neocon who wrote (2748)	3/31/2000 9:22:00 PM
From: lorrie coey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3246

I like this almost as much as Dover Beach. A Letter to Agnes DeMille by Martha Graham: "There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly of the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others." Martha Graham