tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5374282898095759015..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The metaphysics of natural selection in the context of evolution as a wholeBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-82392145008705376552016-01-06T18:13:40.789+00:002016-01-06T18:13:40.789+00:00@SoM - Thanks for your continued support, and the ...@SoM - Thanks for your continued support, and the link which I shall peruse! - BruceBruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-86720222950746970482016-01-06T17:05:40.653+00:002016-01-06T17:05:40.653+00:00Dear Bruce,
Re: evolution, Barfield, etc.
I expect...Dear Bruce,<br />Re: evolution, Barfield, etc.<br />I expect you know, but there is a superb site developing Barfield’s theories in the realm of evolution, the meaning of nature (particularly from a Goethean point of view) and cell functioning, etc.<br />My particular interest is in Stephen Talbott’s brilliant work on the workings of the cell. He has an amazing talent for finding out the latest discoveries in this area and using them to explain and illustrate how life at that mini-miniscule level is more like a dance than a DNA Heath-Robinson machine. Please peruse if you have not already done so: http://natureinstitute.org/txt/st/<br />Best regards and Happy New Year - still reading everything you write (except on cricket – sorry, nobody’s perfect; and who wants to be a nobody?).<br />SonofMoseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00863806423273855526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-3657661175421280372016-01-06T13:17:27.203+00:002016-01-06T13:17:27.203+00:00No doubt all was perfect in the beginning but God ...No doubt all was perfect in the beginning but God allowed the Fall to bring about greater levels of perfection. Breaking eggs to make omelettes and all that. In that way God grows, always the same but ever changing, you might say. And He grows mostly through us. <br /><br />Natural selection clearly has a part in the evolutionary process but it is very much secondary to the unfolding from within of pre-existing spiritual pattern.<br />William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34323535289831547052016-01-05T18:44:28.457+00:002016-01-05T18:44:28.457+00:00"I have been engaged in a period of intense m..."I have been engaged in a period of intense metaphysical reflection recently - in other words thinking about the fundamental structure of reality."<br /><br />I went through a period of intense metaphysical reflection about a year and a half ago. I spent most of my time studying the metaphysics of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Heidegger.<br /><br />One of the results of all this metaphysical reflection is that I wrote a short story based on Parmenides' ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of existence and it was published in the Sci Phi Journal: The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11933421860458186149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-8353503335658982852016-01-05T18:26:24.877+00:002016-01-05T18:26:24.877+00:00@Carter - Thanks - that's helpful.@Carter - Thanks - that's helpful. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-26425739814292821942016-01-05T18:20:08.209+00:002016-01-05T18:20:08.209+00:00Within religion and philosophy there are two compe...Within religion and philosophy there are two competing perspectives of human history: Arcadianism and Eutopianism.<br /><br />The Christian Bible begins with the Genesis account of man within the Garden of Eden. It concludes with Revelation's depiction of the City of Zion, the New Jerusalem.<br /><br />The view of Arcadia holds that everything was perfect in the beginning, in the Garden, and all present suffering is the result of man's fall causing them to be cast out of the Garden. The project of Arcadianism then is to return everything to its original state, reverse the effects of the fall, and shed all of the accretions of the fallen world.<br /><br />The Eutopian view however asserts that the situation was not ideal in the beginning, and that man's focus must be on the future. The goal is therefore to build the Great City, Zion. Progress instead of regress. Instead of letting go of things and dissolving distinctions, in Eutopia man must be added upon, must absorb new things into itself.<br /><br />Eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism are essentially Arcadian in nature. Judeo-Christian religions are essentially Eutopian- but they haven't always adopted concepts of reality that mesh with this. The traditional view of Creation Ex Nilho reinforces an Arcadian view of the world because it suggests a flawless world in the beginning that ought to have remained static and unchanged. In a Eutopian mindset change is good and necessary. And here, the idea of natural selection is understandable. To think of it as a refining process (among other processes) that plays a role in God's plan is easier to imagine if we first envision the world as needing to evolve into something more in the first place.<br /><br />And it's important, I think, to speak of the evolution and progress of the world as a whole towards something good as distinct from man's progress towards Godliness. Man's salvation is individual, happening to one person at a time, and constitutes a metamorphosis of the person into a more mature, God-like entity. Natural selection is not the key factor here. The evolution of mankind as a species and life on Earth at large, in which natural selection plays its real role, has to be understood in light of building up the City of God, a city fit for gods to inhabit.<br /><br />- Carter CraftAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com