The Provisional Scriptures of the Planet Gaia

Appendix D - Summaries of the Centennial Symposia

Our founder Christian said “I recommend that any of my writings that survive should be reviewed, by a symposium of representatives from as many nations as are interested, for relevance to their time. New writings may need to be added, and some existing parts – because of our very partial understanding of how the planet and the universe work – may need to be removed. This should happen at least every five generations, or every hundred years if it happens that the writings survive for that long”.

He expressed the view that a summary should be written and translated into various languages in a way that ordinary people could understand.

In this version of the scriptures, only a brief listing of the main issues discussed at each symposium, and the resolutions if any, are given.

(Editor's note: readers may get more out of this appendix if they have the map of part of the planet Gaia handy.)

1^st Symposium

Held at Cornith. Representatives were present from Graecaria and Germania, with a very small group from Romania.

• The Romanian empire was at its height, but there was tension between the autocratic rulers who wanted to glory in their conquests, and the administrators who were more concerned to maintain civil peace in the far-flung empire.
• The priority for the movement was to make more copies of the scriptures, so that some could be safely stored against the risks of war.
• Charismatic preachers appeared from within earlier religions; they retained a supernaturalist Mythos and emphasized the spiritual rather than the pragmatic.

• In monotheistic religions, if God’s creation is perfect, why should we expect him to change it at our request? Surely God is not like an autocratic ruler to whom we grovel on bended knee? And in any case, how can a God – or any other force outside the world – have any influence on ongoing events in our world?
• And if God’s creation is perfect, what right do we have to make changes to it ourselves? Should we stick to being ‘lilies of the field’?
• In some nations, certain religious prophets are designated as ‘saints’. This appears to be as much in recognition of their particularly grizzly death, as it is in recognition of their good deeds or qualities. Should our movement designate saints?

• Petitional prayer to a God for personal favours is not in accord with the Spirit of Good.
• The good things that the Kepoics valued – basic needs of food, shelter and clothes; modest living; friends; freedom; happiness without hedonism; freedom from fear; and thought about the sources of our anxiety, were endorsed as desirable for every human. We should encourage people to ‘seize the day’, but not to get carried away by the process.
• Dialectic, a form of argument much loved by the philosophers, is confusing as a form of argument. Too much depends on the definition of the words being used, and there are too many alternative antitheses and syntheses.
• Criticism of autocratic leaders should be moderated. The movement does not wish to challenge existing regimes. The duty of citizens to obey their rulers should be emphasized.
• Each nation should have its own heroes and prophets. Because saints exist already in the religion of some nations, we should not immediately oppose the practice.
• Prophets are defined as people who alert people to the new problems, issues, and dangers of their time and place. They suggest good general approaches to life, ways of mediating between competing ‘goods’, and revisions to the scriptures. The idea of a ‘last prophet’ is not a good metaphor; we should always hope for more to come in the future.

• Christian was recognised as the first international prophet of the new era.

• It was pointed out that there are many pentagonal things in nature: okra, morning glory flowers, apple seeds, star fruit and starfish.

2^nd Symposium

Held at Segeburg, Germania. Representatives were present from Graecaria, Germania, Romania and Gnosce.

• The Romanian empire continues, and has taken over most of the Greek cities. But Germania has remained independent. Some Romanian missionaries have carried the scriptures to the large island of Gnosce, where new colonies have been set up.

• Is a practice of questioning existing regimes desirable? Can we expect a government – or a society – to tolerate ‘gadflies’?
• What sort of leaders in the Spirit should we encourage? At the moment there is a disorganized mixture of saints, prophets, and itinerant missionaries.
• How should we give comfort and hope to people who are suffering persecution?
• How do we address the time-honoured philosophical question of identity? Ships may be repaired and rebuilt so many times that it hardly contains any of the parts it started with; is it still the same ship? This seems similar to the philosophers’ “can’t step into the same river twice” riddle.

• Sometimes, a nation or state is not mature enough to allow ordinary people to question the way their rulers operate. The questioners may have valuable points, and it seems wrong to silence them. In each nation, members need to work out a way of asking their questions without offence, possibly through an intermediary.
• It was felt that the best model for leaders in the Spirit was that of ‘pastors’, which really means shepherds. As Christian said, they lead their flock from behind. However as communities grow, the movement may need to set up some network through which pastors can turn to for mutual advice and help.
• In times of difficulty, words of reassurance carry little value. Anxiety means being pre-occupied by the worst, instead of being prepared for it. It would be better to remind people about the randomness and risk which are an inevitable part of living on this planet. We all have to accept that sometimes the ‘system’ is against us. What is important is that we do the best that we can in all circumstances.
• Identity, which Christian saw as a matter of continuity, or persistence, is really only apparent. The material contents may all change, but the ‘entelechy’ remains the same. A school may still have the same name even if all its students leave and its teachers are replaced. Some families give the same name to a new pet dog when their old one dies, but that is a different situation.
• We should not talk loosely about ‘perception’. Perception is always ‘of’ something.
• We should not regard ourselves as ‘detached moral entities’ as the Kepoics and Peristylians suggested. We exist within ‘moral environments’ – unless we become permanent hermits, which is not in accord with Christian’s teachings. We are inevitably vulnerable to many things outside our control.
• We re-iterated that prayer should never involve asking for personal favours. Instead it should be for meditating on what is most in line with the Spirit of Good. Community prayer may be a joint assertion of people’s hopes and wishes; pastors may give guidance on this.
• The movement would continue to respect the existence of saints, but the symposium agreed that certain qualifications should apply. There should be no requirement to have performed miracles, and nominees would be disqualified if these are claimed. Martyrdom alone is also not enough, nor is a simple life of piety. Saints can be regarded as the successors to the heroes of ancient myths. Their images may encourage people to follow their good example. However a majority expressed the wish to discontinue the practice eventually.

• Valerian, a reflective Romanian general, was elected as the second international prophet of the new era.

3^rd Symposium

Held at Flantuan, Gnosce. Attendees came from the same nations as in the year 200.

• The last century saw the beginning of decline of the Romanian empire. But there was a period of extreme enthusiasm in the existing Christian countries, and increasing influence in nations bordering on them.
• There was a resurgence of the idea of a ‘universal mind’. Although the Spirit was emphasized, the body was downgraded as being the source of ‘sin’.

• What are the relative values of ‘deep love’ (agape) and ‘virtue’ (living a good life) in following the Spirit?
• Some religions are claiming that their revelations are given by God and are therefore the complete and undeniable truth. What is our position on this?
• Should religion be more about ‘poiesis’ or ‘praxis’?
• Is there any room for scepticism, given that we now have a set of scriptures which contain guidance on many issues?
• Should there be a hierarchy of pastors, or should they be more like freelance shamans?

• We think that both ‘agape’ and virtue should be part of the Spirit. We do not believe in a single dimension for the Spirit.
• Claiming a monopoly on revealed truth is, we believe, against the Spirit. We believe that revelations can happen at any time, and that they are always influenced by the mind of the prophet through whom they come. As Christians, all we should say is that maybe we are a little further down the continuing path of understanding the nature of the universe and our human experience within it.
• We feel that the upper parts of the Pentagon correspond closely to what people mean by ‘poiesis’, and lower parts to ‘praxis’.
• Certainly, total scepticism is untenable. We have to take a lot on trust in order to live sensibly. But we should remain prepared to question anything, even what Christian has written. We feel sure that this was his intention.
• If there is no disagreement to an assertion, it does not guarantee that the assertion is accurate. It may just be that no-one knows any better.
• We should resist any philosophy that tries to cordon off mind from body, or from function.
• The symposium was mostly against hierarchies of pastors, but agreed that it was desirable to have networks through which they could help each other as equals.
• There was further discussion on the role of a pastor. Possible further things that a pastor could do include teaching, mediation, organizing poor relief, supporting the sick, encouraging the depressed, showing how to accept misfortune, stirring up lazy or reluctant people, and praising good work. Such a person sounds a lot more valuable than a philosopher.
• The next goal of the movement should be to span the planet early, to avoid leaving large populations to develop independently of Christian’s message.

4^th Symposium

Held in Aquilegia, Romania. New participants were Francaria, Spania, Chania, and Russania.

