Bøger af David Ray Griffin

Examines why parapsychology has been held in disdain by scientists, philosophers, and theologians, explores the evidence for ESP, psychokinesis, and life after death, and suggests that these phenomena provide support for a meaningful postmodern spirituality.

As the world increasingly grapples with the consequences of global warming and its resulting climate changes, the urgency of the crisis has become inescapable, despite continuing corporate-led efforts at fomenting doubt and denial. Then in June 2015 there occurred a powerful intervention into the discussion by Pope Francis. His encyclical, Laudato Si' On the Care for Our Common Home, called for swift action on climate change. Almost simultaneously with the official publication of this encyclical, there was the biggest-ever conference of the movement known as process thought, based primarily on the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. This conference discussed various ways in which process thought could be helpful with respect to the global environmental crisis, especially climate change.In this book, David Ray Griffin undertakes to show why process thought--meaning process philosophy, theology, and social/economic thought--provides a natural and helpful context in which to expound and defend the ecological message in the pope's encyclical. In concise arguments, Griffin shows that the position of Whitehead-based process thought on climate change and related matters is remarkably similar to that of Pope Francis in the encyclical. This similarity is important for two reasons. First, as process thought and the pope's encyclical come out of very different traditions, the similarity allows each to add credibility to the other. Second, process thought, which embodies a long-standing type of philosophical theology that is consistent with today's best science and has been growing in influence, can be used to support dimensions of the pope's encyclical that might be rejected by secular minds.

The American government, through its media, has convinced most Americans to support the Ukrainian government. This books shows why this is a mistake: The United States promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand "one inch eastward"; and there had been ample warnings, by George Kennan and others, that moving NATO eastward, especially moving into Georgia and Ukraine, would cause problems for Russia. In Ukraine prior to 2014, Ukrainian and Russian speakers were coexisting tolerably well. But in 2013 and 2014, neocons in Obama's administration engineered a coup, with help from neo-Nazis, turning Ukraine into a Russia-hating nation. The war in Ukraine began that year (not in 2022, when Russia attacked in order to protect the Russian-speaking regions under attack by the new coup government in Kiev). Although this book is primarily about the war in Ukraine, it also shows how, in one sense, the war in Ukraine is simply one more instance in the trajectory of American imperialism. as illustrated by previous US interventions in Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Brazil, Greece, Dominican Republic, Panama and Iraq. In another sense, this war reveals just how committed America is to maintaining a unipolar world order: Because this war illustrates that America is willing to threaten nuclear holocaust. it is almost as if people in the U.S. State Department and military believe that life is not worth living unless the US can control the world.

Examines the postmodern implications of Whitehead's metaphysical system.

Describes the move from modern, mechanistic science to a post-modern, organismic science.

Challenges the conventional view of the nature of time.

Addressed to readers who have found liberal theology empty or who believe that one cannot be religious and fully rational and empirical at the same time.

Sorts out the confusion created by the use of the term "postmodern" in relation to widely divergent theological positions.

Articulates a metaphysical position capable of rendering both science and religious experience simultaneously and mutually intelligible.

This book takes a genuinely new spiritual stance reflecting the emergence of a post-modern science and differing from the relativistic nihilism that calls itself postmodern but is really modernism extended to its limit.Based on a direct experience of reality as divine, this postmodern spirituality transcends modernity's individualism and patriarchy, its forced choices between dualism and materialism, anthropocentrism and relativism, supernaturalism and atheism, intolerance and nihilism. Bringing moral and ethical values back into rational discourse, this book provides a critique of various aspects of modern society--political, economic, social, agricultural, and technological aspects. This criticism, informed by the postmodern worldview, points toward a more satisfying form of personal existence and a sustainable form of global order.

