21 August 2007 | Draft
Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality
including the sciences and other belief systems
- / -
Introduction
Context
Periodic table -- precedents and parallels
Taxonomies of classification and self-referential dynamics
Precautionary comments regarding integrative initiatives
Dimensions of a general periodic structure?
Comparison with current situation
Possible future design considerations
Polarization and development of binary ordering
Fundamental learning distinction: Understanding vs Comprehending?
Fractal dimension: reconciling the uniqueness and sufficiency of each religion?
Adaptation of extended periodic table
Mode of dialogue
Playfully playing the periodic table
-- Musical metaphors
-- Sonification
-- Circle of fifths as a "periodic table"
-- Tuning systems
-- Systematic visual representation of musical possibilities
on an orbifold
-- Musical embodiment
Developmental directionality?
Implications
References
Introduction
It is obvious that religions have been a focus of numerous studies. These
have included many efforts to classify religions. As usefully summarized in
the Wikipedia article on major
religious groups, such efforts have had different biases at different periods
of time. Any such classification remains highly controversial as religions
continue to compete for followers. Estimates of numbers of followers, and definitions
of what is included in a particular religious group, continue to be vigorously
contested. An additional dynamic arises from the fact that most religions necessarily
consider themselves to be "right" and "good" in some absolute
way, whilst framing others as "wrong", "misguided" or even "evil".
These dynamics underlie many bloody religious conflicts -- especially in a
period of increasingly faith-based governance.
As the Wikipedia article shows, tables can be produced to cluster
religions in different ways. The question is whether some of the problematic
dynamics could be rendered more explicable and predictable by moving beyond
the simplest form of table to a periodic table -- inspired by the complexity
of which it has been necessary to take account in the Periodic Table of Chemical
Elements. The challenge of producing such a table is what is explored here.
It should be emphasized that this is exercise is not intended to seek premature
closure bur rather to look at what might (or might not) be an insightful way
of organizing beliefs -- religious or otherwise -- given the nature of the
dynamics between them. It should be stressed that this is not an interfaith
exercise in syncretism. There is no question of seeking to amalgamate distinct
religions or approaches to spirituality.
This exploration follows from a much earlier initiative by the author to produce
a Functional
Classification in an Integrative Matrix of Human Preoccupations (1982),
partially inspired by the periodic table. This has since been used to order
information on international organizations, world problems, strategies, values
and human development -- for several reference publications (notably the Yearbook
of International Organizations and the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential). These are now accessible online.
Context
It is appropriate to ask why religions have not been clustered in less simplistic
ways to highlight their correspondences and qualitative differences. When exploring
this question at the time of the Parliament of the World's Religions (Chicago,
1993), it became apparent that any such possibility was highly contentious
and of little interest to any particular religion. It is difficult to cluster
meaningfully the range of perspectives which each consider themselves to be
the essence of meaning and a unique channel for transcendental significance.
At that time the author was only able to trace one effort to juxtapose a
spectrum of religious groups for presentation on that occasion. That was an
initiative by Hinduism Today. The content is now accessible on the
website of the Himalayan Academy (Major
Religions of the World) but no
longer in a manner that highlights their correspondences.
The following effort may therefore readily be considered a case of "fools
stepping in where angels fear to tread". However the degree of violence that
continues to be perpetrated in the name of religion and divinity is so horrendous
that the possibility of foolishness could well be considered the least of concerns.
As noted above, it is indeed a period of increasing emphasis on faith-based
governance, associated with demonisation of alternative perspectives -- as
a justification for any violence perpetrated on such demons. It is also
a period of increasing articulation of concern at the psychosocial damage associated
with religion (cf Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006; Christopher
Hitchens, God is Not Great: how religion poisons everything, 2007).
Whilst there have been numerous interfaith initiatives over past decades to
remedy some of the misunderstandings, it cannot yet be said that these have
given rise to a level of understanding that goes beyond some degree of mutual
tolerance. On the other hand, with the rise of fundamentalism, any such tolerance
is viewed with the deepest suspicion -- as is evident from the religions that
choose to have nothing whatsoever to do with interfaith initiatives.