• The Romanian empire is now largely Christianized, and the message has spread to satellite nations which are now largely governed independently.
• There has been trouble caused by anti-women fanatics; Rosalinda, a lady scientist, was murdered at the instigation of local religious leaders.

• Some local groups have emphasized meekness as a virtue. How far should this go?
• Which forms of government should the movement encourage or discourage?
• Given the recent surge of the movement, how should we launch missionary efforts to nations that are not yet involved?

• Meekness may be admirable in some people, but it is not good for everyone to be meek. No-one should play the role of a doormat. We should limit meekness to displaying genuine humility and admitting that we do not know everything. Too much meekness may weaken our resolve to sort out our problems.
• At the same time, Christian’s emphasis on putting oneself in another’s place, and looking at things as through their eyes, has been revived. This is to be commended.
• The appearance of new stories and narratives is also welcomed. The stories we have seen are good for illustrating human reactions; the way that new ideas challenge existing ones; the value of maintaining courage; the recognition and avoiding of temptation; and the dangers of autocratic control without channels for appeal or independent oversight.
• Systems of society and government that exclude too many people, especially those whose activity is essential to the economy and government, must be regarded as wrong. This implies that we must not exclude women from our counsels. Societies that maintain an ‘upper class’ are undesirable, and are liable to be overthrown. Strictly stratified societies often appear when an invading race takes over a nation’s land and reduces the existing citizens to serfdom.

• The murder of Rosalinda was strongly condemned. She was designated the third international prophet and recommended to national movements as a saint.

5^th Symposium

Held in Undelsheim, Germania. New participants included Jana, Kora and Georgiana.

• The former Romanian empire is now split into a number of independent states.
• The Indiaticans have retained their ancient religions, but their form has been much modernized through contact with Christianity.
• Although the Chans and Jans come from a very different set of traditional religions, they have found that the Christian scriptures fit quite well with their own. They are happy to be included in the movement, given that they have the right to continue to do things their way.
• The Saxonians in Germania have begun their own programme of missions, and we welcome the Georgianans as their first contacts on the continent.
• There has been concern that in some countries, state religion, linked to a ruling class, is being enforced with dire penalties for non-compliance.
• A new wave of migrations has started on the continent, due largely to overpopulation.

• What is the Christian view on those religions that offer ‘salvation’? Should salvation mean any more than easing unhappiness, reconciling to society, and resolving the struggle between emotions and thoughts? And what is our view on those religions that emphasize ‘guilt’?
• What does one do when two (groups of) people are in a state of ‘being in dispute’?
• What can the movement do to help those new member nations that do not yet have a wide enough vocabulary to represent all of Christian’s meanings?
• How should we counter the materialists’ suggestion that “What you see is all there is”?

• The symposium felt that there was nothing wrong in the idea of ‘salvation’ as an appeal to encourage people into Christianity, but that some interpretations were not to be recommended. If salvation means lightening of a feeling of guilt, with at the same time a determination to amend bad behaviour, then a pastor can rightly give the confessor some words of absolution. But if guilt is over-emphasized, and people made to fear dire consequences – whether in this world or some imagined other world, then that is against the Spirit of Good. We also deplore the idea that a person can simply make a confession and expect absolution without any genuine attempt to learn how to do better in the future.
• With regard to resolving disputes, we cannot expect pastors to broker peace between warring nations, let alone invading tribes. However at the one-on-one level, it is a good skill for both pastors and ordinary Christians to be able to help two individuals, with whom they are acquainted, to drop their ill will and come to a compromise.
• To rationalize further missionary activity, the member nations represented agreed to divide up responsibility for spreading Christian’s messages according to certain sectors of the planet.
• The agreed response to the materialists should be to examine and attempt to reconcile as much as possible of what they have said about the material world, but to kindly point out those important aspects of human living, such as emotions, that a materialist view undervalues. In any case, many material things themselves are not seen.
• Some advice was given to new member nations on how to borrow words from Greek, Romanian or Germanian so as to get the right meaning in their translations of the scriptures.

6^th Symposium.

Held in Mistra, Graecaria. No representatives from Gnosce were able to attend, but representatives from the Tamsk and Pilré islands joined for the first time.

• Gnosce was in chaos due to multiple migrations from different races, particularly Chans, Jans, Korians and Indiaticans.
• There has been a period of intolerance on the continent. Weak nations have been threatened by migrating tribes; some resisted them successfully, but others were overrun. There have been many small wars, with the belligerents making very little effort to seriously negotiate. Pride seemed to be more at stake than human life or happiness.
• Origin Island has been colonized by continental people severely harassed by the tribal migrations, but they are not yet involved in the movement.
• The Fennomanians, who were earlier attacked in their continental homeland by the migrating tribes, have, with the support of the Germanians,  moved to lands in the far north of the planet that were previously uninhabited.
• The Anglians from eastern Germania have taken over leadership of missionary activity in the central ocean, including the northern island chain.

• There appears to be a revival of cynicism. What action should the movement take?
• Some religions, both within and outside the movement, have emphasized the concept of ‘faith’. The implication is that it is better to ‘trust and obey’ than to be seeking knowledge and inspiration on one’s own account. What is our response?
• How can any religion explain misfortune, unfair tricks and bad human nature?
• With the growth of Christian communities in many countries, a better organization in each nation is needed. What structure should it have?

• Cynicism, by denying the value of knowledge altogether, is against the Spirit of Good. As well as rejecting reason, it rejects the pragmatics of living in a society. However it does have some value in exploding some of the more arrogant claims to ‘complete knowledge’. We should always admit that our knowledge is only ever provisional and partial.
• Faith should be regarded as ‘an affirmation of life and existence in the face of meaninglessness’. Blind faith is not in accord with the Spirit. People should be encouraged to seek advice and support from leaders and the scriptures, but it is not in tune with Christian’s message to accept things without thought.
• Christian’s view about facing misfortune is clear; we have to accept it if it is unalterable, although thinking in advance and assessing the risks should mitigate the degree of our misfortune. If we are confronted with bad behaviour from other humans, we ought to learn to become smart enough to recognize their bad intentions early, as well as any gaps in our understanding and mutual trust. We may either have to act more assertively, or be prepared to accept that we have been wronged, and act more carefully next time.
• The symposium wished to reiterate Christian’s warning that violent conflict does not resolve who was right, but rather who was more physically powerful at the time.
• The symposium considered a proposal to endorse the appointment of bishops, as happens in non-Christian religions. It was felt that this should be supported, but that any endorsed bishops should act not as spiritual hierarchs but as team leaders of a group of pastors in a region. Their normal role should be as chairmen of ‘ways and means’ committees for their ‘sees’, rather than being considered to be on a higher spiritual level than the pastors.
• The symposium also recommended that there should be parish councils with lay councillors for all Christian villages and city neighbourhoods. Chairmanship of the councils should be rotated round all the councillors. It encouraged parishes to acquire a ‘public meeting space’. It also recommended that groups should be started to allow interested ordinary parish members to meet by rotation in each other’s homes, for general discussion on whatever issues they feel are important to them.
• The decision was finally taken to end any endorsement of Saints. St Elfric, the Anglian missionary, was recognized as the last saint to be approved by the international symposium. It should be left to national movements to decide their own stance.

• The Romanian Boenius, who wrote a wonderful guide for those troubled or oppressed, was endorsed as the next international prophet.

7^th Symposium

Held in Torshaven, Germania. Gnoscians rejoined the symposium; their delegation included representatives of both the earlier peoples and the more recent immigrants. A small delegation of Fennomanians from their new lands also attended.

• A religious crusade was attempted among the nomadic tribes in western continent. However it was a disaster, and Graecaria was overrun by some of the tribes shortly afterwards.
• A rival religious movement, advocating the importance of ‘submission’ to a divine will, was introduced by some migrating tribes.