The mind-body problem, which Schopenhauer called the ""world-knot,"" has been a central problem for philosophy since the time of Descartes. Among realists--those who accept the reality of the physical world--the two dominant approaches have been dualism and materialism, but there is a growing consensus that, if we are ever to understand how mind and body are related, a radically new approach is required.David Ray Griffin develops a third form of realism, one that resolves the basic problem (common to dualism and materialism) of the continued acceptance of the Cartesian view of matter. In dialogue with various philosophers, including Dennett, Kim, McGinn, Nagel, Seager, Searle, and Strawson, Griffin shows that materialist physicalism is even more problematic than dualism. He proposes instead a panexperientialist physicalism grounded in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Answering those who have rejected ""panpsychism"" as obviously absurd, Griffin argues compellingly that panexperientialism, by taking experience and spontaneity as fully natural, can finally provide a naturalistic account of the emergence of consciousness--an account that also does justice to the freedom we all suppose in practice.

A panel of experts highlight the problems with all major claims of the official account of the 9/11 attacks.

Was America’s response to the 9/11 attacks at the root of today’s instability and terror? Because of various factors, including climate change, ISIS, the war in Syria, the growing numbers of immigrants, and the growing strength of fascist parties in Europe, commentators have increasingly been pointing out that the chaos in the world today was sparked by the post-9/11 attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time, there has also been much discussion of ways in which the Bush-Cheney administration’s response to 9/11 has damaged America itself by stimulating Islamophobia and fascist sentiments, undermining key elements in its Constitution, moving towards a police state, and in general weakening its democracy. While the first two parts of this book discuss various ways in which 9/11 has ruined America and the world, the third part discusses a question that is generally avoided: Were the Bush-Cheney attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq really at the root of the ruination of America and the world in general, or did the original sin lie in 9/11 itself?

In this book, four distinguished scholars level a powerful critique of the rapid expansion of the emerging American empire and its oppressive and destructive political, military, and economic policies. Arguing that a global Pax Americana is internationally disastrous, the authors demonstrate how America's imperialism inevitably leads to rampant...

Process Theology is an introductory exposition of the theological movement that has been strongly influenced by the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. It offers an interpretation of the basic concepts of process philosophy and outlines a "process theology" that will be especially useful for students of theology...

The baffling age-old question, if there is a good God, why is there evil in the world? has troubled ordinary people and great thinkers for centuries. God, Power, and Evil illuminates the issues by providing both a critical historical survey of theodicy as presented in the works of major Western philosophers and theologians--Plato, Aristotle...

Can we act quickly and wisely enough to prevent climate change -- better called climate disruption -- from destroying human civilization? There is no greater issue facing humanity today. This single source provides everything people need to know in order to enter into serious discussions and make good decisions: -The latest scientific information about the probable effects of the various types of climate disruption that threaten the very continuation of civilization. -The reasons why the media and governments have failed miserably to rein in global warming, even though scientists have been warning them for decades. -The additional challenges to saving civilization -- religious, moral, and economic. -The amazing transformation of solar, wind, and other types of clean energy during the past few years, making the transition from a fossil-fuel to a clean energy economy possible; and the falsity of the various claims that fossil-fuel companies and their (hired) minions have made to belittle clean energy. This book combines (1) the most extensive treatment of the causes and phenomena of climate change in combination with (2) an extensive treatment of social obstacles and challenges (fossil-fuel funded denialism, media failure, political failure, and moral, religious, and economic challenges), (3) the most extensive treatment of the needed transition from fossil-fuel energy to clean energy, and (4) the most extensive treatment of mobilization. It provides the most complete treatment of the various kinds of clean energy, and how they could combine to provide 80% clean energy by 2035 and 100% before 2050 (both U.S. and worldwide).

A Process Christology brings together three dimensions of recent theology: the new quest for the historical Jesus, the new-orthodox emphasis on God's self-revealing activity in history, and the theology based primarily on the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne.

Furthering his contribution to the science and religion debate, David Ray Griffin draws upon the cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead and proposes a radical synthesis between two worldviews sometimes thought wholly incompatible. He argues that the traditions designated by the names "scientific naturalism" and "Christian faith" both embody a...

The process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne has made many distinctive contributions to the philosophy of religion. David Ray Griffin now offers the first full-scale philosophy of religion written from this perspective...