Robert Traer

Published: Dec 01, 2020 by Gratitude and Hope: Doing Theology at Pilgrim Place, vol. 10:2014-2015 (Wasteland Press).
Authors: Robert Traer

“Given that consciousness exists,” Thomas Campbell explains, “it must be enabled by memory, information processing capability (intelligence), the interactive sharing of data, and free-will choice-making” that moves evolution forward. Free will "reduces to the question of are you conscious, and, if so, is your consciousness part of a complex interactive system of consciousness?”

Published: Nov 20, 2020 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

Can we “act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God” while also affirming a “wounded faith” that does not gloss over the injustice and lack of mercy and outrageous arrogance of so many in the world we know? Can we hope in a “spiritual resurrection” that will bring us to eternal life in the presence of this loving and forgiving Light? May we find hope by affirming that death involves going home?

Published: Jun 19, 2020 by Dong Theology
Authors: Robert Traer
Subjects: Religion

Minding the gap, attending to the gap in our perceiving and our knowing and our creating and our doing, minding all existing-reality before us and after, the universe being-becoming, like a vast ocean, ebbing and flowing, as we, in our culturing vessels, experiencing the becoming, around us and in us and through us. Each crossing, reflecting my reading and writing, especially about near-death experiences (NDEs), and my recent experiencing of Whitehead’s reasoning.

Published: Apr 25, 2020 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

The communications reported in this brief paper, which are more extensively documented in the research by psychiatrist Raymond Moody and others, are between living persons who are not ill, or under anesthesia, or unconscious due to trauma, but instead are verifiably awake and alert when communicating with someone who is verifiably dead. If this evidence is not sufficient to prove life after death, what would?

Published: Dec 04, 2019 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

The “Big History” science course now taught in many schools and universities begins with nothing and ends with a dark and cold universe. The story of a conscious, evolving universe includes purpose and a non-material dimension of conscious life as well as an evolving narrative of the universe. Energy and mass arise from fields; life and love are gifts of the Source of consciousness.

Published: Oct 14, 2019 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer
Subjects: Religion

For cardiologist Pim van Lommel, nonlocal entanglement is the key to conceptualizing the NDE enhanced and endless consciousness. Consciousness is not simply a product of brain activity or limited to physically embodied beings. Instead, he proposes, “consciousness has a primary presence in the universe, and all matter possesses subjective properties.”

Published: Jul 10, 2017 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

Oncologist Jeffrey Long writes: “It is important to note that near-death experiencers in the God Study come from every walk of life, including physicians, scientists, nurses, teachers, business executives, homemakers, children, pastors, and others. From these varied backgrounds comes a collection of similar experiences of God and the divine. As a scientist,” Long concludes, "I find this not only statistically remarkable but also hopeful.”

Published: Jun 17, 2017 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

“The neo-Darwinian theory of evolution,” philosopher Hans Jonas writes, “fails to explain the enormous surplus of the moral, aesthetic, and spiritual characteristics that have emerged” in human life “beyond what is needed for purposes of survival.”

Published: Dec 25, 2016 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

At its best, Christmas expresses our hope for a world marked by love and justice. This is a fantastic expectation. A king born on a dark night, with angels singing, and shepherds and wise men kneeling before a manger? And a young woman proclaiming a time will come when the powerful are brought down, and the lowly are lifted up, and the hungry are filled!

Published: Jun 15, 2016 by Doing Theology
Authors: Robert Traer

As I contemplate the possibility of qualifying for and choosing aid in dying, my greatest ethical reservation is the burden my choice would require my attending physician to bear. Exercising my expanded autonomy under the new California law is an ethical dilemma for me, and might also become an ethical dilemma for the physician who would voluntarily agree to assist me.