Waking Up by Sam Harris, Chapter One

The first chapter of this book by Sam Harris on science + spirituality, that I have been eagerly awaiting, has been published (in both written and audio form) on the author's website.  

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one

The rest of the book is due out on Sept. 9.

Cooperation and Trust worksheet

Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Your Meeting Through Cooperation and Trust

Facilitator: Rick Ells, University Friends Meeting

Cooperation

Principles

1. Individuals accept costs to build and sustain a shared good not otherwise obtainable
2. Together they build a shared understanding of the shared good, bring it to life, and nurture it going forward
3. People have many gifts and can play various roles in making their contributions (Corinthians 12:4)

Exercise One - What Is Your Meeting's "Shared Good"?

What are attributes of the "Shared Good" you seek in your meeting. The following table suggests some possible attributes that may or may not be on your list. Select the ones meaningful to you. Suggest others not on the list that come to mind.

Attributes	Five Most Important	Less Important	Not Relevant
Affirm and nurture personal spirituality
Inclusive community
Willingness to work issues through
Open to new insights
Active as a meeting in political issues
Tender community, willing to share deeper feelings
Provide money and other help to needy members
Help pay living expenses of all members
Maintain Meeting property
Emotional and physical safety of members
Stability of the Meeting over time
Exploring Quaker history and writings
Connecting with greater Quaker community

Support You Provide

What kinds of costs are you willing to accept to help build and support your Meeting's Shared Good?

Attributes	Five Most Important	Less Important	Not Relevant
Maintenance on the Meeting house
Care of Meeting house grounds and gardens
Serving on committees
Making contributions to pay for Meeting expenses
Making coffee and refreshments
Helping with childcare
Helping with teenager (junior friends) program
Serving on Yearly Meeting committees
Helping clean up Meeting house after worship and events
Growing vegetables and other foods for Meeting meals
Providing transportation for elderly and infirm members
Participating in business meetings
Studying Quaker history and writings individually or together

The Vegetable Garden Metaphor

Think of your Meeting as a garden of vegetables. The costs are the work you do in caring for the vegetable plants as they grow. The Shared Good is in the growth of the plants and the nutritious products they bring forth. A few beginning thoughts:

• "In the power of God and his immortal Seed dwell." George Fox, epistle 209, 1661
• Each plant grows from its own seed.
• Each plant grows according to its inner character (seed or genes) and interaction with the world around it (which the gardeners helps provide)
• You can't make a tomato plant grow tomatoes faster by pulling on it.

Describe the Meeting environment and processes that would nurture the growth and fulfillment of your inner Seed.

Trust

Building shared trust nurtures more openness, initiative and sharing within the Meeting community. Think about the people in your community you trust (your trust network). What has nurtured your connection with and trust for these people?

Actions	Increases Trust	Decreases Trust	No Impact on Trust
Always comes to committee meetings
Regularly arrives late to meetings
Does not respond to emails or phone calls
Keeps people they are working with informed
Gives time and attention to the thoughts and feelings of others
Uses Meeting resources for personal needs and does not replenish them
Supports others in discerning and following their spiritual directions
Sends frequent unrequested messages to members
Makes commitments but does not show up
Gives time and resources to care for members in need
Has a sense of humor
Participates in inter-generational activities
Uses Quaker ways and processes
Apologizes when things screw up and tries again

Bonus topic: How do you or your community work with someone who has difficulty building trust relationships with others?

Resources and References

Popular Writings

• Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit by Parker Palmer

Quaker Writings

The words "trust" and "cooperation" rarely occur in most Quaker writings. Instead the emphasis is on each individual living with integrity and honesty so that they would be worthy of trust and have the respect for others that is essential to cooperation. These ideas are explored in the following books.

• Cooperation and Coercion as Methods of Social Change by Vincent Nicholson, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #1
  
• Friends for 350 Years by Howard H. Brinton, historical update and notes by Margaret Hope Bacon
• No Cross, No Crown by William Penn
• Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings edited by Douglas Steere
• Listening Spiritually: Personal Spiritual Practices Among Friends by Patricia Loring
• Listening Spiritually: Corporate Spiritual Practice Among Friends by Patricia Loring
  

Science Stuff

• Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed by Martin A. Nowak
• Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons From Experimental Research edited by Elinor Ostrom and James Walker

Quakers and Science

Just what is Quakers' relationship to science?

I spend some time reading The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies by Stephen Angell and Pink Dandelion, including its chapter on "Quakers and Science."

Isaac Pennington (1616-1679) asserted that "the study of physical nature did not lead to Truth, and those who pursued science were not merely wasting their time but by pursuing a false path they were denouncing the opportunity to gain salvation."

On the other hand, William Penn "urged the study of the Book of Nature was far more worthwhile than studying grammar, rhetoric, or foreign languages."

In 1761, John Bartram carved above the door of his greenhouse a quote from Alexander Pope: "Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, but looks through Nature up to Nature's God." Bartram's botanical work eventually earned him the role of King's Botanist in the colonies. In one of his letters, Bartram wrote

"I am continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity in pursuit of new productions of nature, my chief happiness consists in tracing and admiring the infinite power, majesty, and perfection of the great almighty Creator, and in the contemplation, that through divine aid and permission, I might be instrumental in discovering, and introducing into my native country, some original productions of nature, which might become useful to society."