The notion of "religion" may possibly be usefully generalized to include somehow:
- religions as conventionally understood, but including those on the fringe
of the Parliament of the World's Religions, namely neo-pagan and esoteric
- science to the extent that :
- this defines itself as a mode of belief and,
as such, is contrasted with religion (notably with respect to creationism)
- scientists adopt institutional behaviours which are analogous to those
adopted by the priesthoods that science claims to have superceded
- For Jonathan Glover (Conflict,
Belief Systems and Philosophy):
The other vagueness is about what counts as a “belief system”.
This is partly about the level of generality: should we think in
terms of Christianity and Marxism as belief systems, or of Protestantism
and Trotskyism, or of the belief system of the Dutch Reformed Church
and of the Workers’ Revolutionary Party? There is also a continuum
from beliefs that are consciously structured (in creeds, party programmes,
etc.) and those that fall into a pattern unnoticed by their unreflective
holders, a pattern waiting to be pointed out by some anthropologist,
psychologist or novelist. Where on this continuum are the boundaries
of what counts as a belief system? And does a belief system have
to be political or religious, or could we include evolutionary theory
or psychoanalysis?
- ways of knowing and epistemologies, as recognized by the literature on
this matter which notably encompasses the ways of knowing of indigenous
tribes (Darrell A. Posey. Cultural and Spiritual Values
of Biodiversity, 1999)
- ultimate forms of understanding permitting engagement with
all-encompassing transformative coherence, including:
- spirituality and union with divinity, as variously perceived by religions
- truth as exemplified by the Theories of Everything that are a goal
of some forms of science
The construction of a periodic table is a potentially interesting way of
"reframing" the cognitive challenge at this time. But:
- to be useful it must reflect essential differences, rather than seeking
to minimize them;
- in doing so it needs to highlight degrees of difference that may be a trigger
for conflict;
- recollecting the history of the construction of the table of chemical elements,
it is appropriate to acknowledge:
- the degree of controversy about what constituted an "element" and
what went where in a table;
- that the arrangement of the table continues to be explained in new
ways in the light of both:
- new insight as a result of advances in knowledge, notably
at the quantum level
- in order to provide more comprehensible ways of explaining its
complexity to different audiences
- the table itself continues to evolve with the addition of new elements
as they are discovered and with the recognition of isotopes of the existing
elements;
- the actual "tabular" structure has repeatedly been challenged
by creative efforts to produce more insightful arrays of chemical elements
(circular, three-dimensional, etc); many of these lend themselves to extremely
instructive visualizations on the web
Whether in the form of a (round) table or not, the exercise may offer a more
integrative insight into the array of religions without questioning their integrity
or uniqueness.
Periodic table -- precedents and parallels
There are a number of notable precedents for use of a "periodic table"
for this purpose. They might be considered to include:
- the two classical efforts developed by the the international documentation
sciences and their specialists in classification:
Both of these encountered problems of emerging disciplines and topics, leading
to various unforeseen "bulges" in their schemes
- the effort of Edward Haskell (Generalization
of the structure of Mendeleev's periodic table, 1972) to extend
the structure of that table to include cultural dimensions
- the hypothesis based on dimension analysis by G B Feekes (Periodical
System of Energies, General Systems,
1976), encompassing inanimate and animate systems by extension of a general
energy formula in physics for macro-economics, managerial performance, industrial
psychology and group dynamics.
- the periodic matrix of
Ingetraut Dahlberg (ICC – Information
Coding Classification, 1982), founder of the International
Society for Knowledge Organization, in the light of the Universal Decimal
Classification and her earlier historical survey of classification (Geschichte
der bibliothekarisch-bibliographischen Klassifikation, 1977)
- that of this author, noted above, to produce a Functional
Classification in an Integrative Matrix of Human Preoccupations (1982),
partially inspired by the UDC, the periodic table, the work of Dahlberg
and by that of Erich Jantsch (The Self-Organizing Universe; scientific
and human implications of the emerging paradigm of evolution,
1980). This was tentatively extended to include understandings of human values,
human development and modes of awareness as articulated by various religious
and spiritual traditions (and profiled in the Encyclopedia of World Problems
and Human Potential). The
relevant insights of Jantsch are integrated into a table (A
presentation of inter-relationships of different levels of inquiry and modes
of experience). The initiative was undertaken partly in reaction
against the UN/OECD Aligned List of Descriptors (subsequently developed
into the OECD Macrothesaurus
for Information Processing in the Field of Economic and Social Development,
last published in 1998).
