Newton Garver was born in Buffalo NY, returning in 1961 to teach Philosophy at the University of Buffalo. There he rose through the ranks, becoming Distinguished Service Professor in 1991. At UB he chaired the Faculty Senate, published respectably, and traveled and lectured extensively. Now retired from active teaching, he lives nearby in a country house built by his grandparents, together with Anneliese Garver, his wife of 50 years. He continues to write and to give occasional lectures, but is more occupied with upkeep of the land and with various Quaker activities.
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EASTER 2010
Easter is a celebration of resurrection. It is a celebration of the spirit of love and reconciliation that survives crucifixion or assassination – that is, the spirit that survives the death of its exponents and exemplars. The season of Easter is also, for most of us in the northern hemisphere, the time of the resurrection of the living earth, green again after months of hibernation. Here in Western New York the most noticeable change is in the woods – the trees remain bare, but much of the ground is filled with the thin green sprouts of the wild leek, which will flush out to a carpet of green by Easter morning. It was a stroke of genius, from our local perspective, to arrange for the Resurrection to be celebrated just when the earth, too, is coming to life again.
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“ The edifice of your pride has to be dismantled. And that means frightful work .”
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Dear God, bless us with your Spirit of Love , that we may through our words and deeds awaken that same Spirit of Love and Charity which we know lies in the soul of every person. Let the miracles of love break down ancient enmities and overcome ugly rumors and suspicions.
Bless us with your Spirit of Truth , that we may tear away the masks of pretense and theory and speculation, which now gloss reality with false faces in the minds and utterances of our media, our neighbors, our leaders, and ourselves.
Bless us with your Spirit of Peace , that we may bring calm where there is panic, patience where there is urgency, and hope where there is fear. Protect us from the incessant demands of those who are hurried or worried, and bring them, too, to a calming acceptance of setbacks, failures, unwelcome facts, and losses.
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Like it or not, science is the hotbed, the arbiter, and the repository of knowledge. We need to bear this mind as we ponder the roots of our belief. Many of the new atheists Dan Seeger discusses in his essay (Friends Journal January 2010) are scientists with convictions rooted in a profound incoherence shared by many Friends. They believe that any reasonable belief must be something known, and hence proven or provable. No human being behaves in a manner that accords with this conviction. That is why it is incoherent. Many, including prominent Quaker scientists such as Arthur Eddington and Kenneth Boulding, share this conviction. That is why it is worth examining.
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The word ‘theory’ covers a multitude of virtues and vices, sometimes counting as knowledge and sometimes contrasting with knowledge. But theory is as important as observation in science, and we all take force, gravity, electrons, mass, and continental drift as genuine aspects of reality even though they are theoretical rather than observational (empirical) features. We all also recognize that the concept of “luminiferous ether” that was generally accepted ast the outset of the nineteenth century is a theoretical concept that was discarded because of the Michelson-Morley experiment.
