An Old Dimension

I often find myself driving home from church and visiting my mother on Sunday afternoons about 2:00.  On NPR a program is played at that time, a link to which I have put below (at least to this week's program).  The show is called New Dimensions.  It is a new age philosophy conduit.

Despite my extreme disagreement with its fundamental principles, I enjoy the show, sometimes at least.  Sometimes a writer or poet is introduced and I get interested in some of that person's work.  Sometimes they say something I sincerely agree with, but then I find myself getting thoughtful about how much the logical conclusions of that statement may conflict and confront the Biblical world view.

Today the speakers were talking about assumptions and beliefs.  I encourage people to unearth their assumptions.  Assumptions can be very powerful; the more hidden they are, the more powerful.  And most of them are negative and largely untrue, at least they are untrue for all purposes.  Doing this dissertation is adult education, a field that is not immune to some new age influences, has forced me to be more honest about assumptions and world view.  I do believe we have a strong subconscious/unconscious that influences us and that we do well to unearth and understand.

However, I don't believe that an assumption is the same as a belief, not entirely.  A belief is named, can be verbalized, and we are aware of it. 

They also discussed how fear is such a prevalent attitude and experience of our world.  Definitely.  I, a person used to my own anxieties and learning to fight them, have been saying that for years.   The answer:  a human-made one, a reaching within ourselves. 

Then they started talking about frequencies, vibrations, love and fear, etc, saying that the Beach Boys were picking up good vibrations to counter the bad vibrations of Viet Nam.  They asserted that the world moved into a new consciousness in 1986.  This kind of talk is off-putting, to me. 

In unearthing our assumptions, we do it to understand ourselves and how we are functioning, but we ultimately do it for another reason--reality testing.  The main reality testing is measuring against scriptures, which are not full of the enlightenment world view metanarrative kind of "stuff" that is often railed against by New Agers.  But Scripture does put itself up as THE standard of truth, the ultimate reality testing means.  I do not trust humankind to create its own solutions. 

Perfect love casts out fear, says St. John.  Perfect love is from God.  Only an external source can right things.  That is the message of the gospel.

Here's the link.  

http://www.newdimensions.org/trusting-a-loving-universe-with-connie-baxter-marlow-and-andrew-cameron-bailey/

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