06.15.10
Posted in Comment at 11:59 am by nemo
Comment on Pantheism
Stephen said,
June 15, 2010 at 10:42 am ·
All laws are two-sided, even the 2nd law. What holds two-sided laws together is a middle-term that is strangely felt. Otherwise, comprehensible laws would remain incomprehensible, as Einstein sensed. Therefore, feeling transcends law, finding agreement with natural law while making new law. Therefore, Panentheism is more on the mark than a Pantheism that is found hung-up on law with little to reconnect with feeling.
And to the skewered, it was noted that Chaper 12 was important here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R27Q9V8NZN8CF8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Amit Goswami`s “Creative Evolition” and “God is not Dead” deserve close reads, at least I find myself agreeing more with Goswami. Here again are my reviews of his books:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R38PMOI3MBZ7X6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29GOXZ6JRNT8Y/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
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Posted in Comment at 11:54 am by nemo
Stuart Kauffman comments on Pantheism
This is the to be skewered Stuart Kauffman of Reinventing the Sacred: 1) If you are going to skewer me, do so by argument not by innuendo. 2) If you actually bother to read the book, you will find in Chapter 12 a serious, if scientifically improbable, but no longer impossible, hypothesis that the mind-brain system is quantum coherent, decoheres to classicity (for all practical purposes) the recoheres to quantum and can recycle in this way many times. Very recent physics supports this as does chlorophyll’s behavior. If this is true, mind can “act” on matter acausally by decoherence, possibly answering a question since Descartes. More recently I have struggled with a responsible free will, on line
at http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7 . Don’t criticize until you understand the make your points clearly.
I think we have been relatively fair here: Kauffman was cited en passant, as relevant to a discussion of Spinoza. That Kauffman’s views are more complex seems par for the course. The points on decoherence are fascinating.
In a comment to this comment, Kauffman was invited to post an essay on this here.
Note: Kauffman wants us to be fair. We have commented several times here on the way that he attacks Kantian morality in his book. He has alienated us completely here, after being fans of his self-org ideas.
Given his prestige, he virtually destroyed Kant studies for young scientists in a kind of sophmoric attack on the categorical imperative. I am not a Kantian or a defender of his ethical constructs, but that classic discourse, whatever its problems, gives us one clue The problems with the categorical imperative are well-known, but the overall question of Kantian ethics,and ethics in general is very profound in Kant. A proper critique was needed from Kauffman.
Kantian ethics suggests the need to understand what he calls ‘common ordinary morality’, which he tries to explicate, before concocting bad Darwinian theories of such. Explaining what morality is is beyond biologists, even as they create toxic theory junk on the evolution of ethics.
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Posted in Booknotes, Comment at 11:51 am by nemo
Comment on Ridley book review post:
Those interested in Ridley’s very good book might also wish to know about my own book, THE CASE FOR RATIONAL OPTIMISM (Transaction Books, Rutgers University, 2009), which makes quite similar points and arguments, but develops the case for optimism over a rather broader range of subject areas. See http://www.fsrcoin.com/k.htm
Those interested in Ridley’s very good book might also wish to know about my own book, THE CASE FOR RATIONAL OPTIMISM (Transaction Books, Rutgers University, 2009), which makes quite similar points and arguments, but develops the case for optimism over a rather broader range of subject areas. See http://www.fsrcoin.com/k.htm
Frank S. Robinson
http://www.rationaloptimist.wordpress.com
1
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Posted in Comment at 11:49 am by nemo
Comment from Stephen Smith on Pantheism: panentheism
Panentheism provides a good alternative to Pantheism, and finds agreement with trinitarian philosophy and vitalism. Here is a good resource:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panentheism/?yguid=93132757
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11.06.09
Posted in Comment, Science at 6:39 pm by nemo
Comment on Is Science Just A New Religion
James said,
November 6, 2009 at 6:04 pm ·
The issue is not “science vs. religion” or “faith vs. reason” but intellectual imperialism. You would have to be extremely stupid and/or brainwashed to not realize that this is a huge problem with Big Science. It is an undesirable human trait, and few, if any, groups in human history have ever been able to transcend it. The problem can be seen in the hilariously knee-jerk dismissals of anything that is vaguely associated with “religion” by modern scientistic atheists. They’re as brainwashed as any fundamentalist Christian.
At any rate, isn’t it amazing that the mainstream debate here hasn’t produced one first rate intellect among any of the parties? It’s just the same canned, mass produced ideas repeated over and over again. Read a little Kant and Schopenhauer (or even a little Bennett) and you realize the insignificance of the debate.
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08.28.09
Posted in Comment at 2:04 pm by nemo
Comment on Confusions of Secularism
James said,
August 28, 2009 at 9:25 am ·“I identify secularism as a public philosophy of community life without God. Religion becomes private. This secularism accompanies the theory of secularization which holds that human beings are actively outgrowing religion.”
