Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness (Catholicity in an Evolving Universe Series)

by Ilia Delio

Lothar Schäfer writes: The barbaric view of reality is mechanistic. It is the easy view of classical science and of common sense. In epistemology, mechanism is naive realism, the view that all knowledge is based on unquestionable facts, on apodictically verified truths. In physics, mechanism is the view that the universe is clockwork, closed, and entirely predictable on the basis of unchanging laws. In biology, mechanism is the view that all aspects of life, its evolution, our feelings and values, are ultimately explicable in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry. In our legal system, mechanism is the view that the assumption of precise procedural technicalities constitutes perfect justice. In our political system, mechanism is the view that the assertion of finely formulated personal rights constitutes the ideal democracy. In our public administration, it is the view that responsible service manifests itself by the enforcement of finely split bureaucratic regulations. All of these attitudes are the attitudes of barbarians.35