tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post3231584911162993579..comments2019-03-04T23:30:14.349-08:00Comments on Michael Gruber's Blog: SpiritualMichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09730968556503210340noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-53861768723403286782013-02-27T20:30:37.456-08:002013-02-27T20:30:37.456-08:00Hello, Mr. Gruber; I just want to say that your &q...Hello, Mr. Gruber; I just want to say that your "Valley of Bones' book made a BIG impression on me, having had a very similar kind of spiritual experience, although mine involved the Knights Templar.<br /><br />I think you might be well served by checking out Idries Shah and his books on Sufi. The genuine spiritual article starts with "an experience". Another excellent direction in which to look is the teachings of "Shri Ramakrishna". But, only if one is serious, of course!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12953860520686822991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-17773298483994809042013-02-27T20:29:35.476-08:002013-02-27T20:29:35.476-08:00Hello, Mr. Gruber; I just want to say that your &q...Hello, Mr. Gruber; I just want to say that your "Valley of Bones' book made a BIG impression on me, having had a very similar kind of spiritual experience, although mine involved the Knights Templar.<br /><br />I think you might be well served by checking out Idries Shah and his books on Sufi. The genuine spiritual article starts with "an experience". Another excellent direction in which to look is the teachings of "Shri Ramakrishna". But, only if one is serious, of course!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12953860520686822991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-24569083436035994042013-02-26T23:14:30.782-08:002013-02-26T23:14:30.782-08:00Second time I have been sent toward Polkinghorne a...Second time I have been sent toward Polkinghorne and this time will take heed-- the other fan was not as comfortable with evo as I see it.<br /><br />I am not sure the Catholic church ever disapproved of evolution-- I was taught a straight up version in a remarkable Catholic school in the late (pre Vatican two) fifties. Ensoulment of the evolving animal was the creating act/ metaphor. Teilhard de Chardin, who I first heard about in grade school, got in trouble because he doubted Original sin, not because he dug up and believed in (and lost?) Peking Man as he was then. Whether metaphorical or literal I tend to the Church's side on that one, though Teilhard might have been a saint<br /><br />But French teaching orders <i>were</i> remarkable-- I knew a nun who welded sculpture, wearing a full nearly opaque mask; one, a short young woman of Quebecois descent and in retrospect of mathematical genius, who was already looking at computers (the big things with cards); and an Irish one who taught us altar boys to rappel in the quarry. This was all before modern habits. <br /><br />I think the veracity I feel in Bones has much to do with the formation-- is that the word? of nuns, and the believability of its order's founding story.<br /><br />And believe your compliments- my serious eastern Orthodox stepson, who also accepts evolution, and other "literary" readers think so too, especially a small number that knows religion and science and is not ashamed to be entertained. That you are entertaining, have a sense of humor, and can "make my flesh creep"-- Dickens said that, no?-- is no argument against your being a serious (Catholic) writer. Greene called dark Brighton Rock and light Travels with my Aunt both "entertainments."<br /><br />Besides, anybody who knows Broomhandle Mausers-- my wife Libby calls them "Rubik's Cubes"-- and Siberian shamans, knows a few things. (I have consulted one, born a Kazakh herder until struck by lightning, and utterly mundane and pragmatic she was, 600 miles from pavement and surrounded by boxed electrical equipment).<br /><br />She, twisted of body but elegant, with two grimy Tuvan attendants, was alleged to predict, or... not --a strange polite eloquent laughing woman who deflected us from seriousness, made at very least uncannily observant remarks as on my medical prospects, and bowed us out. I am still not sure what happened, or why a well educated agnostic biznizman wanted to have her see us.Steve Bodiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14434597061701369867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-83526947374519872622013-02-26T11:45:30.104-08:002013-02-26T11:45:30.104-08:00I am actually a practicing Catholic, a convert no ...I am actually a practicing Catholic, a convert no less. It seems to me that evolutionary biology, where really science, has no conflicts with religion, and where it does is not really science. John Polkinghorne has a lot top say on this subject, if you're interested. He was a fairly big-time scientist at Cambridge--mathematical physics--before resigning and becoming a priest.<br /><br />That's a huge compliment, by the way. Thanks, while not believing a word.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09730968556503210340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-29788756907562685832013-02-19T23:13:51.286-08:002013-02-19T23:13:51.286-08:00I often feel more Catholic when reading your work-...I often feel more Catholic when reading your work-- that is, conscious of the good in our tradition, though at base I would have to describe myself honestly as "S not R" these days.<br /><br />And though I am by education if not practice I am also an evolutionary biologist, that most atheistic (right now) of philosophies, I find myself kicking against that, with of all things a humorous skepticism of its all- explanatory claims (see Dennett); "Really?" It is as though something not just in me insists intuitively that there is some deeper order.<br /><br />I'm comfortable therefore with Catholicism (all of them), biology, Buddhism, Judaism,, some Islam. I feel like one semi- ex Catholic I am "pedalling in air". But I am still pedalling-- and curious if you are, though it seems rude too ask-- please don't feel you must!<br /><br />BTW- In my not totally uninformed opinion you have written some of the most & best Catholic novels since Greene-- better than Percy. Valley of Bones, and some of your late Karp in particular make me want to believe-- that or go to Confesssion .Steve Bodiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14434597061701369867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-40594122684324899222013-02-08T04:05:39.072-08:002013-02-08T04:05:39.072-08:00It seems to me that as we grow spiritually, whatev...It seems to me that as we grow spiritually, whatever our definition of that is, evil always meets us as fear, intolerance, bitterness, racism, war, egotism, etc. It is up to us to decide what relationship we will have with evil since it is part of the World. Developing a relationship with Death is helpful and choosing to walk with others as the path changes. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11132339931491611880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657662925997069756.post-46976039454212072132013-02-06T16:52:14.685-08:002013-02-06T16:52:14.685-08:00Hard to read Gruber's work and emerge untouche...Hard to read Gruber's work and emerge untouched. Thinking about the "unseen world" as never before.<br /><br />"Everyone has an object of worship, the non-negotiable, inarguable highest value for which everything else can be sacrificed. For most people this is the Self, the most convenient object of worship. It's always present and it can talk back, unlike God. Others choose Truth, or Reason, or The People, or Progress, or the Family, or the Beloved. And since such worshippers reject the very idea that demonic forces exist, the demonic forces have no trouble taking over such objects of worship. The result of this process is known as the World."Diana R. Chambershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11935747113595056196noreply@blogger.com