Bonobo Bliss: I return to questions of evolutionary biology vis-a-vis nontheist Friends/Quakers, Duke Researcher on Bonobo

Thanks, nontheist Friends for this Geography of Entiefania,

I return to questions of evolutionary biology vis-a-vis nontheist Friends, which I've emailed about in this nontheist Friends' list, - over the years, now.

I would include a number eight to this Geography:

(8) nontheistic Friends from evolutionary biological and primatological (including Quaker language, troopbonding, and the relaxation response, here) perspectives.


Here's my thinking, emerging from a kind of nontheistically Friendly-centered sharing:

If nontheism, then evolutionary biology.


And centering in silent meeting - in the discourse/subculture of the Society of Friends, here now nontheistically Friendly - is the same for me as the relaxation response (http://relaxationresponse.org/steps), which is a biological response, in my experience, - and which is also very enjoyable. Other primates, like Bonobos, seem peaceable and egalitarian, and I think they experience centering when resting in the sun (I've observed this when watching Bonobos chimps in the San Diego zoo), for example, so I think there are evolutionary biological narratives to learn from, which might inform a variety of nontheistically Friendly understandings, and ongoing querying.


Perhaps we could post this Geography of Entiefania to the nontheist Friends' site, and then also add it to World University and Schools' nontheist Friends' 'subject' -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nontheist_Friends_%28atheist_Quakers%3F%29.

Thanks.

With friendly greetings,
Scott

http://scottmacleod.com
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University


P.S.

If people would like to explore related ideas, I've written a little about these questions in my blog, as well, under the following labels (which people would have to synthesize for themselves).


nontheist Friend -
scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/nontheist%20Friend

nontheist friends -
scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/nontheist%20friends

Bonobo chimpanzees -
scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Bonobo%20chimpanzees

evolutionary biology -
scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/evolutionary%20biology

Quaker - scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Quaker

Quakers - scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Quakers


All best,
Scott


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Hi Ned and nontheist Friends,

Thanks for your email. What I didn't include in my email above is the 'troopbondage' idea (see John Money Oxford 1988:114 - scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/09/planets-around-sun-john-moneys-concepts.html), informing (including nontheistically Friendly) discourse/language/subculture/community, which all higher primates, including humans, engage in. Humans have an unique facility with language - all 6.7 billion of us, from around age 2) which leads, in my view, since the agricultural revolution and emergence of cities around 10,000 years ago to increased specialization. So I see nontheist Quaker gatherings, including this email list, as forms of troopbondage around centering, like primates together in the forest, rooted in this phylogenetic exigency. Glad we can further this conversation.

With friendly greetings,
Scott


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Here are the first seven discussion themes in this nontheistically Geography of Entiefania:


(1) Quakerism from a nontheist perspective (what we mean by nontheism, what is nontheist worship, what are the essentials of Quakerism for a nontheist, do Quakers have to be Christians and theists, the history of nontheism among Quakers…).

(2) Relations of nontheist Quakers and theist Quakers (each speaking our own language, responding to the source rather than the form of another’s language, diversity and the membership process, nontheist Quakerism from the perspective of theist Quakers…).

(3) Outreach to Quakers and would-be-Quakers (planning workshops and publications, responding to writings in Quaker media...).

(4) Outreach to nonQuaker nontheists (involvement with nontheists in other religious traditions and with contemporary atheists and secular humanists…).

(5) General religious, philosophical and social issues from a nontheist perspective (ethics, determinism, childrearing, pacifism, environmentalism…).

(6) Relations of NTFs with theists who are not Quakers (family members, coworkers, school teachers…).

(7) Areas of our lives not involving nontheism (when we are ill or facing other challenges...).


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For Entiefania, one nontheist Friend who coined the word writes:

I was patterning it on Pennsylvania but the "-an-" doesn't belong in our word because it is part of "sylvan." As I understand it, since "- ia" refers to a territory, "entiefia" could be a place where NTFs hang out. Since "-ana" means a collection about some topic, knowledge about "entiefs" or "entiefia" could "entiefiana".

Entiefisticalicious!


And I replied:

Neologismatical, my dear nontheist Friend, neologismatical!

:)


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Hi Nontheist Friends,

As a followup to a previous email, for John Money's "Concepts of Determinism" (Oxford 1988: 114) which includes the 'troopbondage' exigency, as one of five exigencies of being human, that Money suggests, see scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/09/planets-around-sun-john-moneys-concepts.html.

Scott



scottmacleod.com



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Duke University researcher Dr. Brian Hare on "Bonobo Bliss":

loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=10-P13-00012&segmentID=8








(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/04/bonobo-bliss-i-return-to-questions-of.html - April 10, 2010)