- the initiative of Abraham
Maslow, who hoped that his efforts at describing the
self-actualizing person would eventually lead to a “periodic table” of
the kinds of qualities, problems, pathologies, and even solutions characteristic
of higher levels of human potential.
- the initiative of Adi Da (The
Basket of Tolerance: on the seven schools of the one and great tradition
of God-talk ,
1988-1991) provides a classification and ranking of the various spiritual
traditions and teachings, according to his own system of "seven
stages of life"; it is believed to have influenced the subsequent work
of Ken Wilber's roadmap of stages
of higher consciousness. It was also used to enhance profiles in the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential.
- of potential relevance is a classic Buddhist text entitled the Brahmajala
Sutta (The
Discourse on the All-Embracing Net of Views). This appears to
be unique in endeavouring to map out as a system the complete set of fundamental
viewpoints. It is the first sutta in the entire collection of
the Buddha's discourses in the Pali Tripitaka.
Its importance stems from its primary objective, namely the exposition
of a scheme of 62 cases designed to include all possible views (past and
future) on the central concern of speculative thought, the nature of the
self in relation to the world (see review).
Its patterning principles bear an intriguing relationship to the 4-phase,
8-phase and 16-phase structure (to be discussed below)
- the initiative of Ken
Wilber towards a unified theory first
took the form of of
a bifurcating Spectrum of Consciousness supported by a an underlying Ground
of Being (see Paul M. Helfrich. Ken
Wilber’s Model of Human Development:
an overview, 2007).
This was replaced by a very different diagram -- the involution-evolution
pre-trans cycle.
The final stage or metamorphosis of his cosmology, and the most sophisticated,
is the holon-quadrant AQAL system
(Phase
4: All Quadrants All Levels, 1995-2001). This is based
on concentric circles divided into quadrants, with its primary focus on modes
of awareness, not specifically related to particular religious traditions
(A Theory
of Everything: an integral vision for business, politics, science and
spirituality, 2000). It has been described as a transpersonal "periodic
table". Further development is envisaged (Phase
5: Post-Metaphysical AQAL, 2001-present).
- the work of Don
Beck and Chris
Cowan (Spiral
Dynamics, 1996), in the light of the work of Clare
W. Graves, which has been associated with that of Ken Wilber, mapping the
AQAL system onto a spiral with inherent periodic characteristics [more more]
- the effort of Allan Combs (The
Radiance of Being: Complexity, Chaos and the Evolution of Consciousness,
1995-2002) to develop the AQAL system with Ken Wilber into the “Wilber-Combs
Matrix”, This is described by Combs as a “periodic
table of consciousness,,
representing a large but finite array of potential states” melding
traditional Vedanta categories (physical, pranic, mental, subtle, causal)
together with the five structures of consciousness of Jean
Gebser (The Ever-Present Origin, 1985-1991) and the “value
memes” of Spiral
Dynamics, to represent how different “states” of
consciousness are experienced and interpreted according to the developmental
structure or “stage” through
which they are perceived. Combs endeavours to map out the psychic lattices
of patterns, states, structures, and basins through which consciousness engages
with reality.
- the success of the periodic table has inspired other initiatives such as
those of:
- Dallas
F. Bell, Jr. (Periodic
Table of the Elements, Factors & Variables
of Systematic Political Science -- Understanding
Individual and Societal Behavior Quantitatively: The Fundamentals
of Modeling, 2005), where systematic political science is understood
as a beneficiary of deductively unifying anthropocentric academic disciplines,
specifically including theology, epistemology, psychology, sociology
and eschatology. These fields are simplified by
game theory methods which analyze the decision making possibilities of
individuals
- A. Buzgalin and A. Kolganov (Economy: "The
Periodical System Of Elements": On the Structurization
and Typologization of Economic Systems, Voprosy Economiki,
2001)
- Bulat Galeyev (Periodical
System of Art) initially defined
according to polar oppositions "figurative - expressive" and "visual
- audio". Such presentation of the opposites clearly illustrates
mutual connection of the opposites which characterizes the system in
its integrity.
