Humankind Advancing, Vol.8, No.2 April 1997

Bertrand Russell

Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, a Chicago Professor of Psychology, describes in his book The Evolving Self the typical fate of a young boy in an English textile factory in the middle of the last century, as reported by an Anglican curate of that time:

"He...had been found standing asleep with his arms full of wool and had been beaten awake. This day he had worked seventeen hours; he was carried home by his father, was unable to eat his supper, awoke at 4 A.M. the next morning and asked his brothers if they could see the lights of the mill as he was afraid of being late, and then died. (His younger brother, aged nine, had died previously...)" (P.96)

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At the same time, during the height of the Industrial Revolution, "there arose poorhouses and workhouses that were so terrible that the mortality rate among children reached 90%!" (P.10)

D.P. Snyder

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These conditions are not restricted to the past or to England. Wherever the making of money is pursued with the fanaticism of a religion, the same situations arise. In 1996, the journal Yachay Wasi reported about the Pakistan child-labor martyr Iqbal Masih: "At age 4 Iqbal was sold for $12.- to a rug factory where he worked for six years chained to his loom. At 10, he escaped and spent two years speaking out against the abhorrent system, attracting world attention, when he was shot to death while riding his earned bicycle." The article continues: "War, ethnic cleansing -- European and African style -- extreme poverty, child labor, while heart rending may pale in comparison with the increasing contemporary scourge of child prostitution and sexual abuses." (P.2)

What would be more helpful to reverse these trends, a counter-religion or full enlightenment allowing inquiry into their reasons?

The thrust of the book is the argument that our universe, life, and consciousness cannot possibly be the result of chance, that the existence of a God and of supernatural design must be assumed, and, most importantly, that belief in chance and rejection of design will lead to the destruction of our morals.

To prove this point, John M. Templeton collected thorough and detailed presentations from 10 well-known scientists from the field of mathematical physics (Paul Davies), neuroscience (Sir John Eccles), astronomy (Owen Gingerich), biochemistry (Walter R. Hearn), physiology and medicine (Daniel H. Osmond), physical chemistry (Reverend Arthur Peacocke, who is an ordained priest in addition to a scientist), mathematical physics (John Polkinghorne, who resigned his career to train for the Anglican ministry), experimental solid-state physics (Robert John Russell, ordained in the United Church of Christ, California), cosmic-ray physics (Russell Stannard), and population genetics (David Wilcox).

One by one, these scientists provide evidence that not chance, as Monod taught, but a purposeful God (or design) has brought us into being. Under chapter headings, such as "Dare a Scientist Believe in Design?," "God's Purpose In and Beyond Time," "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Science," "Evidence of Purpose in the Universe," "Cosmology: Evidence for God or Partner for Theology?," "Science and God the Creator," "A Potent Universe," "The Evolution of Purpose," "A Physiologist Looks at Purpose and Meaning in Life," and "How Blind the Watchmaker," traditional biological explanations are taken apart and their flaws, as perceived by the contributors, exposed.

Reasoning varies from the mild statement that absolute proof for the chance-origin of our existence cannot be established to a definite dualistic position, in which God connects the world of mind to that of matter. The most ardent defender of the latter view is the neuroscientist Sir John Eccles. In his chapter "The Evolution of Purpose," he differentiates between a) "apparent purpose," which can be discerned in cosmology, physics, and chemistry, and which shows already the fulfilling of a divine plan, b) "living purpose or teleonomy,"

which shows immanent purposiveness, as is evident in lower life forms, plants, etc., c) "conscious purpose," an intention to cause some action, such as occurs in all higher animals and finally d) "self-conscious purpose" by which human beings know that they know, and by which they acquire their individuality. "Since materialist solutions fail to account for our experienced uniqueness, I have proposed," Eccles says, "that it is necessary to postulate a supernatural creation for each human self, which is a mystery beyond science." (P.129)

Even for persons who don't agree with the need to assume supernatural creation, the amount of valuable science contained in the book makes it's reading worthwhile. Eccles' chapter, for instance, contains several pages with detailed drawings of neuronal structure and function. All chapters are written with scientific accuracy and some of them agree with Darwin and Monod so closely, that the proof of evidence of purpose at the end appears unexpected.