• How should people cope with the current outbreak of antipathy, jealousy and fanaticism? What should we do when our backs are to the wall? What when we find ourselves to be in an oppressed minority? Is it enough to just ‘keep one’s head down’?
• Is the problem known in philosophy as ‘infinite regress’ really something we should worry about?
• What, in current times, is the role of traditional myths, fables and fairy stories, which tell about things that we know are not real or true?
• What should be our principles of treatment of women and children; what roles should women be allowed to take in Christian parishes and nations?
• Is a puppet show a good metaphor for human life, as is popular with the Orientals? Does it not imply that humans have no responsibility, and that someone else is ‘pulling the strings’? Does it not also suggest that it is easy to solve all mysteries, by just looking from behind the puppeteer?
• What view should we take when a lot of young men are killed in a war? Are we forced to think “a lot died, so we can’t say the cause was wrong”? To say “It was all for nought” is unacceptable to bereaved families.
• Should the parish councils recommended in the previous symposium concern themselves with the administration of their communities, or should they limit their concern to religion?

• The symposium thought that Christian leaders need to adopt patience, and sometimes even dissimulation, when oppressed. There is no value in martyrdom unless it can trigger a change of heart among enough of those who support the oppressors. If possible, Christian leaders should seek careful dialogue with the invaders, attempt to reconcile views, and give an assurance of peaceful co-existence.
• It was not felt that infinite regress was necessarily a logical objection to a model or theory. Infinity was said, by a mathematician who was present, to be an essential concept in science, even if we could never reach it and find a definite end point.
• Myths, fables and fairy stories can all be valuable and instructive, especially for children and also for uneducated people. Some of the invading tribes have very good fables and are happy to share them with Christian people, and to hear our stories in turn. However it is important that these folk tales are not regarded as ‘alternative science’. It can be good for people to accept them as metaphors, but not to believe them, beyond childhood, as practical explanations.
• It was sad that Christian’s enlightened views on the role of women have not been realized in most nations. If anything, things have gone backwards, partly through periods of military rule and partly through a resurgence of male domination brought in by the invaders. It was hoped that when life in most nations became more settled, the sons and daughters of the invaders would become assimilated, and would want to share the more equal and open attitudes of their conquered counterparts. In general, however, women and children are still the key to future generations, and this important fact should be better appreciated.
• The puppet shows, which are popular among the oriental peoples, are similar in many ways to the old Graecarian dramas, and as such are recognized as valuable. But if the metaphor suggests that everything in this world is being manipulated by some cosmic puppeteer, then this is not in line with Christian’s teaching.
• What to say to people who have suffered severely through disastrous wars and great loss of life, is still a relevant problem in the western part of the continent. However strongly we feel that war is a disaster that should always be avoided, we cannot undervalue the sacrifice the soldiers made in those wars. While the nomads may pass such losses off more easily as “just part of life”, many of those nations who have suffered most have a culture where sympathy is more common. Sympathy is an important component of the Spirit, and we should not marginalize it.
• The scope of responsibility of a parish council should depend very much on the prevailing political situation. Where a conquering tribe is in control, the parish council should keep out of administration itself, but support the rulers. If there are Christian rulers, the council should be prepared to offer advice, but still defer to the rulers. However some villages may adopt a constitution which asks the parish council to take on the full burden of administration. In all cases the parishes should try to run schools to educate as many parishioners as possible up to a higher level of understanding.
• There was not a lot of discussion on possible theological change, except regarding the precise meaning that was intended to be taken from some of the sayings; and whether some of them needed to be deleted or replaced.

8^th Symposium

Held in Xijing, Chania. A full delegation from the Fennomanian islands attended, and also – for the first time - representatives from Fire Island and other islands in the northern ocean chain.

• There has been a new blossoming of civilization on Orient Island, led by those Chans, Jans and Korians who did not migrate to Gnosce.
• On Gnosce itself, the mixed population of Orient islanders, Indiaticans, Romanians and older peoples has begun to settle into a peaceful co-existence.
• On the continent, it was a relatively poor period, due to the devastation following the tribal migrations, which was compounded by climate problems.
• In spite of the devastation the nomads had caused, the Christianized countries were now often helping the womenfolk and children of those same nomads, many of whom were worse off than the surviving native populations.

• What should our reaction be to the barbaric abandoned festivals brought in by the nomads?
• What do we feel about the merits of ‘switching off’ and letting the Spirit come to us, as we do with art?

• We should not try to categorically oppose all practices which we regard as barbaric; they may carry some useful metaphorical meaning, and may contain a grain of value for the future. However we should make clear our opposition to any practices that are degrading to humans, especially to women.
• We recommend the practice of pre-conscious meditation, as described by Dogan. Christian himself said that this was the source of what we call ‘reality’, before we intellectualize it and discuss it with other people.
• In discussions with groups of people who hold very different views about life in this world, we should avoid accepting easy compromises or coming too quickly to a consensus. We ought to give time for thoughtful compromises to emerge, and to give time for people to suggest objections.

• Two new international prophets were recognized: Kung Fu from the Chans, who wrote an excellent manual for people working in government, and Dogan from the Jans who, being in sympathy with Christian’s emphasis on relationships in his Taxonomy, wrote about the value of pre-conscious reflection, mental relaxation and absorption into the moment.

• As an item of light relief, it was pointed out that the number 12, which corresponds to the months (moon cycles) in a year, as well as the number of relationship types in Christian’s taxonomy, is the number of faces of a dodecahedron, whose faces are all regular pentagons. Also, the ratio of the length of a pentagon’s diagonal to one of its sides is the golden ratio ‘phi’.

9^th Symposium

Held in Heronton, Fire Island. New participants at this symposium came from Megriny, Slavonike, Long Island and the Taansha archipelago.

• A rival religion has appeared in Germania, mainly among the Danians in the north of the island. This religion does not accept some of the basic Christian principles; instead it emphasizes self-expression, personal will, fulfilment and achievement.
• The first large-scale migrations from Romania and Gnosce to South Acirema and nearby islands were reported.
• The preceding century saw the beginnings of feudalism in the eastern continent and Germania.
• Philosophy has started to take a different course to religion. Recent philosophers have concentrated on epistemology (i.e. “what can we know?”) and logic, rather than human virtue and the puzzles of existence.

• Arguments have resurfaced about whether humans really have ‘free will’ or not. Are humans like a puppeteer’s puppets, or machines that follow a prescribed behaviour, or animals that act only on instinct?
• If we believe that humans do have free will, should we favour ‘triumph of the will’ – as the Danians do, or ‘no-will’ – as some older oriental religions do?
• With the next symposium due in 1000 ACD, what should we say about prophets who foretell the end of the universe at that time?
• Does history repeat itself, and go in cycles, as some sects suggest?

• Discussions were concerned on how to counter the spread of the rival religions of Submissionism and Selfexpressionism, and how, if possible, to bring them into the fold. Although no definite policy was decided, the general approach should be to emphasize what those rival approaches undervalue, fail to address or deliberately leave out.
• The symposium’s view on free will was that whether or not humans have such a thing, we should act as if we do have it. Otherwise, there is a disincentive to take personal responsibility for one’s actions and one’s life. Otherwise, people can say “I could not help it, my emotions, my thoughts and my reactions are just part of how I am made”.
• Neither ‘triumph of the will’ nor ‘no-will’ were regarded as good slogans for a Christian approach to life. The suggestion that there is a single ‘will’ for all humans does not resonate with common sense. But if we all have separate wills, then ‘triumph of the will’ suggests that ‘my will’ can be forced on ‘your will’, which is a recipe for ‘dog-eat-dog’ chaos. The second slogan, ‘no-will’ harks back to the old Greek philosophy of the Peristylians. It does makes sense to say that if we exercise our will too strongly, we will inevitably reap disappointment, and may be blown over by a period of misfortune, which we should always be prepared to accept. But it does also lead to apathy and a lack of determination to make things better in the future.
• Millenarist and Chiliastic sects have certainly appeared on the fringes of our religion. But one of Christian’s sayings suggests that forecasting the end of the world is not a useful activity. We suspect that these sects are trying to inspire people with a fear of damnation in a soon-to-come future life, in order to recruit members to join their sects now. Even if the number 1000 is a very ‘round’ one, Christian would not have regarded the date of his death as anything special in terms of the history of the planet. So why should 1000 years from that date be special either?
• Likewise, the symposium does not believe in predictable patterns of history, and prefers the view that the universe evolves over time in the direction of the Spirit. Human civilization may regress at times into dark ages, but things are not simply repeated when it re-emerges. The only valid observation in this respect is that humans do show a great tendency to repeat the same mistakes as were made in the past; they are not inclined to learn from history, even if that history is clearly available for them to read.
• As an additional resolution, the symposium wished to emphasize the importance of friendship. Friendship should start at home; spouses must at least be friends to each other. Friendships also need maintaining. Some people need help in finding friends. A friendship relationship ought to be between equals; not a lop-sided dependency of one person on another.