- An approach to the classification of mathematical sciences (Mathematical
sciences classification based on the "periodical
system" of hyper-real numbers) -- possibly to be considered
in relation to "hypercomprehension" (cf Hyperspace
Clues to the Psychology of the Pattern that Connects, 2003; Hyperaction
through Hypercomprehension and Hyperdrive necessary complement to proliferation
of hypermedia in hypersociety,
2006)
- G A Shulman (Harmony
of the Periodical System of Socion as Manifestation of Possible Harmony
of Human Community, Socionics,
mentology and personality psychology, 2005, 58, 1; On
Several Regularities of C.G.Jung's Typology, Management
and Personnel: psychology of management, socionics and sociology,
2003, 2, 2)
- A comparison of various psychedelic substances, somewhat
like the periodical system of chemical elements, ranks psychedelic
substances according to their effects or dimensions (The
Psi-Matrix, 2006)
- V. A. Morgun (Periodical
System of Catastrophies, 2005) proposes a quantum psychohistory
as a universal methodology of cognition. It proceeds from humanitarian
and natural sciences’ commonality, grounded
on rational aspects of religion.
- The periodic table was an inspiration to Russian and Eurasian structuralists
who variously constructed naturphilosophical systems encompassing
the world into a single meaningful concept. In the case of Savitskii,
for example, the general principle for interpreting facts was through
a “periodical
system of being”, a structured and
strictly organized methodology of uncovering repetitions and coincidences
in history, geography, or linguistics (cf Sergey Glebov, A
Life with Imperial Dreams: Petr Nikolaevich Savitsky, Eurasianism, and
the Invention of “Structuralist” Geography,
Ab Imperio 2005, 3, pp. 299-329; Patrick Seriot, Structure
et Totalité:
Les Origines Intellectuelles du Structuralisme en Europe Centrale et
Orientale, Paris, PUF, 1999; Jindrich Toman, The
Magic of a Common Language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy and the
Prague Linguistic Circle, Oxford University
Press, 1995)
- A major exercise by mathematicians to interrelate
finite groups (as understood in mathematics) in a classification
scheme is now in process of consolidation, but has already resulted
in an "atlas" (J H Conway, et al. Atlas
of Finite Groups: maximal subgroups and ordinary characters for simple groups,
1985; Robert Wilson, et al.
Atlas of Finite
Group Representations).
Clearly the extensive literature on cultures, and how they may be distinguished,
might also inform the exploration -- as in the initiative of Haskell. Past
and potential considerations of the social organization of knowledge, partially
in the light of the periodic system, have been the subject of extensive commentary
by Birger Hjørland
(Social
Organization of Knowledge, 2007; Bibliometric
Knowledge Organization, 2007).
Taxonomies of classification and self-referential dynamics
Comprehensive studies of classification and taxonomy have been produced:
- Ingetraut Dahlberg produced a comprehensive review of bibliographic
classification (Geschichte der bibliothekarisch-bibliographischen
Klassifikation. 1977). prior to her proposal
for a ICC – Information Coding Classification (1982)
- Gerhard Lenski (Societal Taxonomies: mapping the
social universe. Annual
Reviews in Sociology, 1994, 20, pp 1-26)
traces efforts to develop a taxonomy of human society; proposes four principles
for evaluating such taxonomies
Birger Hjørland (The Periodic System, 2007) provides a valuable review
of the significance of the periodic classification as an (iconic) model for
knowledge classification.
Of great interest is the manner in which taxonomies, periodic or otherwise,
emerge into competition with their predecessors and those with which they co-exist
(whatever their incommensurability) -- a coexistence typically characterized
by dynamics lacking in any elegance, dignity or mutual respect. Subsequently
only to lose favour, become obsolete as historical curiosities, and then to
fall into oblivion. This inexorable process continues despite the claims of
their proponents for the eternal merit of the system in question. It raises
questions about how world models collapse, which could be explored in the light
of the recent study by Jared
Diamond (Collapse:
how societies choose to fail or succeed, 2005) and the earlier debates
regarding paradigm change, notably in relation to the study by Thomas
Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962)
This evolutionary process might be caricatured by comparison with the mystery
of "where elephants go to die". Where indeed do world models go to die? In
terms of the concern here with religion, the challenging question is the mystery
of the "dead gods" each offering a pattern of coherence to their followers.
