History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
Archaic Greece: The Clue
All the confused nonsense laid over the Axial phase of Old Testament history has created a mess that makes no sense.
Studying the parallel Greek instance shows what was really involved, and also that secularism was born with all the force of a ‘revelation’.
…The Axial Age
Secularists are confusing the passing of Axial religions with the end of religion. I hope the modern world is the end of bad religion! But the issue of religion is destined to thrive in the modern world as long as they are not cults, but simply point to the potential of man in his real evolution. In fact secular culture doesn’t need new religions so much as their essence: the humand development of self-consciousness.
I meant to post this at The Gurdjieff Con, but it is relevant here. Few see the strange connection of the new atheism to the original Rajneesh discourses on Christianity. Few people have been the object of so much propaganda as Rajneesh, probably because he created a new religion for a new age (even as he exposed all religions, including his own).
.A New Year’s Resolution for the Rich
It is important to do more than wring hands: liberals need to see through the support given to social darwinist economics by their embrace of Darwinism.
Fine sentiments wring hollow short of that.
What Triggers Mass Extinctions? Study Shows How Invasive Species Stop New Life
ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2010) — An influx of invasive species can stop the dominant natural process of new species formation and trigger mass extinction events, according to research results published December 29 in the journal PLoS ONE. The study of the collapse of Earth’s marine life 378 to 375 million years ago suggests that the planet’s current ecosystems, which are struggling with biodiversity loss, could meet a similar fate.
Was Israel the Birthplace of Modern Humans?ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2010) — It has long been believed that modern humans emerged from the continent of Africa 200,000 years ago. Now Tel Aviv University archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Homo sapiens roamed the land now called Israel as early as 400,000 years ago — the earliest evidence for the existence of modern humans anywhere in the world.
What Makes a Face Look Alive? Study Says It’s in the EyesScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2010) — The face of a doll is clearly not human; the face of a human clearly is. Telling the difference allows us to pay attention to faces that belong to living things, which are capable of interacting with us. But where is the line at which a face appears to be alive?
Your Genome in Minutes: New Technology Could Slash Sequencing Time
ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2010) — Scientists from Imperial College London are developing technology that could ultimately sequence a person’s genome in mere minutes, at a fraction of the cost of current commercial techniques.
Published on Friday, December 31, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Research Links Rise in Falluja Birth Defects and Cancers to US Assault
• Defects in newborns 11 times higher than normal • ‘War contaminants’ from 2004 attack could be cause
by Martin Chulov
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/31
A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.
mxmail
NY Times December 30, 2010
Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code
By SEWELL CHAN
WASHINGTON ? When the Stanford business professor Darrell Duffie co-wrote
a book on how to overhaul Wall Street regulations, he did not mention that
he sits on the board of Moody?s, the credit rating agency. Read the rest of this entry »
Danny Schechter: Media Hit Job of the Year: Punishing Helen Thomas For Criticizing Israel
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3776?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=24
Paul Buchheit: Middle Class and Mad in the USA
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3775?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=22
Ted Morgan: 2010: The Big Con Continues
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3774?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=20
7 Billion… and Counting
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3772?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=16
Power Politics in the Pacific: Will China Challenge US Dominance of the Seas?
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3767?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=6
Jayati Ghosh: ‘The Next Financial Crisis is Not Far Off’
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3766?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=4
Many Arab Officials Have Close CIA Links: Assange
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3765?akid=326.96588.xxNU4N&t=2
RG mail
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/06/world/la-fg-mexico-cartel-rule-20101106
Los Angeles Times
November 06, 2010
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE Caught behind enemy lines
Reynosa, on the Texas border, is
a city under the control of cartels. Traffickers brazenly patrol its
streets, setting up roadblocks, harassing citizens, gunning down enemies and
even censoring the news. Those who can flee have. Others find ways to cope.