Non-scientists will be drawn mainly toward the high regard for ethics and morals expressed in each presentation. Eccles, for instance, writes: "With self-conscious purpose a person has a great challenge in choosing what life to live. ...one can choose to live dedicated to the highest values, truth, love, and beauty, with gratitude for the divine gift of life with its wonderful opportunities of participating in human culture. One can do this in accord with opportunities. For example, one of the highest achievements is to create a human family living in a loving relationship. I was brought up religiously under such wonderful conditions, for which I can be eternally grateful. There are great opportunities in a life dedicated to education or science or art or to the care of the sick. Always one should try to be in a loving relationship with one's associates. We are all fellow beings mysteriously living on this wonderful spaceship planet Earth that we should cherish devotedly, but not worship." (P.131)

Of course, scientists, too, will appreciate such passages. But can anyone trained -- and by nature endowed -- to be a thorough sceptic generate true expressions of emotional depth, expressions that affect the motivations of our planet's multitudes? That is the crucial question to which this issue is dedicated, and about which Templeton's book invites us to think.

His interests, however, extend also to science and, most of all, to religion. To reward the most outstanding personalities who succeed in efforts to return religion into a world of science, he founded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. That prize is the world's largest annual cash prize; it exceeds the Nobel Prize by far. (One of the book's contributors, Paul Davies, is a recipient of this prize.)

However, Sir John Templeton's efforts to bring God back into our lives are not exhausted by this undertaking. He is the founder of the Templeton College in Oxford, the author of many books on the science-religion relationship, and the initiator of several other projects relevant to his major interest. -- Since his retirement, he lives in the Bahamas; his prize has recently been raised from $ 70 000.-- to more than 1 million dollars. -- His dedication to the reinvigoration of Christianity is extraordinary.

Furthermore, the John Templeton Foundation awarded 100 prizes at $ 10,000 each to Science and Religion Courses worldwide, taught or going to be taught in North America, United Kingdom and Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine. Contact: Robert L. Herrmann, Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Rd., Wenham, MA 01984, U.S.A. -- P. 6 of the Fall 1996 issue of Science & Spirit displays a page-long invitation to and description of the 1997 John Templeton Foundation Science & Religion Course Competition and Workshops, with advice to contact the address above. Unfortunately, the deadline to this competition had passed when I found time to read this issue. I recommend to check future issues of Science & the Spirit for information on the 1998 competition.

Other awards have gone to the authors of four books dealing with theology and the natural sciences. Their titles and authors are: Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends: Where Science and Religion Meet (Clifford N. Matthews and Roy A. Varghese, ed.); Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspective on Divine Action Robert J. Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke, ed.); Rationality in Science, Religion, and Everyday Life: A Critical Evaluation of Four Models of Rationality (Mikael Stenmark); and Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars (Margaret Wertheim).

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The pursuit of scientific knowledge will not eliminate all mystery, because every chain of reasoning will eventually hit its limits... "Sooner or later we all have to accept something as given, whether it is God or logic, or a set of laws, or some other foundation of existence. Thus `ultimate' questions will always lie beyond the scope of empirical science." (P.332)

Paul Davies
(as discussed and quoted by Ted Peters)

 

Sperry: Yes, but this gets into matters that are best left to theology. That's why we need a partnership.

Omni: But would the scientific view leave something that theology could really hope to live with?

Sperry: I think so, on our present terms. Remember that along with the human factors, the scientific view includes the cosmic, the subatomic, and everything inbetween -- the entire evolving web of all creation and the whole matrix of forces involved. No one has yet described anything that even remotely compares in vastness, complexity, diversity, and awesome beauty. It's certainly something to revere!

One can even look at it the other way around -- as an overall gain for religion -- just as when mankind gave up the belief that the sun was driven across the sky each day by Apollo in his chariot of fire. We now think of the concepts that replaced that as an advance, not a loss.

Omni: But does visualizing God in this way leave anything to satisfy personal emotional needs like loneliness and despair, as faith in a personal deity does?

Sperry: It would depend. There's nothing wrong with personalizing a difficult concept if one realizes what he's doing and doesn't take it literally -- especially in the privacy of one's own belief, where it doesn't harm others. (P.98)

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Dr. Pat Duffy Hutcheon is a retired professor of sociology and education.

