The rejection of science, mathematics, philosophy, literature, and the Ancient Greek and Roman contributions to western thought in favor of a despotic and supernaturally-based Stone Age social order, is wrecking the progress the United States has made in improving the daily lives of human beings.
The essays in this book are the result of thought experiments from the point of view of a non-religious woman thinker. Thousands of years of accumulated cultural experience cloud our picture of what early humans were like. What we assume to be inevitable behavior in our species has been formulated after the fact by modern people, and from a persistent supernatural view of the origin of our world. A misunderstanding of cause and effect prevents a rational discussion of human behavior; the effect (who we are now) does not indicate design, purpose, or direction toward an inevitable outcome for our species. The purpose of early humans was not to become modern humans. Their task was to survive, and survival meant adapting to the specific environments they inhabited.
Physically we may be identical to our ancestors, who lived 200,000 years ago, but the human brain can be used in many ways, and the adaptability of early humans arose from practical invention, not from abstract intellectual theories. Now as then, most of the brain’s activity is not under our control. The function of the brain is to operate the body and to make sense of the environment; today, information about our world is provided by images and spoken and written language floods our brains moment to moment, but this is a recent addition to our social environment, and was unknown to our ancestors.
We think of human language as being exclusively verbal, but it is clear that we possess at least two languages of thought: magical and mathematical-rational. These languages of thought show evidence of being discrete; the products (ideas) are distinct and contradictory. A mathematician or scientist will use abstract thinking in his or her work, but then declare belief in a supernatural dimension populated by magical beings, who routinely overthrow the laws of nature. These are world views that exist in opposition: they cannot both be true. The rational products of science and technology are routinely taken over and used by magical thinkers to destroy nature, at the expense of people, animals, cities, land, water and atmosphere, all in the name of religion.
The supernatural and rational functions may not be equally active in an individual: some people are so dominated by magical thinking that no amount of observation, demonstration or proof will lead them to accept natural conditions as the source of explanation for phenomena. This magical or supernatural focus is the default mode of human thinking and can be found in humans worldwide. It predates rational thinking, which is a relatively new function; rational thinking must be activated and cultivated through education.
Magical thinking is thought by child development specialists to be active briefly in childhood, and then to disappear in favor of rational thinking; human development is described as a ladder or concept of levels – this scheme is artificial and misleading. Magical thinking is not only present, but dominant in most adults in the United States, who rely on magic as the explanation for physical reality. This mistake is responsible for poor outcomes in personal lives and public decisions.
Do these two languages pre-exist in the brain as products of evolution? Do they represent continuity with the languages of other species? Mathematics is the language of physical reality: mathematical relationships are intrinsic to nature and basic to understanding the substance and organization of both living and nonliving matter, energy systems, and the history of the universe. Mathematics is essential to the culture we have created, and yet it’s descriptions of reality are alien to man’s original view of his universe.
It is the fate of a rational thinker to be vastly outnumbered by people for whom the default state of mind is irrational; magical thinking is fundamental to being human, but the failure to initiate and cultivate the rational function is manmade. The rejection of science, mathematics, philosophy, literature, and the Ancient Greek and Roman contributions to western thought in favor of a despotic and supernaturally-based Stone Age social order, is wrecking the progress the United States has made in improving the daily lives of human beings.
Showing posts with label Greek science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek science. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Despite magical attributions, the I Ching may be the only math-based ritual mythology for understanding our position in the universe. Hexagrams are constructed by chance, but order is the result. The mathmatics of the I Ching, plus a multitude of dubious interpretations, can be found in books and on the Internet.
Origin myths
Among the basic questions raised by human beings is that of origins. How did people come to exist? How was the earth created? What about the sun, moon, and the stars? Why do people die? No human society lacks answers to such questions. While the answers vary in detail, they are similar: people and the world exist because they were brought into being by a series of creative acts. Creation is usually regarded as the work of supernatural beings who command earthly forces and seasonal changes, the movements of heavenly bodies, as well as procreation. The accounts of the ways in which supernatural agents formed the earth and populated it are known as origin myths. For Christians, Oriental (Middle Eastern) myth as collected in the book of "Genesis" is the first and last explanation for creation, but this source is alien to European cultures and an inadequate text for modern life.
