This is http://www.essayz.com/b0212261.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %ANCIENT NATURAL CAUSE EFFECT CHAOS IGNORANCE FALL+021226 %LAWS THEORIES HYPOTHESES SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY ANGEL+021226 %MYSTERY HEAVEN HELL DEVILS GODS PARALLEL UNIVERSE+021226 %COSMOLOGIES MYTHOLOGIES GREEK ROMAN EGYPTIAN SUN+021226 %POLYTHEISM MONOTHEISM WEATHER ASTRONOMY VOLCANOES+021226 %EARTH QUAKES FLOODS CATASTROPHES EXPLANATIONS 021226 Ancient peoples lived in a world where there were very few scientific understandings of the reliable- natural-patterns of natural-cause--and-effect which are now articulated-accurately by scientists in-terms-of descriptive-laws and confirmed-theories which integrate descriptive-laws into coherent-patterns of inter- relationships. Many of the mysteries of that world were the result of ignorance about reliable-natural-patterns of natural-cause-and-effect related to the processes of: planets, moon, and sun orbiting-in-space & producing the apparent motions of planets and moons against the backdrop of the far more distant stars; moving-tectonic-plates that produce: earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building & shifting-continents; clashing air masses that produce global-weather, erosion, climate-changes, ice-ages and ocean floods; infectious bacteria, molds, virus, protozoa & prions which create in our bodies diseases and plagues; chemical reactions which yield fires, oxides, pure- metals, lights and sounds; etc. physical interactions which reshape the surface of the earth and produce lightning, thunder, rivers, lakes, oceans, mineral deposits, and natural-gas ventings/fires. ===================================================== Human ignorance regarding the above natural-processes and how they naturally-relate to each other --- left ancient peoples confronted by mysteries which they "explained" by their ancient cosmologies about: heaven, earth, hell using mythological-stories about the heavenly realms of: gods, angels, principalities and powers --- which echoed/connected with the earthly realms of: human relationships, conflicts, wills, desires, intentions, plans, rewards and punishments --- where there were close parallels/connections between the hierarchical power-structures-in-heaven among heavenly-beings such as gods, angels and devils in heavenly-battles and alliances ABOVE-IN-HEAVEN; and the hierarchical power-structures-on-earth among earthly-beings such as kings, queens and soldiers in earthly-battles and alliances BELOW-ON-EARTH. The connections between the HEAVEN-ABOVE and EARTH-BELOW were made by trips between the two realms by spirits, angels, devils and prayers. The interactions pertained to the exercise of preponderances of personal: power, dominance, controls, threats, promises, covenants, alliances, violence, etc. Understandings and teachings were based upon the exercise of preponderances of personal: dreams, visions, teachings, scriptures, etc. --- rather than upon systematic experimentation, observations, measurements, computations and publications. The history of global civilization is the history of the evolution of revolutionary new ways of understanding physical & personal inter- relationships in terms of: descriptive-sciences & integrative-egalitarian- lovers; rather than in terms of prescriptive-beings & coercive-hiarchical-powers. Humans have not yet come to understand how the realms of descriptive-objective-science can connect to the realms of reflexive-spirits and integrative- egalitarian-lovers. The ancient cosmologies, myths and stories still function at sub-conscious and un-articulated levels --- in ways which confuse the evolution of new understandings of how to point to the connections which do exist between the complementary realms of objective and reflexive relationships between thoughtless-things and thoughtful-beings; between the realm of I-It relationships and the realm of I-Thou relationships as articulated by Martin Buber. The evolution of helpful understandings and integrations pertaining to the two complementary realms will not be facilitated by an exclusive focus upon the ways of just one of the complementary realms; nor upon coercive/violent exercise of "The Powers That Be" in the service of "The Domination System" in Heaven or in Planet Earth in orbit around the sun as it orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy which orbits jointly with the Andromeda Galaxy in the Local Cluster of Galaxies. Any helpful evolution in understanding will entail honesty about the limitations of complementary ways of facilitating and promoting BOTH helpful new understandings and helpful communications about those new understandings --- which relate well to people's new experiences & relationships. Reflexive insights and understandings cannot be the exclusive means to improving objective descriptions of the processes of cause and effect; just as objective descriptions of objective relationships cannot be the exclusive means to improving reflexive relationships and cooperative ventures --- in the face of human conflicts and efforts to be dominant/in-control. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================