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[There is] a certain Chinese encyclopedia in which it is written that "animals are divided into: a) belonging to the emperor, b) embalmed, c) tame, d) sucking pigs, e) sirens, f) fabulous, g) stray dogs, h) included in the present classification, i) frenzied, j.) innumerable, k) drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, l) et cetera, m) having just broken the water pitcher, n) that from a long way look like flies."

...The wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap... as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that.

Michel Foucault (1973, p. xv)

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Potentially infinite desire finds itself within a woven fabric of finite energy. This condition holds at every level of reality. The mollusc in the sand of the ocean, the bacteria in the rotting redwood tree in the forest, the tornado in the wind currents of the summer drought, the black hole in the center of the galaxy -- each exists with demands in a world tight with constraints on the very energies necessary to satisfy these demands. Working within these structured communities and their many imposed limitations, the universe brings forth both its violence and its creativity. These obstacles, these boundaries, and these limitations are essential for the journey of the universe itself. (Pp. 54/55). (Emphasis added.)

Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry
The Universe Story

I am constantly asked: What can you, with your cold rationalism, offer to the seeker after salvation that is comparable to the cosy homelike comfort of a fenced-in dogmatic creed? To this the answer is many-sided. In the first place, I do not say that I can offer as much happiness as is to be obtained by the abdication of reason. I do not say that I can offer as much happiness as is to be obtained from drink or drugs or amassing great wealth by swindling widows and orphans. It is not the happiness of the individual convert that concerns me; it is the happiness of mankind.

Bertrand Russell, 1952

Nevertheless, key elements of our predicament are keenly perceived and openly discussed. From an imagined perspective on the present from the year 2050 it is reported that "no crisis in the history of civilized humanity compared with the challenge that the entire way of life of the modern world was not sustainable on a finite planet in the long term." Details are not avoided. Rising Executive pay with simultaneous "downsizing" undermines trust in leading decision makers and has led in the "developed" countries to three different reactions, which are described as traditionalist, modern, and transmodern. The traditionalists, about a quarter of the population in the U.S.A. and in Europe, wish to return to "the good old days." The moderns, about half the population, are confident that technical solutions to our problems will be found; science and religion are, in their view, fundamentally different, even opposed. The remaining quarter of the US and European population are described as transmodern. Embracing spiritual, ecological and person-centered values, they became visible only during the last three decades, but are growing fast.

Describing promising trends from a transmodern perspective, a shift in central purpose is noted from economic production (which no longer makes sense because it cannot, in the long run, lead to a viable global future) to emphasis on values commensurate with the true nature of human beings. Growth is still important, but it is inner growth.

"The central purpose of human cultures is to nurture full human growth and development; to foster wisdom, creativity and love; to create a home for humanity within nature that nourishes all life."

The transition which is underway is called a revolution, not against oppression by others, but against self-oppression by wrong goals and expectations.

"There is increasingly widespread recognition that the gilt and glitter, the stimulated appetites and frenetic activity of modern consumer society, are not ultimately satisfying to our deepest hunger. It is because of this that many participants in the revolution are willing to do with less in a material sense and manifest a commitment to frugality and simple living."

The Pathfinding Progress Report of August 20, 1996 (subtitled "A Collaborative Inquiry") describes the project as "a network of people around the world committed to fostering a global dialogue" on how to reach a more workable world in the future.

"Our central task is to identify a feasible pathway to a more desirable state that is free of present fundamental dilemmas, and to illuminate what this entails by way of major activities, programs, policies, or interventions at all levels of the global system. In particular, we aim to explore evidence that an entirely new worldview and set of values is emerging among a growing number of people in the world, to articulate the vision of the future that is implicit in that worldview, and to identify its practical implications. With such a scenario available to businesses, government agencies, community organizations, civic associations, non-governmental organizations, and other groups, each might see more clearly how it could constructively contribute to institutional change and societal learning -- and how its activities fit with others in the context of a meaningful larger whole."

Main emphasis is placed upon the dynamic character of the undertaking and its dependence upon an ongoing global dialogue, for which a World Wide Web site is being developed. One of the most important hallmarks of the project is responsibility:

"The stakes are very high because of the clear possibility that the transition, if badly handled, could be accompanied by serious social disruptions."

