Happy Birthday Charlie Darwin! Since everyone in the sciences is marking Darwin's 200th birthday this year I thought I might throw out a few thoughts. As one would expect this anniversary has brought out many comments on the ongoing debate about evolution in the United States. One has to say the United States because we have to turn to Islamic countries like Turkey or Pakistan to find opposition to the Theory of Evolution as vociferous as we have here in the land of the free. By contrast Europeans accept Evolution without much reserve and are dismayed by our seeming ignorance. Scholars say the reason for this is because Europe is more secular and American fundamentalists write off Europeans as a bunch of godless atheists. Such monolithic views are neither accurate nor helpful. While it's true that Europeans have moved away from traditional forms of religiosity, at the same time, according to the European Values Study, they have also increasingly embraced alternative forms of religion and spirituality. This should come as no surprise. Only the most cynical of atheists deny the importance of faith and sacredness in the daily lives of human beings. We all need a sense of meaning and a relationship to something greater than ourselves to guide us through life's travails. However, to be effective, a spiritual belief system has to be congruent with reality. Europeans have accepted the validity of the reality science reveals and found the inflexible traditions and dogma's of their faith unsatisfying. They have simply moved on. This is not a move toward atheism as much as a religious evolution. Yes religions evolve. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the history of Christianity knows that interpretations of the meaning of Jesus have changed over time, in fact since the begining. This also holds true for studies in comparative religions. The real problem in America is a lack of religious maturity. Here in the states we hold on to old ideas like stubborn teenagers who'd rather live in our parents basement rather than face the uncertainties of adult life, even though the possible rewards might be substantial. I think it's a fear of what might be lost, sense of self and community, when in fact we might find better selves and stronger communities if we're willing to change. I was raised Presbyterian but I know very few members of the faith who still accept Calvin's theology as a valid interpretation of the meaning of Christian belief. As Joseph Cambell used to point out, you don't have to leave your tradition to find spiritual truths that are relevant to the time in which you live. The trick is to be flexible and find the spiritual truths within your faith that resonate with what is known about the world and leave the rest behind. Your beliefs can evolve within your tradition as religious beliefs always have. Those that provide guidance that is meaningful in the modern world will survive, others will not. To paraphrase the old saying, you might not believe in Evolution, but Evolution still believes in you and only the fittest will survive.
"One of the things that I think science show us is that the idea that there’s some purpose to the universe is one that we should outgrow. There’s a purpose to each one of our lives, and we can articulate what that purpose is and why we have it; but why humans emerged on earth, why there is a planet earth, why the universe does what it does, we’ve got to outgrow these questions. It is very clear that there is no purpose in that sense. The fact that the sun will expand and consume the entire earth; that the universe might blow apart; that 99 percent of species go extinct and it would be sort of arrogant to say that homosapiens would be the only one that doesn’t; the fact that the earth is one out of presumably thousands, and millions, and billions of planets that could support life – that there’s nothing distinguished about our solar system. All of those realizations say that the idea that we were put here for some purpose is a kind of medieval ignorance and arrogance. ..."
Dr. Steven Pinker
Full transcript here..
http://bigthink.com/ideas/who-are-we-18
Those of you who follow these types of discussions will recognize the strong atheistic arguments of Steven Pinker. Although I find him quite brilliant, and his ideas on human evolution quite compelling, I think some times on theological points his views are a bit myopic. His argument, I think amounts to, that in a universe of vast complexity and potential for life, the human species does not have a unique or special role in some grand design and therefore there is no grand design or purpose to the universe. As far as a unique purpose for humanity, his argument is compelling, and given the type of religiosity he generally opposes, the net result is the same. Undoubtedly most conservative members of the various faiths of Abraham will be duly offended. However to say the universe has no purpose is not the same as saying that humanity is not the final result of a purpose. Pinker concedes that conscious beings such as ourselves can have a purpose as individuals and as a group but he is not willing to extend that same attribute to the universe itself. His argument is based on the assumption that the universe is not self aware. This assumption is hard to support given that we are only beginning to understand consciousness in biological systems, largely due to work like Dr. Pinkers, and we have by no means ruled out consciousness in non-biological systems. In fact our best theories of consciousness point to it being a natural byproduct of highly complex interactive systems. There is of course no more complex interactive system than the universe itself. We judge other beings self awareness by deducing from their behavior a purpose that lies behind their actions. The faithful have long looked at nature and seen patterns that implied a purpose and therefore tried to deduce the mind of the divine. Science has long tried to use natural explanations, such as the Anthropic Principle, to remove mind from the equation. In the end, if the Universe(or God if you prefer) has a purpose, it may not be inclined to inform me or Steven Pinker what it is. Only it can know for sure.
When my wife left her job due to health reasons two years ago we made some major changes to our lifestyle. First we moved to the country on to a piece of land that my Father gave to me for the price of paying off the note, about a fifth of it's value. We cashed in our savings and payed off our mortgages and moved into a small cabin. We now live off a modest income from renting our old home and the small amounts my part time efforts bring in. We live on a fourth of what we used to. Our time these days is spent raising sheep, growing vegetables and working on our ongoing improvements to the property. We don't use credit cards, we don't go out to eat like we used to, we don't hire service folks much as I take care of most of the repairs, and we don't shop for things we don't need. We prepare and raise our own food. We get lots of exercise and full nights of sleep. We read more books. We get entertainment value watching new born animals play and watch a lot less TV. We're both thinner, healthier, and happier and we don't own an Ipod. In short we're gradually unplugging ourselves from the consumer culture. And the funny thing is, I don't miss it.
I notice the change in myself most at this time of year. When I go to the big box stores what used to be "must haves" look like superfluous junk and clutter. All the new electronics don't have any pull at all, I'll get a new TV when the old one dies, and I certainly don't need two. Why rush for that christmas DVD release and plunk down twenty dollars when next year I'll get it at a garage sale for $1. I can wait. I've become immune to the urgency that mass marketing instills in people. I've become immune to the advertisers siren song telling me I'm a failure as a human being if I don't have a new SUV like my neighbor. The value of a vehicle drops by half in the first year, buying a new car is insane. I buy used trucks without power widows and gadgets(just more stuff to break down) and drive them into the ground. A car is something that performs a function but it shouldn't be part of your identity. But that is the only identity most people have. They have nothing in their lives that identifies them as a unique human being other than their spending profile stored in a merchants computer database. The counter argument of course is consumerism keeps the economy growing and keeps people employed. Well at the rate that automation is progressing those jobs won't be around for long. In the near future machines will take care of most material production and soon most information jobs as well. These days most telemarketing calls and customer service are automated. Online shopping is largely automated and soon the shipping warehouse will be too. Eventually we'll be giving people unnecessary jobs just to keep them busy and keep the system going( I would argue that to some extent this is already true). In addition our current system wastes huge amounts of energy, material, and time(rush hour comes to mind) and it is rapidly degrading our environment. It can't go on forever. It's instructive to remember that money and economies are a human invention, and an ancient one at that. How many 6000 year old techniques for civilization do we still use? Clay tablets? no. Hamurabbis code? no. God incarnated rulers? no. Slaves? no. God forbid if we still used ships with oars. It's time to start moving to new more mature idea of civilization or risk the collapse of the one we have. It's time put consumerism in the dust bin of history. We'll all live a lot longer.
