The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Chimps & Us, Stadiums, Sports
and Wars, continued 04/27/2023 |
In the past two DMs we have been dealing with Brian Swimme’s story of how differently 50,000 chimps and 50,000 humans will act in a
stadium. |
| Chimpanzees show empathy and altruism just like humans do – we can even learn from how they behave, explains anthropologist Frans de Waal. Film by Melissa Hogenboom and Harold
Morris. BBC Reel |
Safina observes that chimps may hold
“clues to the genesis of human irrationality, group hysteria, and political strongmen.” Chimps demonstrate a “a preference for peace, within a penchant for war.” Something we hold in common with them. Yet, “the deeper nature of
chimpanzees includes tender, empathic concern for others and courageous altruism.” Chimpanzees “are not our ancestors; the last species ancestral to chimpanzees and humans is extinct. Chimps are our contemporaries.” They are
“complete chimpanzees, not half-baked humans,..human-like but not human.” Our species is the “closest living relative of the chimpanzees and the bonobo.” |
Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson outlines surprising findings on alpha chimpanzees and community structure. “Chimpanzees and The Theory Of Power, Social Structure and
Reproduction” | With Karl Friston Jordan B Peterson Clips | Chimpanzees and humans are the only two ape species “stuck dealing with familiar males as dangerous." This renders us both “simply bizarre among group-living animals because [we] create a stressful, tension-bound, |
politically encumbered social world” for ourselves to inhabit. This situation “exists only in chimpanzees and humans.” Chimps “seem to have trapped themselves in a more violent society than was
necessary”….What keeps them there? What keeps us there? Among chimps, “small fights are easily contained….But when real trouble breaks out there seems to be no limits to the aggressiveness of chimpanzees.” There are
often two females for every male because males die at a much higher rate. |
Yet we can say that “life for chimps is peaceful, most of the time.” Scientific data show that chimpanzees spend the vast
majority of their time—roughly 99 %–of their natural lives—in peace. The same social system that costs them in tensions and upheavals | Kindia attempts to challenge the leadership of current top male chimp, Qafzeh, at Edinburgh Zoo. But will Kindia’s display ritual be sufficient to usurp Qafzeh? Clip from ‘Chimp
TV’ by BBC Studios |
pays dividends of community and
relationships. This is the balance they forge with what skills they have, within the limitations of who they are and the mixed consequences of male ambitions. Other species living within their own community networks of close family and
family friends such as “bonobos, sperm whales, elephants, and a few others—have found more consistent peace”. “For the vast majority of their lives and times, the chimpanzees connect amicably and quell their worst
impulses.” They “tap into their better nature ninety-nine percent of the time.”* |
* Carl Safina, Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, pp. 240, 210f., 207, 212, 240f., 243, 323f.
See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
Banner Image: Chimpanzee family in Uganda. Photo by USAID Africa Bureau on Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation A question from Safina is this: “Chimpanzees are who they are. And we are what we are…. The chimps are the best they can be. The question for us: Are we?” |
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Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and
Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way. “Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great
Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that
fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. “A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and Charles Burack in an online conversation on “The Essential Writings On Creation Spirituality” hosted by The Aquarian Minyan. Thursday, April
27, 6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The Physics of Angels – Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat.
Thursday, May 18, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE.
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Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Phil Goldberg of Spirit Matters: Conversations on Contemporary Spirituality interviews Matthew Fox on Opening to Original Blessing. To listen to their conversation, click HERE | |
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