10^th Symposium

Held in Medinalnabia, Spania. The remaining offshore islanders joined the symposium, as well as a delegation of Indiaticans.

• The Arabarian prophet Kindi, who had come with a migrating band into Spania, renounced ‘Submissionism’ after discussions with Christianized Spanian philosophers.
• Christianity represented, for the first time, a majority of the nations and races on the planet.
• Arising from the tribal migrations and invasions, a feudal system has become enforced in many countries. Conquerors occupy prime rulership, and claim to own all the land they have conquered. This is then leased to the dominated subjects, who may further sub-lease smaller parcels of land. The feu duty is paid partly in the produce of the land, and partly in military service in the armies of the rulers. The rulers tolerate the Christian parishes because they run schools and are prepared to acquiesce to the imposed rule. However the attitude of many of the rulers openly threatens Christian principles.
• Some educated people have retreated into monasticism.

• Is current religion becoming anti-philosophy? Does religion apply too many constraints on the development of ideas?
• What are our positions on slavery, and the treatment of prisoners?
• After the millennium – what was all the fuss?

• It had been reported that in some nations, where Christian parishes were restricted to a purely religious role, the position of philosophers and thinkers was becoming precarious and marginalized. This could explain the rise of monasteries. The symposium argued strongly that philosophy should not be excluded from religion; both were addressing the same problems of human life. Religion should never limit the formation of new ideas.
• The migrations had resulted in large numbers of people being carried off as slaves into the homelands of the invading tribes, primarily to work as architects and technicians in building up the capital cities of those tribes. This practice was seen as definitely contrary to Christian’s teaching, but since those Christians had no influence in the invading tribe’s homelands, little effective opposition could be mounted at the time. It was also pointed out that serfs under a feudal system are little better off than these slaves.
• The invading tribes were very much more severe in their treatment of prisoners than the former Christian nations. However the influence of the parishes would for the time being have to be limited to appeals for clemency, or suggestions of useful work to which the prisoners could be put, instead of being starved or executed.
• The lesson to be learnt from the passing of the millennium without incident should be that ‘prophets’ should not pretend to be ‘forecasters’. They should only warn of potential dangers.

• Arabarian prophet Kindi was endorsed as an international prophet. His writings re-aligned the Arabarians’ idea of submission into ‘going along with the Spirit of Good’. He felt that ‘submission to divine will’ could all too easily lapse into ‘submission to a self-perpetuating oligarchy of priests’. If there was a difference between the will of the priests and the personal call of the Spirit of Good, the Spirit should always prevail.

11^th Symposium

Held in Jazira, Arabaria. This symposium saw the first appearance of South Acireman representatives. Invitations were extended to those Arabarian leaders who were yet to accept Kindi’s revisions, and to representatives of the Danians’ religion.

• There have been significant technical developments (of machines), which promise better living conditions but have been exploited mainly by militarist rulers as weapons of war.
• The monasteries have developed schools which involve philosophers, who employ the approach of ‘logical scholasticism’, which means trying to ‘prove’ things as unquestionable fact.
• Danians (strongly favouring Self-expressionism and a Self-fulfilment philosophy) have expanded their influence. They have clearly separated from the mainstream movement, and have come to dominate some parts of formerly Christian nations. Their idea of the ‘free spirit’ means ‘to be one’s own pilot’ and not to be hidebound by the negative influence of other people, especially those who support egalitarianism.
• Fennomanians have entered North Acirema as the first settlers of that area. Other races are preparing to follow.

• How can we encourage rival groups to join the mainstream movement? Can we integrate their best additions and modifications?
• What is the most important aspect of the Spirit? Possible options to be considered are Love (agape), Virtue, Quality, Fulfilment of one’s own potential, Respect for others including rulers, and Renouncement of the will and of desire.
• How can we satisfy people who always want, or expect, simplistic cause-and-effect stories?
• Is ‘logical scholasticism’ of value to Christianity as a whole?
• Who should be allowed to appoint deputies, or major-domos?

• Christian was always of the opinion that we should update our scriptures and adopt the best ideas from other races and nations where they could complement and add to our current message. This symposium was our first serious attempt to do this. We do not expect to resolve all differences, but the will is clearly there, exemplified by the welcome we received from our hosts and their open attitude.
• No-one thought that any of the aspects of the Spirit should be relegated to second-class importance, except in the case of Renouncement, where the emphasis ought to be on ‘moderation’ rather than ‘total asceticism’.
• The desire of the majority of ordinary people to look for simple ‘cause-and-effect’ links is very concerning. Education which leads to an understanding that things are not so simple may only reach a minority. We may be best to allow more stories of simple cause and effect, in order to get the message across to more ordinary people. But we ought to qualify these stories by saying something like “other things being equal” – even though we know that they never will be equal.
• Several nations have reported that rulers – and even parish councils – are using the practice of appointing deputies, who have not been elected, to do much of the parish’s work. Some of these deputies have turned out not to be good people; often they take bribes and favour their own relatives. By major-domos we mean deputies who actually take the role of the person who was elected to be in charge. In the symposium’s view, if a person acting as major-domo is the best person for the job, he should be the elected leader. At least all members of the council should vote for the leader, if not all qualified parishioners.

12^th Symposium

Held in Fourdon, Francaria. Representatives from Africana – a territory in the middle of the continent, adjoining Francaria, with a very varied mix of races – joined for the first time.

• New ideas have come mostly from the philosophical logicians in the monasteries, who have tried to put all our understanding on a more formal basis. However there has been very heavy reliance on neologisms, as well as definitions which are made to suit the arguments.
• With the rise of the Danians and their allies, many monasteries have taken on the additional role of fortresses against opportunistic attacks into Christian areas.
• There has been some schism in national religious leaderships, over questions of ‘immortality of souls’. This has led to some loss of faith due to the uncertainties.
• A growing evil of easy labelling people into categories, saying “they’re all the same”, has been noted.
• Prophet Maimun has written a guide for the perplexed; encouraging people to seek good knowledge, and to push surface appearances into the background.

• Religion itself is getting a bad name, by becoming confused with preservation of the status quo by existing rulers and leaders. How can this be avoided?
• Some leaders have argued that religion is all about “order, purpose and destiny”. Is that in accord with Christian’s ideas?
• When is force justified? Is there ever a just war?

• Religion should always be a choice for each individual on reaching adulthood. The form of religion a person adopts depends not only on upbringing and education, but also on the individual’s character. If a person struggles to render intelligible the forces he experiences as constraints on his activity, he may choose a form of religion with more ritual and traditional beliefs. If he is able to face the potential meaninglessness squarely, he may be happier with a more philosophical approach. Neither should be regarded as unacceptable.
• Following the previous point, those people who see life in the world as chaotic and unbearable will naturally look for a story that tells of order, purpose and destiny. We may agree that there is order, but not all of it is the sort of order we want to see. At some times, the order may be ‘the law of the jungle’ or ‘survival of the fittest’. However ‘purpose’ presupposes a ‘puppeteer’, and ‘destiny’ suggests a knowable end-point to the history of an individual, tribe, nation or universe. These concepts are not in tune with Christian’s principles; they are things that we do not expect to know.
• It was strongly agreed that no war of aggression or invasion was just, unless the attacked nation had taken land or other valuables unjustly from the aggressor nation. If someone who was in revolt against the aggressor nation was seeking sanctuary in the attacked nation, it should not be considered justification for declaring a ‘just war’. Making war to convert a nation to the aggressor nation’s religion is never a just war. Invasion to seek living space or resources is also never just; if the aggressor is experiencing famine of oppression from a third nation, then it should seek an alliance before considering unilateral invasion. A defensive war fought by a country being invaded can always be regarded as just. Treaties which bind one nation to attack an aggressor if a third nation is attacked are very dangerous, and should be avoided.