Uh oh, that is a bad thing. You should try to gather an army so you can restart the Thirty Years War. I’m sure you can find many willing volunteers in the Bible Belt.
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08.08.09
Posted in Comment, Evolution, microevolution at 4:26 pm by nemo
Zimmer comments on GW and (micro)evolution:
Carl Zimmer said,
August 7, 2009 at 10:30 pm
The scientists I spoke to for this story are all evolutionary biologists. They work in departments of evolutionary biology. There is not some other department of “evolution proper” across campus. This is a story about evolution. That’s not me being rigid. That’s just me stating the obvious.
I should hope there is a distinction between ‘evolutionary biologists’ in general and ‘Darwinist evolutionary biologists’ in particular.
The distinction of micro and macroevolution is not popular with Darwinists, but it is essential to distinguish different aspects of the overall ‘evolutionary’ situation, or situations.
I was simply pointing out that massive extinction events have no intrinsic connection to evolution, and should be cast as microevolution.
The inability of Darwinists to make this distinction is peculiar, but not surprising given the nature of the theory they espouse.
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07.27.09
Posted in Comment, The Eonic Effect at 6:37 pm by nemo
Comment on With Darwinists, the only safe stance is paranoia
James said,
July 27, 2009 at 4:55 pm
“It seems that the fate of Darwinists (and I hope not secularists) is to fall into a crystallized belief system.”
I think the Darwinian worldview has too much momentum among the intelligentsia to lose at this point. The war with the ID movement has actually given it a steroids injection and established it as the rallying cry among college educated urbanites for the ideals of modernity (no surprise that Robert Wright and David Sloan Wilson are posting at Huffpost).
It is hard to say, hard to assess this situation.
I think that the whole game must fail in the end, and sooner rather than later. It is one thing to be a darwinist, another to claim for oneself the ‘ideal of modernity’. You can’t fight the bible belt forever, if you have to lie about it, or dissemble on Darwinism.
Those ideals (as reflected, btw, in the beautiful pattern of the eonic effect) are something far broader than Darwinism.
By restricting thought to Darwian assumptions the connection to the ‘ideals of modernity’ is destroyed. People will have to ask finally, where did we go wrong.
Still, you may be right.
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06.24.09
Posted in Comment at 3:23 pm by nemo
Comments on Wright Review post
James said,
June 24, 2009 at 2:50 pm ·
“But aren’t Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism actually more open to the idea that other religions can also be the path to truth and salvation? ”
That’s laughable. Clearly, these two idiots are unaware of the long history of friction between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. The supposed “tolerance” and “pluralism” of Hinduism is really a tactic to absorb attacks against the religion: why else would they construct a story about the Buddha being an avatar of Vishnu who deliberately preached a false doctrine to the enemies of Hinduism in an effort to destroy them? It strikes me as a bit absurd to project the New Agey eclectic “Eastern” religions that developed in the 20th century on the earlier periods.
James said,
June 24, 2009 at 3:01 pm ·
…and that doesn’t even get into the rivalries between Buddhists, Jains, Samkhyans, etc. in the Axial period.
Wright’s book focussed on the evolution of God, when the important question is the larger evolution of religion. You can’t just add on some electic comments on Buddhism later.
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06.14.09
Posted in Comment at 1:42 pm by nemo
Comment on Whitewashing Darwinism
Stephen P. Smith said,
June 13, 2009 at 8:06 pm ·
Here is more on this:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100882
Steve (Hucklebird), this link is from ‘Wing Nut Daily’, a highly dubious source for anything.
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06.12.09
Posted in Comment at 2:29 pm by nemo
Comment on Liberal humanists, the tragic
James said,
June 11, 2009 at 1:33 pm ·
“Christianity was never meant to be an explanation of anything in the first place.”
I have to wonder whether Eagleton is even sane with a quote like this.
Eagleton shows all the signs of being self-undermined by the contradictions of postmodernism (although he has written a critique of PM).
PM was often a stealth religious reaction to modernity, btw: if you look at Toynbee, one of the first to use the phrase, it is clear.
It seems inevitable that these postmods should be sucked into the undertow of religious antimodernism.
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06.09.09
Posted in Comment at 1:35 pm by nemo
Comment on Rising Above IQ
The comment below is of interest, and useful, but caution is always required in this field. Thus I can’t as such endorse this comment.
Read the rest of this entry »
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05.25.09
Posted in Comment at 3:50 pm by nemo
Comment of Religion within the Limits of Reason
James said,
May 25, 2009 at 2:13 pm ·
I don’t think the goal of either side is to support human autonomy (despite the animosity that these two sides have for one another, they really represent two sides of a single coin). One side wants us to believe that we are mechanistic robots and the other side wants us to believe that morality is only possible with the belief in some divine law giver. Either way, their prescriptions for action represent the antithesis of human autonomy.