By Tracy Wilkinson
RG mail
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6001
The Real News
December 26, 2010
*World Tired of Paying Bill for US Military** Michael Hudson: Major
countries looking for alternatives to US dollar
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L4FxMFsTEA
RG mail
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/28/105892/aid-groups-in-afghanistan-question.html
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Dec. 28, 2010 Aid groups in Afghanistan question U.S. claim of Taliban
setbacks Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers
KABUL, Afghanistan — Citing evidence that Taliban insurgents have expanded
their reach across Afghanistan, aid groups and security analysts in the
country are challenging as misleading the Obama administration’s recent
claim that insurgents now control less territory than they did a year ago.
RG mail
Democratic lawmaker: Citizens United puts US on path to fascism
By Daniel Tencer Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 — 9:56 pm
The US Supreme Court’s striking down of nearly a century’s worth of
campaign finance laws means the US government can now be “bought” and
the country may be headed for fascism, says an outgoing Democratic House
representative. Read the rest of this entry »
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Catching Video Pirates: Invisible DNA-Like Fingerprint on Video Assist Law Enforcement
ScienceDaily (Dec. 30, 2010) — You know when you’re watching a pirated film downloaded from the Internet — there’s no mistaking the fuzzy footage, or the guy in the front row getting up for popcorn. Despite the poor quality, pirated video is a serious problem around the world. Criminal copyright infringement occurs on a massive scale over the Internet, costing the film industry — and the U.S. economy — billions of dollars annually.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
The Goldilocks Enigma
One of ironies of the Darwin debate is that physicists have stumbled on the right key to evolution, but refuse to acknowledge, due to the theological implications (which are actually not there)>
Paul Davies in The Goldilocks Enigma asks, Why does the universe seem so well-suited to life? Is this not really the answer to its own question: the transition from Big History to Universal History is effected by this ‘fine-tuning’ emerging in the Big Bang itself. Physics itself, although physicists are reluctant to admit it, gives us a hint of the mechanism beyond natural selection. This insight has been confused by metaphysical design arguments. But the empirical basis for a consideration of evolutionary directionality, beyond random evolution, is there
Conflict Theories: Incredulity Toward ‘Infranarratives’
The bogus association of Darwinism and conflict, thence conflict theories, is one of the biggest and most dangerous frauds perpetrated by scientism.
It is not true that competition and conflict drive evolution.
The Metaphysics Of Evolution
The attempt by Dawkins to foundationalize atheism with Darwinism has to be the biggest metaphysical mistake in the history of science. Even a rudimentary acquaintance with a ‘critique of reason’ might have spared us the massive confusion his ignorance has created.
The need for a ‘science of metaphysics’ is the first step to a ‘science of history and/or evolution’. But it is just this requirement that proves the stumbling block. In a classic work, Visions of a Ghostseer, and then in his great critiques, Kant isolated the three great issues of the metaphysical tradition destined to get into trouble on the way to a ‘science of metaphysics’: that of divinity, followed by those of soul and free will. To these we should add the question of teleology, and note the way Kant considered teleology within the bounds of methodological naturalism, albeit ambiguously. The questions of divinity, soul, and free will demand proofs of existence, and Kant exposed the way that the road to these three proofs is beset with contradictions. They are metaphysical because they stand beyond the empirical.
Decline and Fall
The legacy of Toynbee and Spengler is a confusing one: the issue of the rise and decline of civilizations is not analyzed rightly by either one. The dynamics is really that of the eonic effect and series, the decline of the Roman Empire being something related to the interval between the transitions in the eonic sequence.
http://darwiniana.com/2010/12/28/repost-history-vs-markets/comment-page-1/#comment-355524
Richard said,
December 30, 2010 at 12:54 am · Ha Joon Chang’s “23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism:”
http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Dont-About-Capitalism/dp/1608191664
Looks good, I just preordered it.
I also just go the book on the history of Tantra you mentioned, will study…
http://darwiniana.com/2006/02/06/nietzsche-genius-or-second-rate/comment-page-1/#comment-355523
The problem with Nietzsche is that he failed to understand the tradition he ended up destroying, from Kant to Schopenhauer. Nietzsche couldn’t grasp transcendental idealism and used the usual play to the gallery of reducing Schopenhauer to a naturalistic dementai based on the will to power. That was very destructive and highly decadent.