• Maimun, who came from a country over-run by the Arabarians and which had been obliged to convert to Submissionism, was endorsed as an international prophet.

13^th Symposium

Held in Funshlunk, Mokavik

• The preceding century saw the end of the Danian wars. The Danians were superseded in influence by the Francarians, who are liberal monotheists.
• Many new and valuable commentaries on the scriptures have appeared.
• Several philosophers working in monasteries have written great treatises that have attempted to heal the schisms.

• To what extent should we separate mind and body? And is talk about ‘soul’ relevant?
• What is our response to the doctrine that spirituality should be separate from practical everyday life?
• Should naturalistic metaphors for the Spirit be encouraged?
• How should people’s natural urges to compete be balanced?
• What authority should rulers justifiably wield over their citizens?
• How far should we have to submit to regimes we strongly disapprove of?

• The symposium felt strongly against emphasizing separateness of mind and body. Both are a part of what we are. Our mind resides in our body, but it is inextricably bound up with all our body parts. On the other hand, ‘soul’ is an intellectual concept which requires us to separate it from the body. We should be wary of creating abstract constructs and building great intellectual edifices on them.
• We totally reject the idea that spirituality in Christian’s sense should be separate from practical everyday life. The only sorts of spirituality we might want to keep separate are destructive ones, for example a disconnected aesthetic nostalgia, or a yearning for things that we cannot have. Most ordinary people can only think in materialistic terms; many think spirituality is nonsense, others that spirituality is just to do with emotions – of the sort that can be blown up when people in large crowds feel similarly.
• A naturalistic metaphor means that we look on the Spirit has being “all of nature”. However this should mean not just physical things in nature, but thought, ideas, emotions and desires as well. The symposium’s view is that if this metaphor can help people live a good life, we should by all means encourage it. However other people may not choose this metaphor, so in fairness we should not require people to adopt it.
• The point about natural urges was that if we try too hard to restrain them, we not only limit our potential, but risk mental confusion and possibly madness. Clearly we must learn to control those urges that lead to damage to other people and mistreatment of animals. But we should not encourage extreme self-repression either.
• Ideally, a ruler should rule because the people want him to rule. A nation or tribe should have a constitution, or conventions, which say what a ruler can or cannot do. But as we all know, the majority of rulers we have now have been imposed on the ruled population. All that subjects can do is to put forward practical, but incremental suggestions for improvement.
• It is possible that the regimes we do not like are in fact introducing necessary innovations. We should examine our own motivations. It may be that we just want to preserve what we are currently comfortable with, and so avoid the stress of change and the risk of being worse off. The majority of people may prefer to stick to an existing status quo, even if it has many faults. It may in any case be pointless to refuse to submit, and invite punishment which may not advance the cause at all.

• The Francarian prophet Thalames was endorsed as an international prophet, for his writings attempting to unify divergent sects.

14^th Symposium

Held in Falaka, Taansha

• A significant change in the theological balance has come from the Scanians, who have moved away from Theism.
• A wave of universities has been founded, largely in place of the monasteries.
• The universities have opened up a new discipline of comparative religion, studying how different nations have interpreted the scriptures for their own peculiar cultures.
• There has been a strong revival of trade between nations, after several disturbed centuries.
• Some nations have experienced a problem with ruling classes, who have come to believe their own propaganda which they use to retain the domination and support of their subjects.

• What is the difference between existence and essence?
• How can we accommodate the revival of the dialectical style of argument and discussion?
• How can we deal with threats of nit-picking, poor performance, and bad luck, mistrust, deception in trading activities?
• What should happen to the property of monasteries that are becoming deserted?

• Using Christian’s characterization of ‘reality’ as ‘what we experience before we intellectualize’, we should say that ‘existence’ means our instantaneous recognition that ‘something’, rather than ‘nothing’, is ‘there’. ‘Essence’ involves some interpretation, either by ourselves or by discussion with others; this could involve assigning our experience to a category, e.g. “is it a bird, or is it a bat?”, or assigning some attribute to it, e.g. “it’s big”, or “it’s important”.
• The key to good trading should be open access to information, including in markets; deliberately hiding information should be regarded as unethical. Successful bargaining, commercial or otherwise, always depends on knowing what one’s own fall-back positions are. Until we have built up trust, or a regular pattern of good outcomes, a trader must always consider the risks of things going wrong. ‘Nit picking’ is the risk that one may be forced to spend time and energy arguing over the details of who or what was responsible, and who should compensate whom, in the case of a bad result. Traders often delegate nit-picking to lawyers, but this is usually very costly.
• The idea of monastic seclusion should now be deprecated. However, so should the seizure of monastery property by rulers or private armies. Monastic orders should decide how their property should be passed on; it would be best if it went to universities and parishes.
• Religion should not pretend to do the job of science, and science cannot address all the concerns of religion. The scientific method of hypotheses and experiments is a different but complementary mode of intellectual endeavour than the method of metaphor, expression and inspiration.

• The Graecarian prophet Occimenes, author of the principle of simplicity, was endorsed as an international prophet. He recommended that the way to expanding knowledge is to simply collect a wide range of apparent facts – including folk wisdom. We should then sift out the contradictions, and propose the simplest story, one that can have meaning for people of moderate education who do not have any specialist knowledge in the area.

15^th Symposium

Held in Hassleborg, Scania

• The century just ended has seen the opening up of further areas of the Acireman continent. There was much competition between the different groups of immigrants.
• There has been a significant swing in religion back towards the pragmatics, and a resurgence of politics as an art.
• There has been a great blossoming of the visual arts, triggered by mutual influence between neighbouring and trading nations.
• There have been protests by parishioners against hierarchies that have tried to limit access to knowledge. This has become significant since the advent of printing, which has breached the monopoly of knowledge held by those who had access to the limited number of books.
• Trade has begun to make a big difference to people’s lifestyles, but in some nations much more than in others.

• How can the movement contribute to the improvement the science of good government?
• What is the role of professional facilitators?
• Should any nation enforce its doxy on all citizens?

• Christian’s ideas on government, largely presented in the Conversations, were perhaps limited to the situation of his own times. However he did have ideas both for leaders as individuals and governments as a whole. Some recent authors have suggested that to be successful, a ruler should adopt skills similar to those of a dishonest trader. They have included the cynical use of religion as a tool for enforcing compliance among the ruler’s subjects. The symposium felt that it would be better if a leader can admit to being human and hence prone to occasional mistakes. He should maintain an air of doing his best and having thought about it; and he should always give the impression of welcoming feedback and constructive criticism. However it was admitted that not many current rulers were good enough to operate in this style.
• A facilitator is a valuable contributor to any council, either within government or a parish council. We recommend that a facilitator should not be a pastor, although a pastor may usefully have a special role within a council. A facilitator should first lead a meeting towards an agreed agenda, priorities for the meeting, and some questions to be answered. In the discussion he should mainly keep quiet, except to adjudicate on failures to observe the conventions of the meeting. He should, however, ask any questions that no-one is asking. Finally, he should offer a summary which details alternatives clearly and lists their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. But he should in this remain open to corrections.
• Enforcing any doxy is of dubious value. No-one can ultimately control what people think. Inquisition methods, where attempts are made to extract confessions under torture, are totally to be deprecated. Wise people who do not agree with the state doxy may well be able to dissimulate. Book burning is absolute folly, since wise people will have multiple copies and hide them in many places.

16^th Symposium

Held in Arica, Andemia. North Acireman representatives attended for the first time. Only a few remote islands on the planet are now unrepresented.

• In North Acirema, there has been a period of struggle, but much intermarriage between the immigrant races.
• The advanced nations have seen the development of techniques of experimentation, aided by new instruments to observe both the very small (biology) and the very large (astronomy).
• Initiatives have at last been taken in advanced countries to improve the participation of women in commercial life.
• Scepticism about the value of existing traditions within nations has become fashionable among commercial classes, as travel between nations becomes more frequent.
• The practice of antithetics by governments has appeared. This involves setting up groups whose role is to argue the opposite to what the government is proposing; this leads to better validation of the government’s plans than the previous practice of just presuming – or guessing – what the objections to their proposals might be.

