Ah-HA!
I think she's GOT IT! By Jove, I think she's got it! The rain in Spain . . .
Eureka! Peak experiences!
As in all art, the concentration of the intellect somehow gets "processed"
by our inner resources, and "breaks through" back into the conscious after a
period of gestation and there is a birth of insight. Burning bushes and
other hallucinations aside, just about all scientific discovery is thus
produced.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane Shevtsov" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Science and Religion Dogmatic conflict?
I think it's a mistake to reduce religion to
anthropomorphism/explanations and morality/politics. There is a
crucial third element -- the human capacity for spiritual (meditative,
oceanic, transcendent, pick your favorite adjective) experiences.
These experiences are now being studied by psychologists and
neuroscientists (look up "neurotheology") and are often connected to
experiences in nature.
My hypothesis about the origins of such experiences is partially
inspired by a passage from E.O. Wilson's book _Biophilia_. "In a twist
my mind came free and I was aware of the hard workings of the natural
world beyond the periphery of ordinary attention, where passions lose
their meaning and history is in another dimension, without people, and
great events pass without record or judgment. I was a transient of no
consequence in this familiar yet deeply alien world that I had come to
love. The uncounted products of evolution were gathered there for
purposes having nothing to do with me; their long Cenozoic history was
enciphered into a genetic code I could not understand. The effect was
strangely calming. Breathing and heartbeat diminished, concentration
intensified. It seemed to me that something extraordinary in the
forest was very close to where I stood, moving to the surface and
discovery. ... I willed animals to materialize and they came
erratically into view."
What does this passage, which describes an experience I suspect most
members of this list have had, most resemble? It sounds a lot like how
practitioners of some types of meditation describe their experience.
But what is this "naturalist's trance" good for, other than science?
Hunting, gathering and looking out for predators! Maybe, just maybe,
this was our ancestors' normal state of consciousness and maybe
various religious and spiritual practices arose as a way of
recapturing this state as, for biological and social reasons, our
minds changed.
This is, of course, a guess, but what do you folks think?
Jane Shevtsov
On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:14 AM, William Silvert <[email protected]>
wrote:
Another consideration, given that James has brought William of Occam into
this, is that a comprehensive scientific overview of the issue would
involve
paying some attention to the question of where religion comes from. If
there
were no reasonable alternative explanation, then the idea of gods making
themselves known to people might be the only option.
There are however plausible explanations for the development of religion
that make sense to an atheist. Since we tend to see the world in
anthropomorphic terms (even contemporary scientists speak of furious
storms
and treacherous riptides), no doubt early man associated natural
phenomena
with human-like gods or spirits. There were no doubt individuals who
claimed
that they understood these spirits and became shamans and priests.
Eventually the priesthood hooked up with the politicians in the powerful
symbiosis that has existed throughout recorded history - priests maintain
the state religion and kings rule by divine right. Priests and ministers
accompanied colonialists to ensure that the minds of those conquered were
enslaved as well as their bodies.
So there is an alternative explanation that covers most religions, and I
think that should be an important part of scientific thinking about the
relation between science and religion.
Bill Silvert
--
-------------
Jane Shevtsov
Ecology Ph.D. candidate, University of Georgia
co-founder, <www.worldbeyondborders.org>
Check out my blog, <http://perceivingwholes.blogspot.com>Perceiving Wholes
"The whole person must have both the humility to nurture the
Earth and the pride to go to Mars." --Wyn Wachhorst, The Dream
of Spaceflight
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