Francis Tremblay (Graveyard
of the Gods) offers a list of
thousands of dead gods, inspired by H.L. Mencken (Where
is the graveyard of dead gods?) and the comprehensive profiling by
Michael Jordan (Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 Deities
of the World, 1993).
The divinely-enabled cosmologies of the past may indeed be understood as
forms of periodic tables of qualities, values and principles with their complementary
sets of deities of different generations -- valuable mnemonic devices for societies
focused on complex kinship groups. Ironically, as shown by Neil deGrasse Tyson
(Cosmos
on the table: an astrophysicist looks at chemistry's most famous chart, Natural
History, July-August, 2002), many of the elements in the periodic table
of elements are named after deities.
In this light it is interesting to see a "cosmology" as a predecessor
to what is now termed antiseptically a "worldview". Clément
Vidal (A Minimal
Philosophical Agenda: worldview construction as a philosophical method,
2007) describes
a worldview as having the following seven components:
- A model of the world: Who are we?
- An explanation: Why is the world the way it is? Where
does it come from?
- Futurology: Where are we going?
- Values: What is good and what is evil?
- Action: How should we act?
- Knowledge: What is true and what is false? How
do we know what we know?
- Building blocks: What preexisting theories and
models have been used to answer the questions of the other six categories?
The challenge is to learn from the questions:
who was mistaken and how were they misled? To that extent the history and
dynamics of such initiatives may be seen in terms of collective learning. The
elements of any table might even be understood in terms of "learning modules" --
as the set of distinct questions raised in response to particular kinds of "catastrophe"
(Cognitive
Feel for Cognitive Catastrophes: question conformality, 2005).
The question as to "why" it is sought to produce an all-encompassing
periodic table is then particularly relevant (cf Engaging
with Questions of Higher Order, 2004). It raises the question of what the instigator achieves
thereby. It has something to do with:
- occupying the high ground, whether morally or conceptually, to ensure
a form of (cognitive) control, whether this is transformed into control over
others
- "re-cognition" by "others" through whose perspective one's nature or
identity is affirmed, especially if one is in doubt about the matter -- thereby,
through this process of projecting or delegating authority, empowering others
to define one's identity
It is possibly appropriate to recognize motivations
in terms of such caricatures as:
- a monument, following the example of early pyramid construction, most
notably the Great
Pyramid of Giza by
the Pharaoh Cheops. The significance of the typically four-fold, stepped
symbolic design is consistent with a periodic table. The implication
that its secret chambers might be a device to enable the user to travel through
time may not be too distant from those of contemporary builders of world
models. (The theme of star travelling aliens, the deep-throated Goa'uld using
pyramidal space vehicles, imaginatively echoes this Egyptian mythology in
the cult TV series Stargate
SG-1)
- a musical instrument, whether of the simplest kind (flute or guitar), or
an organ of hundreds of pipes
- a programme, as exemplified by 1000-year imperial plans
- a game, educative or otherwise, as have been developed with
respect to the periodic table of chemical elements
- a rite of passage, emblematic
of the eternal nature of the quest, as with translation of the Tao
Te Ching (exceeded only by the Bible in number of translations)
- a vehicle, whether all-terrain, airborne (hot air
balloon, ultralight, jet, etc) --
exemplified in the cult movie Those Magnificent Men in their Flying
Machines
Precautionary comments regarding integrative initiatives
It is a fact that down the centuries different people have articulated integrative
"models" to explain experience in an all-encompassing manner. Religions might
be considered to be such initiatives as sanctioned and inspired by the divine.
The periodic table is a relatively new metaphor that has inspired new approaches
to organization which nevertheless echo efforts from the more distant past.
Some concerns relating to current initiatives towards synthesis have been
listed elsewhere (Evaluating
Synthesis Initiatives and their Sustaining Dialogues: possible questions as
a guide to criteria of evaluation of any synthesis initiative,
2000). Particular concerns relate to the production and status of "models"
-- in this case "periodic tables" -- in the current commercially biased academic
context. Questions might include:
- is there something inherently flawed in any all-encompassing periodic table
-- as a theory
of everything -- if it is subject to copyright and possibly
only commercially distributed to those who can afford
it, whatever cost is associated with access to such knowledge? How do such
practices compare with use of the Mendeleev table, whose estate presumably
never derived any financial benefit from its subsequent use, nor restricted
that use? The
challenge is especially acute for religions in anticipating copyright issues
on the revelations of the next Messiah, Imam or Buddha.