In Quaker schools in the 1800s "natural history was deemed of educational value because it taught careful observation and classification of species."

The list of Quakers active in science is quite long and many have written about the relationship between Quaker spirituality and their scientific work.

Jocelyn Bell Brunell, Clerk of  Britain Yearly Meeting for several years in the 1990s, is a noted astrophysicist who wrote:

"Quakerism and research science fit together very, very well. In Quakerism you're expected to develop your own understanding of God from your experience in the world. There isn't a creed, there isn't a dogma... [I]t also means that you keep redeveloping your understanding as you get more experience, and it seems to me that's very like what does on in "the scientific method"...Nothing is static [in science], nothing is final, everything is held provisionally."

Much more to share from this book, but one intriguing topic is ways in which Quakers are ambivalent about science:

• Today, most Quakers are comfortable with the idea that "study of the natural world continues to exert strong attraction as a source of reflection ... [and] science offers power over nature and the the ability to use natural materials for the benefit of mankind." 
•  Quakers express concern about
• "losing their state of grace if their involvement in science takes precedence over their religious commitments."
• "power over nature not being an unmixed blessing." Science pursued in the absence of social considerations can become a threat, even a threat to human existence.

There is much more in this article to share, but maybe this time I will stop here.

To me, science is characterized by curiosity, diligence, skepticism, listening, and openness. The same characteristics apply to Quaker spirituality, in my experience.

Our Curiosity and Spirituality Discussion

We had a good discussion on June 15. Most everyone felt that curiosity is part of their spiritual seeking, providing energy and direction. Books mentioned in the discussion included:

• Joseph Banks: A Life, by Patrick O'Brian (the same author who wrote Master and Commander and other books in that series about life in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars). Banks was a naturalist who served on Capt. Cook's voyages of exploration.
• Shift: The Beginning of War, The Ending of War, by Judith Hand. A book about scientific research on how humanity can end the practice of war.
• Curious Naturalists, by Niko Tinbergen. As a young graduate student, Tinbergen began studying the behavior of "bee-killer" wasps in the sand dunes of Holland. His account of the work is one of the classics of the process of scientific inquiry.
• Male Brain and Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine. These two books describe new understandings of how the human brain works in men and women.
• Origins of the Human Mind, by Stephen Hinshaw. This is a fascinating audio book about how the human mind works. It is available from The Great Courses at http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1663. Its regular price is quite high but it goes on sale now and then. 
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, by Daniel Amen

Is Curiosity Part of Your Spirituality?

The query for our next meeting on Sunday, June 15. 12:30 in the UFM social hall is...

Is Curiosity Part of Your Spirituality?

John Bartram, a Quaker naturalist, cofounder with Benjamin Franklin of the American Philosophical Society, and who eventually was designated the King's Botanist in the colonies, mused in one of his letters how he became interested in plants:

"One day I was very busy in holding my plough (for thee seest I am but a ploughman), and being weary, I ran under the shade of a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes on a daisy ; I plucked it mechanically, and viewed it with more curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do, and observed therein very many distinct parts, some perpendicular some horizontal. What a shame, said my mind, or something that inspired my mind, that thee shouldst have employed so many years in tilling the earth, and destroying so many flowers and plants, without being acquainted with their structures and their uses! This seeming inspiration suddenly awakened my curiosity, for these were not thoughts to which I had been accustomed. I returned to my team, but this new desire did not quit my mind ; I mentioned it to my wife, who greatly discouraged me from prosecuting my new scheme, as she called it."

His wife's disinterest may be because at the time they had a small farm and were raising 11 children.

Later, when he was successful botanist, he wrote:

"I am continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity in pursuit of new productions of nature, my chief happiness consists in tracing and admiring the infinite power, majesty, and perfection of the great almighty Creator, and in the contemplation, that through divine aid and permission, I might be instrumental in discovering, and introducing into my native country, some original productions of nature, which might become useful to society."

What role does curiosity play in the growth and nurture of your personal spiritual life and in the spiritual life of your family and community?

Science and Scientism

Polly Knox sent this to me and asked me to post it on the blog:

Here's the quote about science/spirituality I found in Doug Gwyn's But Who Do You say that I am? Quakers and Christ Today - Pendle Hill Pamphlet #426

"...some nontheist and other universalist Friends still hold to a modernist sense of progress, an ever-upward-and-onward human destiny.  This view is often couched in a scientistic outlook.  By this I mean science as an ideological  world-view, rather than a rigorous method of investigating the world. Scientism often views Christianity and all premodern religions as superstitions to be cast off and outgrown.  By contrast, science itself can complement religious faith, investigating how the world works, without needing to confirm or deny religious covictions regarding divine wisdom and purpose." P.24-25.  (Underlining mine  - Polly)

 

What do you think?

Our Group

The Science and Spirituality Sharing Group meets on third Sundays at University Friends Meeting in Seattle. We are still sorting out what we want to do, but it looks like sharing our thoughts on books we have read will be one of our regular activities.
This group is for people who are puzzled at the very idea that science and spirituality are at odds, and are exploring their chosen interests in science and spirituality with enthusiasm and openness.