Sunday, April 26, 2020

Ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata): Virtual non-theistic Friendly / Atheist Quaker (Meetings) - in response to the Coronavirus pandemic? * I won't suggest that the words 'spiritual,' 'worship,' and 'religion' could be potentially misused as horrendously as the word "blasphemy," has (but no longer can be misused in Scotland due to a change in laws) * Quaker Silent Meeting, #RelaxationResponse, #Meditation Solace, & Comfort for #NontheistFriends #AtheistQuakers #Quakers in this time of uncertainty & fear created by #CoronavirusCovid19 pandemic #memes worldwide * * * National Science Foundation panelist Dr. Tony Fauci MD's metaphor yesterday for vaccines against Covid-19 yesterday - with the soccer metaphor of vaccine developers getting many vaccine balls in the net * * Am wondering how this could become a learning opportunity for our kids and even for Google Research Football / Soccer regarding learning machine learning, (and potentially too with Lego Robotics eventually) * * How to get the ball in the net? :)



Hi John, Rosemary, Non-theist Friends, Non-theist Friends' Network/British Humanists, and All, 

Thanks for your emails. I regret that I won't be able to attend.

As a Quaker (member of the RSOF), sympathetic with non-theistic Friendliness (big F, referring to Quakerism), and atheistic/agnostic Quakerism too, I have some ongoing concerns about language NtF-wise. Returning to the words 'spiritual,' 'worship,' and 'religion' again, and newly "blasphemy," about which I have concerns (echoing the thinking of NtFriend Anita Bower in quite a few of her emails to this NtF list), I'm interested to see Richard Dawkins mentioning (William?) Penn here at the beginning - 

re paranormal religion vs perinormal spirituality ...
"Richard Dawkins - Spiritual Atheism"

https://youtu.be/eCX4vAsRo90

- and who seems EVEN to validate the word spirituality for himself, and his readers and listeners in terms of 'perinormal' ('pre-pathological'???) spiritual atheism. 

And regarding the word 'worship' too, Dawkins seems to re-cast this word in the context of science here - 
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/912674-i-think-that-when-you-consider-the-beauty-of-the - and also affirm it somehow. (This is new for me in my reading of Dawkins).

And regarding re-casting terms spirituality and religion per Dawkins in conversation with Deepak Chopra -

"In Theory: Is spirituality ‘worse’ than religious?"
see:

"Deepak Chopra, the controversial New Age guru and alternative medicine advocate, with whom Dawkins has had a spat with in the past.

Q. What is your opinion of Dawkins’ comments?

--

As a humanist, I am a “none,” although I prefer humanist or “believer in kindness.” In my opinion, the rise in people relating to the world on a more rational, objective and scientific level is good. There are benefits to be drawn from religion, but scientific truth is not one of them. Further, one can be moral without a god and, I believe, often more moral."


and further regarding Deepak Chopra's thinking in this article - 

"As far as spirituality is concerned, it is defined in many ways and many nontheists who consider themselves spiritual do it from a standpoint of relating to a “human energy” ... "

And, re the 'blasphemy' word - "the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk" (which has been used culturally in horrendous ways historically, in many religious, spiritual or worshipping societies, re mis-use of power, as I read this) - I was also interested to see Dawkins Tweet recently, in Humanists' International, that 
Having written my Reed College undergraduate thesis on language and religion re questions of power emerging from liberation theology thinking (on Rosemary Ruether's book "Sexism and God-Talk"), I won't suggest that the words 'spiritual,' 'worship,' and 'religion' could be potentially misused as horrendously as the word "blasphemy," has (but no longer can be misused in Scotland due to a change in laws) I am appreciative of how Quakers over 350 years have developed 'organically' other words, perhaps out of plain speech, than religious or spiritual words ... eg Silent Meeting for MfW (re worship word), Society of Friends for RSoF (re religion word), and perhaps inner Light (re 'spirituality' word) ... and which Non-theist Friends are exploring in new ways. Seeking to affirm the friendly caring, the networking, and even the respect for law (re Quaker conscientious objection), and re Scotland's "blasphemy law" change (and even regarding Friends' Journal "Separation of Church and State" article by psychiatrist George L. Alexander MD, January 1, 2008 https://www.friendsjournal.org/separation-church-and-state/), in our NtF language use here. 

For me, the words 'spiritual,' 'worship,' and 'religion' in other contexts, and among NtFs, Quakers, could be used with regard to questions of mis-use of power - and even in the creation of victims in Quaker Meetings - and I hope we non-theist Friends will seek to further invent and create new language in these regards, - and potentially in seeking to co-generate further a vision, not necessarily of Elias Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom (am wary of this 'king' word too), and also not perhaps of Penn's Woods' 'Holy Experiment' (am wary of 'holy' word too - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Experiment) - but perhaps newly in this time of the online coronavirus pandemic (see 5 "Hypothetical News" stories at bottom here - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/04/himalyan-monal-how-are-harbin-hot.html - in 'genes' label, with about 40 blog posts so far re covid-19) and virtual gatherings among NtFriends - with a kind of Plain Speech (free from problematic language? ie if the words 'spiritual,' 'worship,' and 'religion' and 'blasphemy' are somehow wrong, or false, or lack integrity regarding non-theistic Friendly thinking) - of further shared F/friendly envisioning and communitas virtually, or gathered-ness and centering down together.  Let's "outgrow God / Goddess / the Divine / Divinities' " language together. :) 

