| "The future is getting here sooner than ever. We need to prepare ourselves and create rather than await the future." -- Jack Latona |
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| The Reference Library The Center for Creating the Future maintains a library of many of the articles and books that we refer to you. Contact us to arrange time to view our libary. The library is dedicated to Julian Simon in an effort to acknowledge his work and to encourage the next generation to continue his efforts to examine the world around us. |
| Here are some examples of irrational thinking and attitudes that promote the pursuit for comfort and "what's true for me." |
| What is the place of Irrationality in an increasingly Rational World? Here are some examples of the impact of thoughts and utterances that have not been re-examined in the light of new evidence. |
| 1. When will Serbs and Croats be able to live with their past instead of using the past to divide their communities? Serbs and Croatians left Yugoslavia decades ago and many of them settled in Cleveland . Their children intermarried and nobody thought much of the fact that some were Catholics and others were in the Orthodox church. Some of the Orthodox members started taking communion at the Catholic Churches. Then the Balkan War and break-up of Yugoslavia took place. Somebody pointed out that more than 500 years ago, one group forced another broup to convert their religions and some people were killed in this effort. Now Serb-Americans and Croatian-Americans don't speak to each other in Cleveland. This explanation is deliberately devoid of specific dates, names and places to help focus on the key point: the key difference between the religions is, by modern standards, less important in the daily life of a family in Cleveland than the price of milk. When will the word "Filioque" be used only in discussions of history, not to arouse sentiments of readers and to divide communities? What follows are extracts from a letter that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, 18 May 2001. The letter is by Bishop Christodoulos, Auxiliary to the Metropolitan Pavlos Hellenic Orthodox Traditionalist Church, Astoria, N.Y. The Bishop wrote in reply to Rod Dreher's editorial piece "When Will the Orthodox Learn to Love the Pope?" The writer asks if there are not more pressing concerns for the Orthodox Church than "fussing over the Filioque Clause." This is a question that rightly could be asked of the papcy as well. Of course, the reasons for the estrangement of the papacy from the Orthodox Church are far more theologically and ecclesiologically deep-rooted than just the Filioque Clause [which contends that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, which contributed to the schism between Western and eastern Christians in the 11th Century], as egregious as that clause is. For the most part, Orthodox Christians do not overly concern themselves with the Latin papacy. There is little personal ill-will toward John Paul II. The trepidation that we Greek Orthodox have as regards the Latin papacy stems from that institutions serious deviations from the Apostolic Faith and its historic role in attempted to force these deviations onto the Orthodox Christian world, i.e. Croatian Cardinal Stepinac and his Nazi Ustasha forcibly converting thousands of Orthodox Serbians to Catholicism and massacring the thousands who refused. Cardinal Stepinac has recently been beatified by John Paul II. Bishop Christodoulos Astoria, N.Y. Here is the Center's contribution to the discussion: To the Editor: So, Bishop Christodoulos thinks that including the Filioque(that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as the Father) in the Creed, as most Western Christians do, is "egregious". I daresay there are no more than a handful of Western Christians who have the slightest idea what the Filioque dispute is about, much less care enough to kill their neighbor over it. For some years I have used the Filioque dispute and its present-day role in the conflict in the Balkans to explain to students the strong and continuing impact of ancient ethnic and religious feelings on modern events. It is a sad commentary on the persistence of irrationality that Eastern Christians in the Balkans continue to consider it a matter of murderous importance. Jack Latona The Center for Creating the Future, Ft. Lauderdale Florida [email protected], www.creatingthefuture.org Fort Lauderdale, FL USA Click here to visit the Reading Lists for the Millennium Course and the Creating the Future Course |
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