• A lot of trading is going on, but what exactly is its value? Does everyone get a benefit? What about the workers, and the growers of food in the less advanced nations?
• Should we rule out talk about things that cannot be well defined, verified or disproved?
• Language is coming to be seen more and more as an evolving communication medium. What can we do to enable speakers of different languages to get a consistent meaning from new writings as well as the original scriptures?

• Trade can improve our material comfort, and can lead to better use of the resources we have. But it can encourage duplicity, loss of natural sympathy between individuals, greed, and the use of force or other power to skew markets. There is a need for consistent rules for markets, including the practice of bargaining, and the use of enforceable contracts. There is also a need for many more storehouses in ports and large cities.
• With the increase in scepticism, religious writers and speakers need to think more carefully about what they say. Some get carried away by their own inspiration, and do not think carefully on how they can get meaning across to listeners or readers. Very often, they define their own abstract concepts and expect readers to immediately see their intended meaning in the words they use. Not many things that can be said or written are matters of verifiable truth. More explicit honesty is needed over what is an idea of the writer’s own imagination, and what is an asserted story about the real world of nature.
• With the fast-increasing amount of knowledge, many languages are struggling to keep pace. The way language is used also evolves through changed patterns of human activity. We do not see it as possible for language to be formally and unequivocably correlated with ideas of things in the physical, mental and social spheres. The structures of some of our languages are very different, and it is hard to ensure that the same meaning is offered to readers in all those languages. We will inevitably be very reliant on people who have good multilingual skills. We need to encourage good people to take this role and support them in their work.

• Endorsed international prophet status was agreed for Montanus, who travelled the whole length of the continent, met people in many nations, and who commented reflectively on the differences in life between the nations.

17^th Symposium

Held in Visegrad, Slavonike

• An explosion of scientific experimentation has led to improved theories on most material features of the planet. But the nature of the mind, and of ideas, is still the subject of elaborate literary supposition.
• Astronomy has been rescued from earlier fanciful theories, through observations using telescopes. The theory of gravitation has been proposed to provide a model for planetary movement.
• Reflecting earlier sceptical tendencies, new dramas are emphasizing the increasingly different attitudes of men and women, governors and governed, thinkers and non-thinkers, aggressors and defenders.
• Advanced nations have now expanded the reach of education to most children; this is part of a drive to ‘lift the lowest classes’.
• There has been much development of capital markets, which channel investment into new enterprises exploiting resources in many regions of the planet.
• A trade in slaves has appeared. This is being carried on as a commercial venture, and not as a result of taking captives in a war.

• What is the value of innovation, especially technical innovation? Does it lead to a more fulfilling life with less suffering? Does it lead to an arms race? Or is trade simply driven by the opportunity for personal gain and commercial advantage?
• What roles, skills and training does an arbitrator need?
• What can we do about mass gullibility? People are too easily swayed by demagogues, even after they have acquired more learning. With larger city populations, we are seeing a lot more mob spirit and ‘mass hysteria’.
• Are we entering a period of cultural laziness? Do we resent the person who tries to do a bit better? Do we have greater respect for the doer than the thinker?

• The initial motivation to develop a technical innovation is not necessarily the same as what is done with that innovation after it becomes widely available. Saving human effort may have some value if people are very busy, but if they are not, there is a question about how well they are going to make use of the time they save. Less suffering is a good goal, but it is usually only charities that would use such technology, and they do not often have big budgets. Use of technology in enhancing armaments is tempting for a military regime as well as for national defence, and often gets the highest priority in a nation’s budget. In the end, the developers of the technology may hope for commercial advantage, but have to fight for patents in order to benefit from their intellectual property, which may in fact be contested.
• In recent years, some governments and commercial concerns have looked to religious leaders to arbitrate in disputes, rather than start a war between their lawyers. A donation to the parish is certainly a cheaper option! While some pastors may feel able to act as unbiased arbitrators, others do not. Some may be prepared to undergo training and make themselves available to do arbitration work, but an alternative is to train suitable laymen or women. Clearly an arbitrator is not qualified to determine what is correct in law, but may be able to suggest what is ‘fair’. A key skill may be persistence, in other words being prepared to try again if a first compromise is not accepted. In addition, awareness of many different human characters, much in the style that Christian himself used to adopt, is very valuable.
• Christian said much about demagoguery, and the main solution he proposed was to educate more people to be ‘smarter’ in understanding the tricks that were being attempted. But mob emotion is still difficult to counter. We have talked often about educating leaders; we need to start thinking about educating followers; there can be good or bad ‘followership’.
• Related to the previous topic, the symposium wishes to highlight the fact that people’s ‘expectations’ are a factor in the ‘lens’ through which they determine their meaning from what is said or written. It is clear that many demagogues are deliberately ‘engineering’ their audience or readers’ expectations, in order to exert more pressure on those leaders that they do not agree with.
• Cultural laziness seems present only in those nations whose citizens ‘have it easy’. There is a tendency, when a nation becomes prosperous, for its people to assume that “we have got it right, and others have not”. Some people in such nations resent anyone who appears to be trying harder or showing initiative, since they make the majority look ordinary. They particularly target thinkers. Christian would have described this as an attitude which leads a nation into a ‘dark age’. Certainly, more motivated nations will soon catch up and overtake a culturally lazy nation, and this is something that the lazy nation should be concerned about.
• The symposium was unanimous in its strong condemnation of slave trading.

• International prophets elected were Francis Ham, a philosopher of the new experimental method; and John Key, an advocate of more involvement in government by the governed.

18^th Symposium

Held at Glinka, Russania

• The previous century saw the beginning of the integration into a ‘whole-planet system’ of some regions of the planet where people are still living in primitive conditions.
• Following the discovery of fossils of species not seen in current times, a theory of evolution has been proposed which is based on gradual adaptation of features advantageous to the struggle for survival.
• A major upswelling of emotional thought and nostalgia has led to new developments in art, music and writing that appeal more directly to emotions than previously.
• New theories about the operation of trade and markets, and about the economic management of nations, emerged.
• A group of thinkers developed the first comprehensive encyclopedia, bringing together arts, sciences, religion, wars, and society.
• New and better dictionaries also appeared, both within each language and between languages.
• Some nations experienced revolutions; their regimes were overthrown from below. Sometimes these revolutions were regarded as ‘inevitable’. Many educated people were spooked by this, thinking that the masses would turn against all intellectuals. They feared that books would be burnt, or that universities would be closed. In fact, most of the revolutions led to regimes that displayed greater authoritarianism than the ones they displaced.
• Major changes in most nations’ living environments were beginning to make religious evolution inevitable; better metaphors, which give better explanations, seem to be needed.
• In universities and research centres, the practice of budgeting and organizing research work, with peer review of proposed publications, was started.

• The challenge of scepticism resurfaced – again. Do we have anything new to say?
• The best attempts in language and logic have failed to resolve many philosophical questions. Have we reached the end of what philosophy can offer?
• Dialectic arguments have again re-appeared. Are they any more valuable than we previously thought?
• Should not history, with time, naturally evolve into a less biased story? Does archaeology help? What if we find old scrolls or letters? Can new theories mean revision of history?
• Are politics compatible with the Spirit?
• Should we encourage or discourage the spending of money and time supporting sport and games?