And regarding all these virtual Meetings, am hoping that contact tracing, and testing too (pre-vaccine), and among Friends and Quaker Meetings esp., will provide a way out of 'self-quarantining' as a way to protect others, potential victims and ourselves -

‘A way out’: Inside the ambitious Mass. coronavirus contact tracing effort

NtFriendly greetings, 
Scott




* *

John, Rosemary, NtF planning group, Nontheist Friends, Atheist & Agnostic Quakers, 

A friend, Andrew Lownie, from when I was studying in Scotland in the mid-to-late-1970s for a year during high school just re-Tweeted this quite traditional Church of England Easter Service Youtube video (with two women church leaders, and lovely Purcell music) which seems germane for Friends too, and re the comfort of the ritual of Quaker Silent Meeting, both in Britain and in America - and in this time of the uncertainty and fear created by coronavirus pandemic memes worldwide:  

CAMBRIDGE
Evensong for Magdalene, Week One
https://youtu.be/fTtwLl6B6wk

- which I re-Tweeted, and Tweeted anew, here - 

Quaker Silent Meeting, #RelaxationResponse, #Meditation Solace, & Comfort for #NontheistFriends #AtheistQuakers #Quakers in this time of uncertainty & fear created by #CoronavirusCovid19 pandemic #memes worldwide. Thanks to friend @andrewlownie for sharing this Cambridge service

NtF planners, it could be an interesting example to come into conversation with, as you develop possibly a NtFriendly ritual of online NtF Quaker Meeting emerging out of annual FGC in person gatherings of previous years.

NtFriendly greetings, Scott



*
NtFs, Anita, Wallace, Rosemary, John, Mark, David, Os, David B, Mary, A-Quakers, Tevor, Tim, and All, 

As a follow-up, a Friend on the Strawberry Creek Quaker Meeting (Berkeley) email list just shared this - "Contact tracing is the largest US civilian mobilization since World War II" - https://www.contrace.org/contact-tracing-jobs ( [StrawberryCreek] Info re ‘contact tracing’ ) - which I find fascinating not only in potentially being able to protect people again coronavirus but also even in protecting other kinds of victims (possibly even Quaker kids, as horrendous as this is) potentially. 

NtFriendly greetings, Scott

-https://wired.com/story/apple-google-contact-tracing-strengths-weaknesses/amp … for 7.5 billion people w #UBIexperiments for jobless, beginning with speakers of all 7,117 living languages & in #AvatarBotElectronicMedicalRecords https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Languages ~






* * *

Was fascinated by National Science Foundation panelist Dr. Tony Fauci MD's metaphor yesterday for vaccines against Covid-19 yesterday - with the soccer metaphor of vaccine developers getting many vaccine balls in the net at ... toward the very end (... mins) ...

National Association of Science MEDICINE #covid19 Livestreaming NOW #NAS157

https://youtu.be/wQaK2JS0Kc4
NAM President Victor Dzau, Jeremy Farrar, Tony Fauci, MD, Sanjay Gupta, George F. Gao, Director-General, Chinese CDC & Prevention, Susan Weiss, Richard Hatchett
@WorldUnivAndSch ~



https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1254111491969544192?s=20



*
Missed our COVID-19 Update Session?

Find the full video here:
http://ow.ly/ex7D50zowlK

#NAS157  #COVID19



https://twitter.com/theNASciences/status/1254141124568113152?s=20




* *
How to get the ball in the net? :)



*
Am wondering how this could become a learning opportunity for our kids and even for Google Research Football / Soccer regarding learning machine learning, (and potentially too with Lego Robotics eventually).


https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1223721119191977984?s=20
Google Research Football / Soccer

https://youtu.be/F8DcgFDT9sc



*
See, too, for Google Research Football and with Lego Robotics

Flying and gliding animals: "This is next level " - Home ONLINE #LegoRobotics in #RealisticVirtualHarbin w #ScratchProgramming & #MachineLearning HOW? Special WeDo2 Scratch BOXER - MIT Lego Robot Competition '99 - Google Research Football - with Reinforcement Learning * So, how could kids learn #MachineLearning by playing with #LegoWeDo2 robotics' kit in a #RealisticVirtualEarth is the gist * * * Belated Robert Burns' night * Let's stay in touch about Italy, Japan, Russia and China World University and School, - and Burns as Scotland poet laureate, - and with some of your countries' poet laureates - from Italy, Japan, Russia and China too

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/02/flying-and-gliding-animals-this-is-next.html



*

Painted turtle: Lego Robotics into Machine/Reinforcement Learning & CC-4 Wiki adding to WUaS, 3 Feb 2020 LiveStream * * Lego Special WeDo 2.0 Scratch BOXER * MIT Lego Robot Competition 1999 * Google Research Football * * * Guest Content for the Website *- World Univ and Sch is wiki, so you can openly wiki-add your own posts, writings or testimonials in an open teaching and learning vein (a little like adding to a Wikipedia article), That said, WUaS in general is MIT OpenCourseWare-centric - https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm - and is heading, like CC-4 licensed MIT OCW, in the direction of CC-4 licensing for people adding their own content to WUaS, and here's an example ... 

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/02/painted-turtle-lego-robotics-into.html







* 








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