Until the invention of scientific inquiry, origin myths were the only answer to big questions: these stories continue to influence religion, literature, politics, national identities, subcultures, and individuals. In the United States, belief in the literal truth of Biblical myth obstructs non-religious activity, from scientific research to medical procedures, to social programs and liberal education. Learning to read is not a religious or political act, nor is studying biology, but real world education is under attack by people whose ideas are limited to archaic beliefs about the environment and human potential.
Nature's original form: a screw-shaped Bryozoan. Archimedes Screw: a device based on the mathmatical description of the natural form, repurposed to lift water. A simple but brilliant step taken by an individual - Archimedes - in understanding how the world works.
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world." Archimedes, ca. 287-212 BCE
We should not forget that during the first millennium BCE, when the ancient world was engulfed by supernatural belief, magic, and fear, a handful of Greeks began the process of demythologizing nature; this was truly a radical departure in how human beings use the brain.
A profound shift in awareness is marked by the ability of Archimedes to project his mind into empty space: to imagine the earth as a spherical body suspended in the void, and to realize that in space there is no solid spot on which to stand. A flat, man-centered universe was suddenly expanded into a three-dimensional model of objects that are related mathematically. For many Americans living 2300 years later, this remains unknown and forbidden knowledge.
The intellectual tradition of the Western world begins with Greek philosophy, and not with the Biblical condemnation of man as a disobedient child who must be controlled by a despotic parent. The relationship between the Ancient Greek and his environment was based on reason and proportion. Man is seen as capable of self-examination and self-correction, and he can improve his behavior by developing his mind and culture. The gods, although arrogant with power, were not exempt from nature's laws.
This staggering revolution in thought began in Greece. Why there and then? Greeks lived in small city-states where debate was accepted and rational thought was viewed as a tool, one that was as valuable as any axe or sword. In stark contrast to the Oriental picture of man as a degraded being who lives in terror and never gets off his knees, the individual was developed as a powerful new idea: the Greek hero died to restore balance to his world, and a single man could improve mankind by trusting in his ability to develop his mind through learning. In stark contrast, the Christian idea of salvation is passive: a supernatural being removes man from physical reality and transports him to a nonexistent dimension, and in the process exempts him from responsibility for his actions. Judeo-Christian man is a puppet; the Greek pagan takes responsibility for his response to fate.
Two thousand tears ago the Greeks asked a question that today remains heretical for supernatural thinkers: "What is truly real?" They distinguished noumenon, the reality behind what we see, from phenomenon, or apparent reality. This concept of a stand-alone universe beyond our senses eludes many people today, and yet this distinction made our culture possible.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Who's Who in the Science Hall of Fame, National Library of Scotland
For names and works go to: www.nls.uk/biographies
.
The importance of this collection of white males (who do deserve their fame) is not that it doesn't include women or members of minority groups. The significance is that today no individual is excluded from a career in science by reason of these restrictions. Social situations can and do change. Magical action, such as constructing lists on the basis of gender or race, does not solve past, present, or future issues of discrimination. The real impediment is the lack of quality K-12 education in the United States, which is necessary to prepare all students for successful adult lives. One does not magically become a scientist, engineer, or mathematician. Education is required.
.
The traditional domination by males of scientific and technological pursuits can be traced to the Stone Age male hierarchy, which has denied education to outsiders. Science is 'secrets of the universe' stuff; powerful stuff, and its control perpetuates male dominance. The tragedy for humanity is that 50% of the brains of our species have been excluded from discovery, invention, and problem-solving. This percentage is increased by the majority of males, who have no function other than as expendable labor, as tools to subjugate other humans, or to be sacrificed in war.