- at a time when much is appreciated about the open
source approach to directory
development (eg Wikipedia) and software development (eg Linux),
is there something fundamentally flawed about initiatives that are uniquely
associated with particular individuals -- especially when they are impelled
to label their cognitive framework with their own names?
- to what extent should the motivation for producing an all-encompassing
model, given its qualitative scope, be rendered explicit by its design?
- how does an all-encompassing table provide for innovative
future discoveries and "paradigm changes", or is it to be considered as definitive
for all time -- effectively a temporal form of cultural
imperialism?
- how does an all-encompassing model account for its critics,
whether "ignorant"
and/or offering alternatives which others (possibly in the future) find to
be insightful? In particular how does it handle the interpersonal
dynamics so repeatedly evident in the evolution of all belief systems (eg Jung/Freud,
Chandrasekhar/Eddington, etc) which give rise to the kinds of conflict only
too evident in religion (Catholic/Protestant, Sunni/ Shiite, etc)
- given the inappropriate claims
made for completion of the Human
Genome Project, based on assumptions that static sequencing
would be determinative, is it not vital to be sensitive to the possibility
that dynamics may be the key to future understanding
-- as was subsequently discovered with respect to protein
folding? The focus on placement within a scheme of categories might be
usefully described as "placement illusion".
The question is reinforced by recent recognition of an entirely new basis
for chemical reactivity that has called into question the descriptive adequacy
of the distribution of atoms into positions within a table
through recognition of "superatoms". These
clusters of atoms of a particular chemical element take on the properties
of entirely different elements, transform
the periodic table from a "flatland" to a three-dimensional landscape
in which each element is drawn out into a series of super-elements (Philip
Ball, A
New Kind of Alchemy, New Scientist, 16 April 2005)
- at a time when the cognitive challenge of self-reference and
embodiment has been fruitfully articulated (cf Douglas Hofstadter, I
Am a Strange Loop,
2007; George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Philosophy
In The Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought,
1999; Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch,
The Embodied Mind, 1991), what is the cognitive/experiential relationship
of the producer or user of any such table to such an ordering device? How
is this specifically recognized within the device? A related issue is the
nature and degree of self-criti8csm as a prelude to learning and further
transformation.
- in a period characterized by a "clash of civilizations" -- supposedly
religiously determined -- and by a multitude of bloody (if not genocidal)
religious conflicts, how seriously is any detached theory of everything
to be taken, whether or not it can be elegantly expressed through some form
of a periodic table? Rather than a top-down design approach, to what extent
is it incumbent upon any design process to seek to encounter the perspectives
of those whose various seemingly incommensurable existential realities are
otherwise claimed to have been successfully packaged into sterile categories?
- a key issue, in a period whose difficulties are aggravated by the dynamics
between religions, is why efforts to order belief systems in some form of
periodic table or other mapping do not inform the "interfaith"
dialogue process in some productive way -- and are even remarkable
by their absence (as indicated with respect to the Parliament of the World's
Religions). Is it appropriate that any such initiatives should facilitate
a form of in-group dialogue that might be caricatured as incestuous and supportive
of a particular (cultic) language, studied as appreciative
inquiry at the
Weatherhead School of Management (Case Western Reserve University)?
Some of these issues have been discussed elsewhere (Musing
on Information of a Higher Quality, 1996; Future
Coping Strategies: beyond the constraints of proprietary metaphors,
1992). Specifically it needs to be asked -- if such a cognitive device is all
that it claims to be, and its use is subject to exclusive copyright or patent
-- to what extent is the world thereby held to ransom, possibly when there
is a vital need for such a device? Some implications of such issues have been
raised in The
Economist (16 June 2007) by recent efforts by Craig
Venter to patent
life. At some threshold "cost", it becomes cheaper to invent one's own model
rather than "buy into" one for which there is a significant price to be paid.
Ironically, this is a basis for reproduction (at least for the
moment).
A religion may also be understood, to some degree, as such a device about
which such questions may be asked. Access to spiritual insight may only be
available under special conditions. How is this reflected in the design of
any periodic table?