The entire project is geared to achieve major results without detrimental social side effects, not only in the West, but, most importantly, also in developing countries. I had been increasingly concerned about the absence of the need for population control -- until I found it on p.5 of the Progress Report clearly, but inconspicuously listed under the heading "Revisioning development to correct the enormous and growing disparity between the world's rich and poor peoples." Mentioning equity, justice, hunger, poverty, population, debt, the oppression of women, security issues, etc. the

report continues: "As awareness of these issues has grown, a significant number of developing countries have begun to seek alternative paths of development that involve stabilizing population levels, enabling people to meet their basic needs, recognizing the rights and roles of women, and protecting natural resources. For these to be successful, countries pursuing these paths may need some insulation from the global economy."

Thus, the stabilization of population levels becomes a matter that is initiated and desired by affected countries themselves, not forced upon them against their will. -- The sensitivity with which this explosive topic is handled is typical of the Pathfinder's outlook, and it is very probable that it is this sensitivity that will provide the key for success where other avenues fail.

It will be hard to find anywhere a more thoughtful and balanced approach to our future. Still, the Pathfinders are not satisfied. "We urge you to contribute your creative thoughts," they ask, "to help us elaborate these admittedly general ideas, and to help us identify resources that might provide additional insights."

Please contact:

Willis Harman or Thomas J. Hurley
Institute of Noetic Sciences
475 Gate Five Rd Ste 300
Sausalito CA 94965

Phone: 415-331-5650; Fax: 415-331-5673; E-mail: thurley@well.com

Last summer's theme was especially suited for reflection on our responsibilities in a constantly changing, tension-torn world. The perspective was immense. The story of evolution was told from different points of view, and by different experts. Those familiar with quantum mechanics and events in the cosmos described the beginning and spread of our universe, driven by subatomic activity and involving spectacular deaths and rebirths, during which new elements arose, leading to the evolution of life. Those with knowledge in biochemistry, paleontology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and religion elucidated the emergence of life, mind, thought, and values. Each participant gained new understanding through the insights of the others.

In spite of its basis in solid science, the entire event was permeated with a deep inner feeling of reverence for the wonder of natural laws, the wonder of our being here and able to think. Professor Loyal Rue, who had conceived and organized the conference, expressed that feeling with the words: "When you confront your unexplainable existence, how can you not say, `I'm so grateful to be here; it's such a privilege to be alive, just this one instant.'"

The knowledge transmitted was so varied and of such abundance, that it cannot possibly be condensed into the small space available for this report. A few glimpses include the information that in all higher animals there is vigorous competition among immature surplus nerve cells in the brain as to which reaches first the site of its destiny (which is coded into its biochemical growth factor). The ones that don't succeed will die. The number of connections, and the subsequent quality of thinking, is strongly influenced by variants, either in the growth factor itself, the physical surrounding of other competing brain structures, or later, after birth, the impact of experience. Minute differences in all of these may lead to major effects.

Other glimpses of knowledge deal with the emergence of the sense of right and wrong from interactions among social animals, the existence of morals long before language evolved, its refinement through culture, and its further evolution through the insights of our great religious leaders. At the present time, judgments between right and wrong must take facts discovered by science into account, and our future will depend upon the success of this fact-value integration.

In short, a magnificent panorama was displayed, showing the Epic of Evolution -- from subatomic articles to galaxies, from cosmic dust to living beings, from electrochemical interaction within brains to values and ethics -- as a huge interconnected and interdependent system, from which we emerged and in which we are active agents. -- The impact of this conference was such that the American Association for the Advancement of Science is now seeking ways to replicate it for larger American audiences.

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Parts of this report are based on Ted Laurenson's "Comment: Star Island 1996" in the IRAS Newsletter, Vol. 45, No.1, (Oct. 15, 1996). For further information on this conference or on IRAS please contact: The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, Inc., Professor Loyal D. Rue, Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101, U.S.A. or the Chicago Center for Religion and Science, 1100 East Fifty-fifth Street, Chicago, IL 60615-5199, U.S.A.

Acknowledgments: I wish to thank Dr. Pat Duffy Hutcheon for her original contribution, Mrs. Norma Sperry for the extension of Dr. Sperry's blanket permission to quote from his work, and Drs. Hurley, Schwartz, and Berghofer for permission to report about their respective projects.