Absolutely right, and the Kantian reference of course indicates this, since his critiques point to the critique of scientism as much as that of religion.
Kant’s Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone is a book I shouldn’t refer to, in a way, since anyone who reads it gets the wrong impression. It is a stronge work.
You can take it as an idea in the title that we have to recreate for ourselves. The point is that religious ideas can be studied without faithmongering in the secular sphere (religion within the limits of reason, etc, ).
Kant was a severe critic of religions, but once he had demolished them, he considered it important to maintain a study of the issues they carried with them.
Sounds simple, but it is totally absent in secular scientism, whose attitude is almost hysterical ‘don’t touch me’ at the mere thought of religious ideas.
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05.20.09
Posted in Comment at 12:24 pm by nemo
Comment on Weikart post
James said,
May 20, 2009 at 10:58 am ·
“Clearly the Darwin establishment is afraid of people reading this book, not because it has much about Hitler, but because it shows how so many intellectuals and academics were rank eugenicists and social Darwinists.”
I wouldn’t use the past tense here. My hunch is that these types are a dime a dozen in the scientific and academic community, but most of them are afraid to pull a James Watson.
Right on, and the public needs to be warned that they have been subjected to a hardsell, and that scientists are abusing science claims to press an agenda.
Meanwhile, the danger of eugenic catastrophe lurks forever in Darwinism, waitiing for the moment of social disruption for its mass-murderers to come to the fore (sound familiar?).
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04.29.09
Posted in Comment at 3:07 pm by nemo
Comment on Microevolution and Swine Flu
Bo Thompson said,
April 28, 2009 at 4:16 pm · \
In 1918:
In large U.S cities, more than 10,000 deaths per week were attributed to the virus. It is estimated that as many as 50% of the population was infected, and ~1% died. To compare, in “normal” (interpandemic) years, it is estimated that between 10-20% of the population is infected, with a .008% mortality.
Read the rest of this entry »
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04.24.09
Posted in Comment at 2:30 pm by nemo
Comment on Overpopulation
Pete Murphy said,
April 24, 2009 at 6:58 am · The biggest obstacle we face in changing attitudes toward overpopulation is economists. Since the field of economics was branded “the dismal science” after Malthus’ theory, economists have been adamant that they would never again consider the subject of overpopulation and continue to insist that man is ingenious enough to overcome any obstacle to further growth. This is why world leaders continue to ignore population growth in the face of mounting challenges like peak oil, global warming and a whole host of other environmental and resource issues. They believe we’ll always find technological solutions that allow more growth.
But because they are blind to population growth, there’s one obstacle they haven’t considered: the finiteness of space available on earth. The very act of using space more efficiently creates a problem for which there is no solution: it inevitably begins to drive down per capita consumption and, consequently, per capita employment, leading to rising unemployment and poverty.
If you‘re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, then I invite you to visit either of my web sites at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com or PeteMurphy.wordpress.com where you can read the preface, join in the blog discussion and, of course, buy the book if you like.
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph, but I don’t know how else to inject this new theory into the debate about overpopulation without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
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04.22.09
Posted in Comment, General at 5:41 pm by nemo
Comment on Nietzschean logic
Stephen P. Smith said,
April 21, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Deductive logic is all about “conclusions logically compelled by their premises.” However, human logic is not contained by deductive thinking. There is also induction which grounds said premises. Moreover, there must also be a way to resolve deduction with its induction. C.S. Peirce also included abduction, which has to do with forming hypotheses, and there was for Peirce no mention of “bleak conclusions.” What Peirce gave us were the apparent three-worlds (deduction, induction and abduction), which he then described as a “neglected proof for the existence of God.”
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04.21.09
Posted in Comment at 3:19 pm by nemo
Comment on Obama
Obama was exposed well before the election in terms of is basic orientation and Washington connection, but I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn’t the person people thought. But then so what? The liberal world is so crippled that a cagey balancing act was needed, one that Obama seemed able to bring off.
He is a bit of an enigma, and it is probably hard to see where he is coming from. In any case, he is hitting the stone wall of the reactionaries, so we will see.
James said,
April 21, 2009 at 2:02 pm ·
Granted, the Bush era was horrible, but this Obama worship is getting a bit tiresome. I was in DC last week and I couldn’t help but notice how the city has been turned into a temple for cultic worship. Who gives a f*ck what kind of dog he is getting? Americans need to stop falling for empty slogans and polished images to discern whether their leaders possess any semblance of political substance.
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03.01.09
Posted in Booknotes, Comment at 3:21 pm by nemo
Smith comments again on More on ‘end of history’,, with a link:
Also, my review of B. Alan Wallace’s “Embracing Mind” is worth study if it is our hope to transform scientists and move them away from scientism:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1BGH92LKQ53DB/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Smith also recommends:
See my review of Skrbina’s “Panpsychism in the West” for more about this “will” that science must face and that scientism can’t name:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G04N7OB2VD8B/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
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