The scientific community today consists of members from cultures the world over who have adopted the premise of a shared physical reality that can be discovered by means of the scientific method: observation, data collection, a tentative hypothesis, the design and implementation of experiments that yield confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis, and formulation of a theory that explains and predicts all related observations. Work must be reviewed by the scientific community and withstand its challenges. Revision or demotion of ideas is always on the table. The scientific method is not culturally dependent. When we say that a culture has been westernized, we mean that it has taken on a scientific point of view, at least in part.
Science serves a different purpose than myth; it explains phenomena using physical laws and mathematical models. The unknown is assumed to be continuous and coherent with the known; if it is not, then previous conclusions must be reviewed. Scientists are confident that the unknown will eventually be understood, because this has been the pattern of discovery in the past. Scientists routinely and accurately predict outcomes that demolish those of so-called prophets, whose garbled forecasts never come true.
The supernatural dimension is totally outside physical reality. It exists exclusively in the human brain. Supernatural beliefs actually defy reality. Believers worship aberrations commonly known as miracles, which don't occur. People imagine the most mundane coincidences to be miracles.
Attempts to prove that either religious belief or scientific knowledge "wins" miss the point. The two types of thinking cannot be reconciled as is often claimed. These languages of thought co-exist in the human brain, but this is due to the nature of the evolution of the brain, which is an additive process; our brain retains and builds on animal brains from their earliest appearance. (More later.)
Magical thinking is the default mode of the human brain. Magic thinking does not describe how the universe works. Belief in a supernatural origin of the universe and its contents, including life, requires the overthrow of the very processes that are fundamental to the universe – this is a human fantasy. . The goal of science is to accurately describe how the universe does works. The recognition that a mathematical system of physical forces underlies the universe is supported by the universe itself.
Mankind has ventured into the void, from sending rovers to wander Mars, a planet that has a geologic history of its own and looks remarkably like parts of earth, to the Hubble Space Telescope, which helps us to "see" the early universe, to probes that are sending earth their farewells from the boundary of the solar system. The human (and animal) instinct for mathematics has led us in our exploration of our expending environment, not religious magic.
Human technical talent clearly outstrips our social development, which is stuck in a Stone Age male hierarchy maintained by violence and magical religions. Male domination has trapped humanity in cycles of brutality, mass murder, war, cruelty, and destruction. Man is a killer whose favorite prey is his own species.
God's actions are mysterious because he doesn't exist.
The ideas that succinctly and accurately describe nature are mathematical statements, and these form the basis of science. Our understanding of nature hasn't come from the average person, but from individuals who desire to discover the underlying causes of what can be observed in nature, individuals who have often risked their lives to step outside socially sanctioned myth. Risking personal attack, ridicule, exile, or death, a miniscule number of human beings have provided others with improved living conditions, often with little thanks from the beneficiaries. Religious people who scorn the work of scientists are invited to return to the Stone Age, and to do without the products of science and technology, especially medical care. They are invited to endure horrific infections, skin diseases, gangrene, blindness, and death from a broken bone or uncontrolled bleeding, or perhaps slow starvation. Add extreme punishments like stoning, burning, and amputations for minor offenses, and having to endure slavery and the never-ending hatred for females. Have a Nice Day!
Americans seem unable to "get" the distinction between religion and science. Christians trot out scientists who attend church or profess belief in a supernatural being as proof that their god exists, when what this demonstrates is that the human mind can entertain any idea that can be thought, without regard to its correspondence to reality. Scientists are prone to the same magical hoarding that buries the archaic mind in a dungeon of nonsensical ideas.
For names and works go to: www.nls.uk/biographies
.
The importance of this collection of white males (who do deserve their fame) is not that it doesn't include women or members of minority groups. The significance is that today no individual is excluded from a career in science by reason of these restrictions. Social situations can and do change. Magical action, such as constructing lists on the basis of gender or race, does not solve past, present, or future issues of discrimination. The real impediment is the lack of quality K-12 education in the United States, which is necessary to prepare all students for successful adult lives. One does not magically become a scientist, engineer, or mathematician. Education is required.
.