Dimensions of a general periodic structure?
It must be repeatedly stressed that the purpose of this exercise is to explore
the possible design of such a table. Closure, premature or otherwise, is not
the intention. In fact designing the process of how to design or "tune"
such an arrangement is potentially of greater interest, given the many issues
involved (and the reservations above). The process may be seen in
terms of the challenges and controversies (in the background) surrounding the
design of the table at any international summit as a prelude to dialogue at
the summit. A round table is merely one of the options.
The art in this exploration would seem to be to use
the complex order of the periodic table as a suggestive, metaphoric template
for ordering religious and spiritual dimensions. It should be stressed as is
obvious from a glance at the standard "periodic table", or alternative proposals,
that the "tabular" arrangement is not as simple as might be readily assumed
-- despite the underlying logic.
Consider some challenges and possibilities:
- "religion": for the purpose of this exploration, a "religion" will be provisionally
assumed to be associated with an element in the periodic table;
however it may subsequently prove more appropriate to associate a "religion"
with a group of such elements or to consider variants of the religion as
isotopes
- historical precedence: clearly some religions were initiated
long before others, which may have built on their predecessors, reacted against
them, or broken away from them. From the perspective of the periodic table,
such a temporal sequence could be held by the progressive increase in atomic
weight (or atomic number). It should obviously be stressed that the historical
order of emergence does not imply that those that emerged early are necessarily
replaced. The periodic table is about a set of co-existing elements;
their relative occurrence is a quite different issue -- as is any analogue
to the goal of their transmutation into gold.
- groups and periodicity: as is evident from the Wikipedia tabular presentations,
religions may indeed be clustered into groups; these could form the columns of
the table
- religion vs spirituality: there is a case for seeing a religion as being
the more visible expression of a belief with which followers engage (through
symbols and aesthetic styles) therefore better mapped onto earlier positions
in the lower rows
of the table; by
contrast the subtler forms of spirituality (concepts, principles, values,
modes of awareness) associated or valued by that religion may be better mapped
onto later positions in a table -- in higher rows of the table, but in the
same columnar "group"
In distinguishing the periods or rows of the table, it may be useful
to distinguish the following succession in some way:
- aesthetic: at this periodic level, religions would be
distinguished by their use of particular colour schemes, designs, sounds
(bells, gongs, etc), odours (incense, etc) and clothing -- possibly including
architecture of places of worship, icons, idols, relics, and symbols
- praxis: at this periodic level religions would
be distinguished by taboos (food, etc), rituals, timing (pace, rhythm, cycles
of celebration, etc), nature of any sacrifice, nature of action in response
to unbelievers and the suffering, role of any priesthood as an intermediary.
It is at this level that methodological injunctions regarding practices of
hygiene and purity would be distinguished
- conceptual framework: at this periodic level the style
or pattern of conceptual framework would be distinguished, possibly as reflected
in symbols or sets of principles
- disciplines: at this periodic level the disciplines fundamental
to emergence of appropriate understanding would be distinguished. It is at
this level that conceptual methods would be distinguished.
- principles and values: at this periodic level, beyond
that of the preceding levels (or informing them), would be the sets of
principles or values, typically of a definite and characteristic number,
again possibly reflected in symbols
- awareness: at this periodic level, the modes of awareness
resulting from practice of the disciplines and exemplified in the principles,
would be distinguished
Such possibilities highlight an immediate question as to the degree to which,
for a particular religion tentatively associated with a column of the table,
the characteristics at different periodic levels would be consistent. Alternatively
would a religion have a characteristic set of more tangible practices but be
associated with disciplines or principles that would more appropriately be
clustered in a different group?
This issue points to the fundamental problem encountered in the development
of the original periodic table, namely whether what had been assumed to be
an "element", on the basis of the distinguishing capacities of the
time, was not in fact a combination of two or more elements from different
parts of the periodic table -- namely a "molecule" (or a superatom,
as noted above). Changing metaphors, if each element is understood to be a
musical "tone",
is the religion effectively a "chord" -- perhaps despite its claims
and pretensions to be an "organ" encompassing all tones (or all the possible
music that might be played on it)?
Comparison with current situation
As with the variety of religions, there is currently every shade of worldview
and preferred mode of classification. Each may be more or less successful in
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