• Regarding scepticism, orthodoxy in thought has become increasingly difficult to maintain as more and more young people are educated. Christian’s injunction that each person must work out his or her own goals and way towards a good life should be reiterated. It is fine to start from a position of scepticism, but each person should aim to move away from it.
• Philosophy is torn between being on the one hand, an intellectual exercise for the few; and on the other, a way of reducing confusion for the many. For the few, the motivation to converge towards useful solutions is not clear; philosophers make their name by saying different things, not by agreeing. For the many, developments in philosophy seem to have added to, rather than reduced, confusion. For daily living, individuals have to accept some common-sense story. It may not matter if this story contains a few flaws. Religions have done better than philosophy at providing such stories.
• Dialectic can be valuable, but we can’t assume that history will always go forward, or that is predictable or inevitable. And there may be more than one – or zero – possible syntheses. It is still as easy to slide downhill as to progress upwards.
• History, it seems, will always carry a strong element of the bias of those who write it, even hundreds of years after the event. We should never hold our breath for an ‘unbiased’ – let alone an ‘objective’ – version. Archaeology, and old scrolls and letters, will probably only force a few statements that are clearly erroneous to be expunged.
• The word ‘politics’ seems to have acquired subtly different meanings, even more than the word ‘meaning’. If it simply means devising and getting support for good policies, then there is no problem of compatibility with the Spirit. However we deplore the sort of politics that means trickery, deceit, or hanging on to power at all costs by making promises that cannot be kept.
• As Christian said, there are many good values related to sport and games, even if they do not have any practical purpose. The main object should always be relaxation and enjoyment. However learning, through team games, of both competition and cooperation , has some educational purpose.
• The idea of a ‘social contract’ between a nation’s subjects and its government was generally endorsed, but compulsion to observe a contract imposed from above was deprecated.
• The symposium wished to comment on the new variant of the golden rule, which is called by some the ‘categorical imperative’. A paraphrase of this is “do as you would if that should be a rule for everyone”. It was felt that while moral and religious convictions are basic urges, the superstructures built up by both organized religion and speculative philosophy are still very frail. No moral overarching rule is perfect. Life is not homogeneous; there are difficult balances and exceptional situations.

• The Francarian writer Arouet and the Germanian philosopher Feierbach were endorsed as the most recent international prophets.

19^th Symposium

Held at Filxtenur, Georgiana

• The sudden surge of automated industrial activity in many nations has caused serious social problems, including a rise in anti-social behaviour.
• Jingoistic nationalism has spread in many areas of the planet that were formerly parts of empires.
• Several national boundaries have been re-aligned on the basis of the languages spoken there.
• A new practice of psychiatry, not entirely scientific, has grown up based on theories about people’s repression of instincts and memories of bad experiences.
• Advanced nations have taken great steps towards universal suffrage, including women. Some of them have removed all unequal laws and barriers to women’s role in society.

• Is it valid to say that religion is failing because there is so much evil, or that it does not have a good explanation for suffering? Should the campaigns for moral revival be supported?
• Should the new practice of psychiatry be condemned or encouraged?
• Is it a good or a bad thing that philosophy seems to be getting squeezed out between religion, science and politics?
• Philosophers still remain split on whether it is better to take an idealist position (“everything is just ideas in the mind”) or a materialist view (“everything is matter, which includes brainwaves”). What does the symposium recommend?
• How can success of a government’s policies be consistently measured in terms of standard of living and happiness? Would not the old Kepoic ideal of ‘pleasure without excess’ lead to economic collapse of societies that have become very much oriented to material things?
• Should capitalism be encouraged or opposed?
• How can commercial enterprises be prevented from skewing the hierarchy of people’s needs too far towards the material aspects, and from therefore downplaying the unsaleable aspects?
• Why is it that many people have become ‘alienated’ in the lives they are living?
• How can a society cope with a vast majority of unthinking masses who work in industry or on the land? Should there be firm control, a simple ‘system’, or should leaders just set an example?
• How do we balance ‘seat of the pants’ or ‘gut feel’ decision making with carefully weighed-up analysis?
• What should be done to mitigate the problem of unequal material progress between different parts of the planet? The more recently-settled countries are doing much better than the old continental states, and even Graecaria is now backward.
• How can technology and learning be better shared? Are some races slower at learning than others? Or is it due to cultural traditions, some of which do not need to value learning?
• Do sport and games have any value for the human spirit?

• Christian’s scriptures do not claim that there is any power that will ease or remove evil, other than whatever we humans can devise to partly mitigate it. We have to accept that the world brings us suffering as well as good times. Attempts have been made to introduce a moral revival in order to reduce evil, but the symposium feels that in most cases these revivals have attempted to impose on their followers arbitrary rules and blanket bans – over and above any nation’s laws – which do not adequately allow for individual circumstances.
• Psychiatry emphasizes the term ‘unconscious’, by which we assume is meant those parts of our mind that we are not consciously aware of, but which may emerge in our dreams or under hypnosis. We accept that this unconscious has much influence over our motivations. It seems that we put much effort into deliberately repressing some of our thoughts, presumably because we don’t want to confront a problem we have. This problem may contradict the conscious view we have of ourselves, or it may affect how we think we are seen by others. If this can be seen as just a form of ‘cleaning up our act’, it does not seem unnatural. However we feel that the theories being advanced are very speculative, and we feel that much more research is needed before the techniques can be widely recommended.
• If philosophy pretends that its purpose is to find definite answers to all the questions of life and its meaning, then we feel that it is inevitable that it will get squeezed out. Christian clearly thought that all knowledge is provisional. But if philosophy can open up new ways of thinking, and help people get over problems of misunderstanding about meaning, it still has a valuable role to play.
• The symposium accepted that either the idealist or materialist view is tenable at the philosophical level, but at the level of everyday life only the materialist view is pragmatic.
• It is better for governments to measure the success of their policies in terms of well-being and happiness, rather than standard of living or material possessions. But measurement is inevitably difficult. Economic indicators should be regarded as something to be steadied, but not grown at all costs.
• Capitalism’s advantage is as a model of human endeavour that accommodates risk, but its danger is in being like a ‘runaway horse’. Governments should ensure that they are holding the reins. A good policy that has been adopted by some governments is to force the total capital ownership of a business to be split between external investors, workers, customers and local authorities, according to certain maximum proportions.
• It seems that commercial enterprises are spending large sums of money in order to hire very effective demagogues to plug their agenda. The symposium recommended two policies to counter this. One is to use antitheticians to create good counter-arguments and to have government orators who can expose what the commercial demagogues are trying to do. The other is to include as part of education the art of recognizing these commercial appeals as ‘tricks’, along the lines of Thorson’s writings, which are mentioned below.
• The idea that people are becoming ‘alienated’ is to some extent a fashionable slogan, but one that has some truth. Everyone has their explanation, usually one that supports their political view. But a major reason would appear to be the submersion of so many people in some sort of large system, in which they feel they are trapped and over which they have little control. This may unfortunately be part of the inevitable complexity of modern life.
• The growing uneducated masses of people constitute a serious problem, not just in newly-industrialized towns and cities in advanced nations, but also in ‘sweat shops’ in less advanced nations where labour is cheap. Experience suggests that it is counter-productive to run a workforce like an army. As people spend much of their working life in their workplace, it ought to be a pleasant and encouraging environment, for the sake of both productivity and human well-being. The symposium recommends the creation of hierarchies of workers’ councils, which meet not just to discuss problems, but also consider positive suggestions for improvements for both the workers and the business. Some businesses have set up competing ‘quality circles’ for this purpose. It is best when these groups have a mix of trades, including clerks and managers, among their members. Outside the workplace, the structure adopted by the Firish neighbourhood centres (‘UDCs’), which provide ‘public spheres’ for citizens in small sectors of cities, seems a good model.
• The balance between deciding by ‘gut feel’ and ‘careful analysis’ depends partly on the timescale; there is usually a deadline, which may come sooner or late. Even if there is plenty of time, if there are too many different decision criteria the analysis may be too difficult, and the decision makers may substitute an easier question. But one problem with ‘gut feel’ is that many such decisions are incorrectly skewed, because low probabilities – either of an unexpected win or of a disaster – tend to get psychologically overrated.
• The reasons why certain nations have lagged behind others in material progress needs to be understood before solutions are attempted. Progress might be held back by primitive customs and religions, endemic bribery, incompetent autocracies, low level of general education or lack of investment. Forced intervention may cause resentment, but leaving the nations isolated is equally unwise. Investment of outside capital in local industry – much like the colonialism that has occurred – may provide temporary relief; but is not desirable in the long term. It is better to start by building up local expertise and competence, as Christian himself did in Germania. We see more problems for nations that were leaders in the past, but have lost their competitive edge; Graecaria, where our religion began, is an unfortunate example.
• Schools, whether for children or adults needing training, should be communities where knowledge and abilities are developed by joint activity, under guidance. They should not be places for memorizing stories and sentences by heart, unless they are drama schools. But one cannot leave it to children to decide what they need; they do not yet have the experience or emotional maturity.
• The symposium felt that there is great value of sport and games, both for participants and followers. For participants the values are exercise for the body or mind, team spirit, an orientation towards clear and simple goals, and acceptance of losing in competition. For followers the value comes from providing topics for casual conversation, a liberating pointless pastime, a source of humour, a source of heroes who are not warriors, and vicarious experience of ups and downs that matter less than in everyday life. For both, there is value in diversion from a person’s ongoing anxieties, and a source of group identity that is less dangerous than tribalism.

