- Every single entry is followed by a bracketed string. The first item in the string is a number that is assigned it as the author(s) enter the statement. They are consecutively numbered so if you have already read the first 100 or so you can go on to the next number in your reading (which, of course, means you have to keep track of how far you have gotten in the website readings). So [1F/W’13] that follows at the end of the next statement means it is the FIRST statement written in the Fall/Winter of 2013. [168F/W’20]
- These conventions are explained in more detail in the pull-down button titled “old vs. new entries.” One of the advantages of these ending strings is that IF YOU HAVE A REACTION TO A STATEMENT, THAT YOU WANT TO SUBMIT AT THE “LEAVE A REPLY” AT THE END OF EACH PAGE, you can refer to the specific entry you are reacting to by its specific number, for example, reply to entry 167. [169F/W’20]
- This site is for seekers; that is it is for those who are still exploring the two great human perspectives, the SECULAR and the SACRED. [1F/W’13]
- In other words, this site is for those who want to compare the known/knowable with the unknowable; that which we can ascertain with our senses, and that which is, by definition, beyond our senses; that which is centered on or limited to humans (hereafter anthropomorphism/humanocentrism) to that which is clearly beyond human limitations. [2F/W’13]
- This site is especially for those who maintain sufficient flexibility to consider distinctly different points of view and who want to use reason, logic and human discussion to expand their understanding yet accept the ambiguity of no final answer that often accompanies exploring the unknown. [3F/W’13]
- This website is NOT for the extremes of opinion usually represented by fundamentalists or dogmatists at one extreme and atheists at the other extreme. These groups are absolutely certain of their concepts. They do not question their beliefs or conclusions. We explore questions about both extremes. [4F/W’13]
- An ideal perspective sought in this website is the humility of not knowing all the answers while still humbly attempting to arrive at insights. [5F/W’13]
- PURPOSE and LIMITS:
- The major objective of this website is to explore the possibility of “bridges across the chasm” that seems to be widening between the secular and the sacred in modern international civilizations. [6F/W’13]
- Broaden awareness of many different belief systems in the interest of finding commonalities between them as much as possible and recognizing what beliefs they have borrowed from each other. [7F/W’13]
- Broaden awareness of many different secular manifestations to find commonalities between them. [98Sp’14]
- Measure, or at least recognize the concordance (similarity across domains) as an indicator of the strength or importance of any one insight on bridges between secular and sacred. [99Sp’14]
- Minimum Level Goal: simple, straightforward juxtaposition of the facts, features, and questions that characterize the two domains. So our minimum goal is to describe and depict the separated domains. [100Sp’14]
- Middle Level Goal: Recognize, explore questions that trouble us, but face them head on and honestly; not deny our natural human intellect’s capacity to explore; protect us from the high potential for human error in translation-interpretation of the sacred. One might say our middle goal is to explore the chasm. [101Sp’14]
- Maximum Level Goal: We would love to promise actual integration, synthesis, or unification of aspects of the secular and sacred as this website progresses. However, this may be an impossible goal given some of the stark differences between the two domains. A bridge implies understanding, an ability to cross over the chasm, a way to build connections. So our ideal goal is to at least enable the bridging of the two domains. [102Sp’14]