11.30.06
Skeptics and the CFI
This new thinktank, The Center For Inquiry is apparently the brainchild of Paul Kurtz from Skeptical Inquiry.
We might all be concerned with the resurgence of fundamentalism, but why is this phenomenon occurring? Surely one aspect of the situation is the hopeless rigidity of the scientific worldview and its inability to produce a viable social psychology of man to define the secularism being driven against traditionalism. It is totally incompetent to even debrief its own Darwinian mythology/ideology/propaganda. Since the intelligentsia has been conditioned into conformity by the super-subtle tactics of publically enforced ideology (a century of Madison Avenue hasn’t helped, these people are experts) the only candidates with some degree of sense on evolution has turned out to be the fundamentalists, and one thing is sure, they can’t handle it either. But the general culture has been so confused by Darwin promotion, and the subtle threats for non-conformity, that they have been eliminated from the task of useful dialectical feedback as narrow positivistic belief systems are being enforced on all branches of knowledge. One might agree that the ID movement is producing confusion. But this is what happens when science is unable to produce its own self-critique.
This is precipitating the failure of modernism. Sit down and look at Newton. I am sure that he never dreamed that science would turn into the narrow reductionist mindset that we now see. (See previous post).
The promotion of science has been taken over by a baffling tide of incompetence that is out of touch with the complexities of human development, of human evolution. It is partly the fault of the educational system that turns our narrowly trained specialists coached to repeat the shibboleths of scientism.
These skeptics rail against the occult, for example. It is an unpromising subject, I admit, but the plain fact of the matter is that science dominated culture hasn’t gotten the matter straight, and is producing a completely closed and ignorant type incapable of grasping the changing environment developing around him, an occult sitting duck falling behind in the cultural shifting of gears. Everyone looks down on Moslems, but Islamic culture has far greater resources in this area than those dominated by scientism.
Let me interject that I applaud the many attempts by these organizations of Skeptics to debunk fraudulent claims of all kinds.
But the mindset behind this is false and unrealistic, and only picks on the most stupid people and activities in this field, using this to generalize across the whole spectrum.
Newton was not so stupid in this regard.
The question of mysticism is highly problematical, for sure, but these blanket denunciations of whole classes of discourse as ‘mysticism’ suddenly turned into a hate word does not grace the reputation of science or its claims of objectivity. These are the same tactics used by Dawkins and Dennett: create an abstraction called ‘religion’ and attack that, as an indicriminate weapon against all forms of religion.
And the basic indication of the problem is the dogmatic and tenacious embrace of Darwinian fundamentalism, the pseudo-foundation for this contracted worldview whose purpose is the social control and domination of culture, and the threat to that culture were its members able to develop their real spiritual/psychological potentials.
We are concerned with the resurgence of fundamentalist religions across the nation, and their alliance with political-ideological movements to block science. We are troubled by the persistence of paranormal and occult beliefs, and by the denial of the findings of scientific research. This retreat into mysticism is reinforced by the emergence in universities of “post-modernism,” which undermines the objectivity of science.
These disturbing trends can be illustrated by the push for intelligent design (a new name for creationism) and the insistence that it be taught along with evolution. Some 37 states have considered legislation to mandate this. This is both troubling and puzzling since the hypotheses and theories of evolution are central to modern science. The recent federal court decision in the Dover, Pa., case has set back, but not defeated, these efforts. Moreover, the resilience of anti-evolution movements is supported not only by religious dogmatism but also by the abysmal public ignorance of basic scientific principles.