• International prophet status was agreed for James Williams, an Acireman pragmatist who proposed a ‘Gospel of Relaxation’; Markus Engelmann, a Germanian who proposed a way of achieving a better share of power for the majority who work rather than invest capital; and Oskar Thorson, a Danian immigrant in Paladakar who wrote about ways to counter dishonest practices in rhetoric and argument.

20^th Symposium

Held at Fisen, Gnosce

• Scientific knowledge and application of technology has raced still further ahead of understanding of societal dynamics and individual psychological needs.
• We have witnessed the exploration of space outside our planet, and a space station has been set up on the inner moon.
• The last two decades have seen the establishment of planet-wide information networks which can link portable and other computing devices.
• There has been a gradual breakdown of tight nationalisms, and a growth of the feeling that we are all citizens of a global village.
• The planet has, for the first time, avoided any significant wars for over a hundred years.
• Most scientists have accepted that we are threatened by potentially catastrophic global environmental degradation, largely due to unchecked population growth.
• There has been a sharp increase in the level of personal autonomy, especially among young people, in all nations. This has led to lower respect for authority, social norms and older family members.
• There appears to be an arms race between the ‘persuaders’ and the newly-educated; the former are still spending heavily to try to influence the latter.
• Academic and research work is being threatened by micro-management, which has led to quantity of research output being valued above quality or applicability.

• Given that science and technology seem all-powerful, what space is left for religion and philosophy?
• How can we reduce the threat of a future ecological crisis?
• How does the communications revolution impact on religion and on human life in general?
• Can civilization flourish without respect for authority?
• Can we, to any extent, counter the growing obsession of many people with possessions and fashions, including that of immediate access to information?
• How can we avoid the excessive influence of multinational organizations that are now more powerful than some nations?
• Should nations, and the whole planet, favour ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘multi-monoculturalism’?
• How can we find inner peace and worthwhile meaning, when we are overrun by ‘noise’ and change? How can we learn to cope better? How can we find good values and quality in the new environments?
• How can we ensure that the most valuable research is encouraged, within affordable budgets?
• How should we view the concept of ‘competitive advantage’?

• Science should always be regarded as a method that leads to a set of potentially falsifiable stories. However our best course is to follow these stories until better ones are proposed. Attempts to apply science to matters on the right hand side of the Pentagon (namely ‘Quality and Aesthetics’, ‘Individual Motivation’ and part of ‘Society and Manageability’) have offered very little so far. We believe that religion, together with parts of philosophy, offers much value that can complement science. For example, religion and philosophy can encourage a revival of interest in individuals’ motivation and provide an ‘initiating spark’ in drives to improve both human psychological welfare and ecological conservation.
• Targets for planet-wide population limits and damage to key resources should be adopted internationally, and commitments to observe these limits sought from all governments and multinational businesses.
• Computers and communication networks greatly increase the number of different sources from which people can get knowledge or opinion. Authorities can no longer expect ordinary people to read only their ‘official’ stories of past events, present situations and forecasts. The information now comes almost instantaneously. The danger is that people will become ‘info-compulsive’, spending too much of their life looking at information, and hence too little time interacting in their societies and living in tune with their physical environments.
• Authority in the past was enforced by physical or material threats, where those in authority wielded power which was enshrined in a nation’s culture. Such a culture was a hangover from feudalism and colonialism, supported in times of war by the need for absolute military authority. This culture is not regarded as acceptable today; but its disappearance does leave a gap. A society still needs people to follow good leadership and advice. This puts an extra burden on authorities to lead by example and to display good qualities and good human-to-human skills. No longer can a leader answer the question “Why should I do it?” by saying “Because I say so”.
• Obsession with material things is to some extent a natural consequence of growing prosperity which has given many people a surplus of resources. The change this brings is analogous to what happened when, because of improved farming, humans did not have to spend all their lives finding food, and so had spare time. We store our spare resources in the form of money, and can then use that money to buy things – including information. This process also helps keep many people employed making the things or providing the services. But becoming obsessive with material goods and fashions brings dangers similar to the ‘info-compulsion’ described above.
• A requirement of a certain minimum percentage of local ownership in each nation’s subsidiary of a multinational company is recommended. The existing drive towards mixed ownership businesses, requiring participation from consumer groups, and labour as well as capital, should be maintained. The breakdown of total capital of a company between individuals, investment trusts, pension funds, banks, insurance etc should be compulsorily published. Nominee ownership or partnership should be phased out.
• The symposium strongly rejects the idea of ‘multi-monoculturalism’, in other words multiple separate cultures, especially within one nation. Christian’s religion allows existing cultures and traditions to continue within the framework of the Spirit of Good, so is itself a form of multiculturalism. We strongly encourage nations to avoid ‘ghettos’ where followers of one culture live and spend most of their time with people of the same culture. The fact that the planet has avoided wars for some time must to some extent be down to the level of tolerance and respect people have for different cultures through meeting them. There are many strands of life in which different cultures can meet, for example health, security, environmental, academic and sports.
• Inner peace is something that is in short supply among the citizens in many nations today. The symposium’s view is that every individual needs to learn to go at a steady pace – like a long-distance runner rather than a sprinter. Having a good and stable personal philosophy, such as Christian’s religion and its best associated cultural traditions offer, helps to give each person a more enduring emotional make-up. This is what some authors have called EQ (‘emotion quotient’), by analogy with IQ (‘intelligence quotient’). We also recommend individuals to have regular exercise, including yoga and other forms of meditation. We must also caution leaders who harass their teams into frantic sprinting; a measured pace would be better at all times except real emergencies. We realize that these leaders may in turn be harassed by their own superiors. In many businesses, an old-style feudal culture still holds. Those at the top of the pyramid need to learn that top-down frantic hassle very rarely gets the best results.
• When managers control universities and research centres, researchers and academics are too often judged only on what accountants can measure, in other words what can be counted. This is a culture that says “if you can’t put a figure on it, it doesn’t have any value”. Nevertheless, most nations cannot expect taxpayers to fund an unlimited budget for academics to do whatever they like. So choices still have to be made.
• Seeking competitive advantage in business is natural, but only as an intermediate goal. If the ultimate goal is to offer more to customers, that is only a good thing. The symposium was more concerned about cases in which the goal is to drive competitors, especially small ones, out of business. Although that might be to the national or global advantage on efficiency grounds, it could also be a disadvantage to ‘fair competition’, choice and employment. Nations should have watchdogs with the power to ensure that the runaway horse of capitalism does not run too far out of control.
• It is now widely recognized that there is unwitting cultural bias in all writing. Both the author of words and the reader who constructs meaning need to be aware of this. There is also concern, in the everyday use of language, about how dependent meaning is on the way certain key terms are defined. Many shifts in meaning have been observed, and there is much re-use of words in contexts different from their original use.
• We would like to close with a warning that sport and popular entertainment, as forms of mass-media culture, can lead to over-admiration and dangerous deification of individuals who are just as frail as the rest of us.

• The 20^th symposium has elected the following to the first rank: Mustafa Khaleeli, for a poetic picture of a prophet saying goodbye to a coastal city in ancient times; Philip Harrison, for a damning analysis of the many violations of aesthetics by the commercial and social urge to appeal to herd emotions; Reginald Lazard, for a contemporary review of what makes our life good; Bronwyn Peach, for a psychotherapist’s view of the role of love in relations between humans; Percy Xeng, for a memoir of his thoughts following a mental crisis, which are very relevant to 20th century material life; Rudi Lloyd, for his insight that religion is primarily about educating our emotions; and Katya Senko, for her ideas on the role of ‘institutions’ and our social ‘background’.

• There are some types of communication that affect us as receivers, such as those which pass by means of chemicals such as pheromones which we do not smell. Do these constitute a sixth sense, or just one of the five senses, in which their impact is simply below the threshold of detection?