The traditional domination by males of scientific and technological pursuits can be traced to the Stone Age male hierarchy, which has denied education to outsiders. Science is 'secrets of the universe' stuff; powerful stuff, and its control perpetuates male dominance. The tragedy for humanity is that 50% of the brains of our species have been excluded from discovery, invention, and problem-solving. This percentage is increased by the majority of males, who have no function other than as expendable labor, as tools to subjugate other humans, or to be sacrificed in war.
The scientific community today consists of members from cultures the world over who have adopted the premise of a shared physical reality that can be discovered by means of the scientific method: observation, data collection, a tentative hypothesis, the design and implementation of experiments that yield confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis, and formulation of a theory that explains and predicts all related observations. Work must be reviewed by the scientific community and withstand its challenges. Revision or demotion of ideas is always on the table. The scientific method is not culturally dependent. When we say that a culture has been westernized, we mean that it has taken on a scientific point of view, at least in part.
Science serves a different purpose than myth; it explains phenomena using physical laws and mathematical models. The unknown is assumed to be continuous and coherent with the known; if it is not, then previous conclusions must be reviewed. Scientists are confident that the unknown will eventually be understood, because this has been the pattern of discovery in the past. Scientists routinely and accurately predict outcomes that demolish those of so-called prophets, whose garbled forecasts never come true.
The supernatural dimension is totally outside physical reality. It exists exclusively in the human brain. Supernatural beliefs actually defy reality. Believers worship aberrations commonly known as miracles, which don't occur. People imagine the most mundane coincidences to be miracles.
Attempts to prove that either religious belief or scientific knowledge "wins" miss the point. The two types of thinking cannot be reconciled as is often claimed. These languages of thought co-exist in the human brain, but this is due to the nature of the evolution of the brain, which is an additive process; our brain retains and builds on animal brains from their earliest appearance. (More later.)
Magical thinking is the default mode of the human brain. Magic thinking does not describe how the universe works. Belief in a supernatural origin of the universe and its contents, including life, requires the overthrow of the very processes that are fundamental to the universe – this is a human fantasy. . The goal of science is to accurately describe how the universe does works. The recognition that a mathematical system of physical forces underlies the universe is supported by the universe itself.
Mankind has ventured into the void, from sending rovers to wander Mars, a planet that has a geologic history of its own and looks remarkably like parts of earth, to the Hubble Space Telescope, which helps us to "see" the early universe, to probes that are sending earth their farewells from the boundary of the solar system. The human (and animal) instinct for mathematics has led us in our exploration of our expending environment, not religious magic.
Human technical talent clearly outstrips our social development, which is stuck in a Stone Age male hierarchy maintained by violence and magical religions. Male domination has trapped humanity in cycles of brutality, mass murder, war, cruelty, and destruction. Man is a killer whose favorite prey is his own species.
God's actions are mysterious because he doesn't exist.
The ideas that succinctly and accurately describe nature are mathematical statements, and these form the basis of science. Our understanding of nature hasn't come from the average person, but from individuals who desire to discover the underlying causes of what can be observed in nature, individuals who have often risked their lives to step outside socially sanctioned myth. Risking personal attack, ridicule, exile, or death, a miniscule number of human beings have provided others with improved living conditions, often with little thanks from the beneficiaries. Religious people who scorn the work of scientists are invited to return to the Stone Age, and to do without the products of science and technology, especially medical care. They are invited to endure horrific infections, skin diseases, gangrene, blindness, and death from a broken bone or uncontrolled bleeding, or perhaps slow starvation. Add extreme punishments like stoning, burning, and amputations for minor offenses, and having to endure slavery and the never-ending hatred for females. Have a Nice Day!
Americans seem unable to "get" the distinction between religion and science. Christians trot out scientists who attend church or profess belief in a supernatural being as proof that their god exists, when what this demonstrates is that the human mind can entertain any idea that can be thought, without regard to its correspondence to reality. Scientists are prone to the same magical hoarding that buries the archaic mind in a dungeon of nonsensical ideas.
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