> Nothing conditioned. Nothing logical. Nothing typically "Christian."
> Nothing an "end times" guru would agree with! Certainly NOT a
> right/wrong rule-based ethical paradigm! But the greatest paradigm
> shift of all! So great "the church" missed it and still live under the
> old covenant of judgement! A paradigm shift from the sin-conscious Law
> of sin and death to the God-conscious Law of the Spirit of Life in
> Christ!
[cut]
> I believe the rule-based right/wrong paradigm has reached the limits of
> its ability to solve complex problems. This is why what I'm saying here
> is so hard to deal with out of fear of chaos and decay, instead of
> opporunity. I see Jesus as the paradigm pioneer
[cut]
> I'll be living a Great Adventure of oneness with Jesus Christ!
I want to thank Rick for passing along such a long Christian testimony.
This digest is truly serving learning organisations. There are many
experiences recorded in Don's testimony from which we may learn. We should
never forget that there are at least four templates for authentic
learning: dialogue, game, problem-solving and exemplar. Don's testimony
allows us to follow the exemplary template.
Is it not the case that there might be some essntialities of creativity
and that one of them might be that creativity invokes paradigms? Is it not
the case that learning might be the most complex form of creating which
humans can participate in?
I use the word 'might' to convey the message that no human should be
trusted, not even Christians, nor Jesus if he is not the Christ. (For
those who are interested, this message about trust is indeed from
Scripture. Furthermore, right at the end of my contribution, I will again
refer to the question of trust.)
What Don testify to, is that we may shift from paradigm to paradigm, but
that to live like Jesus Christ is the highest ordered paradigm to shift
to. Jesus Christ is Love. To follow Him is a learning process by which we
eventually discover that God is Love and that we should live creatively by
the power of Love. Unfortunately, we have very few sincere testimonies
such as that of Don to work from. The following paragraph describes the
reason.
Don tells us how he was caught up in the paradigm of the industrial era.
As such I prefer to call it the paradigm of the 'machine and engineer'. A
machine cannot control itself, but has to be controlled externally. Even
if it is provided with a control mechanism such as in robots of the new
information era, that mechanism has to be controlled externally before it
can operate successfully. The task of an engineer is to create something
which will not happen spontaneously. To accomplish this, the engineer has
to force that creation into existence by external work and control. Don
refers to this external work and control by the term conditioning.
Don tells us how pernicious this paradigm is because it could not help him
to solve the personal problems he was caught up in. The reason is very
simple. The 'machine and engineer' paradigm does not provide for
emergences to happen spontaneously. They have to be engineered by an
external agent, readily available. Don was left to suffer alone until
Jesus Christ came to his rescue.
This external engineering of emergences is a very costly business. Any
taxpayer well as many insolvent industries can witness to it. Yet it is
the paradigm which is followed by most businesses and all governments
today. Why? Because we as a civilisation has not yet shifted to a paradigm
which also allows spontaneous emergences and give them primary importance.
This new paradigm has to be exceptionally good, otherwise it will be
pernicious once more. Allow me to explain this in more detail. I have used
the name "machine and engineer" to refer to the paradigm of the industrial
era, the one which is presently in major force. Let me use another name to
refer to it, namely "zoo" in which the names machine and engineer do not
occur. This name will allow us to find the paradigms of other eras
corresponding to "machine and engineer".
To run a "zoo" is again an expensive business. It needs a lot of external
work and control to function. This points to the fact that a zoo is a
nonspontaneous organisation. Stop the external support for one week and
observe what will become of the zoo. Compare the "zoo" to our present
civilisation. Cut off all electricity supplies for one week and observe
what will become of it. Compare the "zoo" to a wildlife park. How much of
our civilisation function as a wildlife park?
Some will argue that the "zoo" is nonspontaneous because it is artificial.
Yes, but we will have to further delineate this notion of 'artificial'.
The "zoo" as organisation operates as follows:
Simple --- think of those things not occuring in it
Closed --- think about the cages to control it
Linear --- think how growth is accommodated
Reversible --- think how changes are handled, undoing them as
easily as making them.
In other words, the "zoo" signifies a SCLR culture.
The key now is to observe that the SCLR culture is not restricted to the
industrial era. It is manifested in each era and grows to new dimensions
with each era. It will indeed also happen in the new informational era.
The paradigm which we need, should promote a CONI culture. CONI stands for
Complex, Open. Nonlinear and Irreversible.
Don testifies that he has found life in Jesus Christ of the Bible to
exhibit a CONI culture. But Don went even further. True to that CONI
culture, he has not prescribed Jesus Christ to others. In other words, he
does not force as an external agency nonbelievers to behave like he does.
This is a clear sign that he does not operate any more from the SCLR
culture, a culture which allows for paradigms such as "machine and
engineer" or "zoo".
Many believe that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, commands
external control and work to affect a godly life. It is logical to believe
this message given the SCLR culture. But if the Old Testament is
interpreted from a CONI culture, its messages are quite different. For
example, a godly life is a much needed gift from God. (Job) Also, there is
no hope for anybody who trusts in anything else than God. (Jeremiah) Don
shows us how the Ten Commandments should be interpreted from the CONI
culture. It is essentially the same as the interpretation given by the
godly people of the Old testament.
Thank you Don for your testimony. It helps us to understand in which
direction we will have to look for the new paradigm. It also helps us not
to be too harsh in our judgements of Christians, or people from the other
walks of life like politicians, lawyers, managers, dealers. etc. We are
all subjected to paradigms.
IT IS THOSE PARADIGMS OF OUR OWN MAKING, ESPECIALLY IF THEY FUNCTION
NONSPONTANEOUSLY, WHICH WE SHOULD TRUST LEAST. As Jeremiah said, they are
scarecrows in a cucumber garden. They can do nothing on their own accord.
Best wishes
At de Lange
Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
--"Mnr AM de Lange" <AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>