Difference between revisions of "Black Mass, Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia"
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In the last pages of his book Gray mentions: "The chief intellectual obstacle to coexistence among religions is a lack not of mutual understanding, but of self-knowledge." | In the last pages of his book Gray mentions: "The chief intellectual obstacle to coexistence among religions is a lack not of mutual understanding, but of self-knowledge." | ||
| − | We fully agree with that statement. Elsewhere on this Wiki it is argued that already from the time the hominids expanded as hunter gatherers on the African plains and intelligence started to reach higher levels, a specific block was built into our genes, making it very difficult for us to regard our own and each other's behaviour, a characteristic we labeled as "Self-Blindness". This very specific evolutionary "invention" made it possible at all that intelligence exploded in the case of one of the hominids, producing one strand called Homo sapiens. Self-knowledge is therefore not easy to achieve for human beings, but the theory behind the Point Omega idea points out that the disappearance of telic overdominance will improve the spreading of more rationality, even in thinking about ourselves and each other. "Necessity-oriented" models will automatically get the upper hand, to the extent that superstition and other "sufficiency-oriented" simplistic ideas will sink back to the level of local folklore. In our view Gray's admonition will thus come true, were it that the religions themselves will stop playing a major role in human history. They will eventually be regarded as unfortunate but unavoidable human characteristics from a past era. | + | We fully agree with that statement. Elsewhere on this Wiki (refer to ...............) it is argued that already from the time the hominids expanded as hunter gatherers on the African plains and intelligence started to reach higher levels, a specific block was built into our genes, making it very difficult for us to regard our own and each other's behaviour, a characteristic we labeled as "Self-Blindness". This very specific evolutionary "invention" made it possible at all that intelligence exploded in the case of one of the hominids, producing one strand called Homo sapiens. Self-knowledge is therefore not easy to achieve for human beings, but the theory behind the Point Omega idea points out that the disappearance of telic overdominance will improve the spreading of more rationality, even in thinking about ourselves and each other. "Necessity-oriented" models will automatically get the upper hand, to the extent that superstition and other "sufficiency-oriented" simplistic ideas will sink back to the level of local folklore. In our view Gray's admonition will thus come true, were it that the religions themselves will stop playing a major role in human history. They will eventually be regarded as unfortunate but unavoidable human characteristics from a past era. |
Revision as of 07:13, 6 June 2010
This page is still under construction.
This recent book by John Gray, another bestseller, works like a washing machine for contemporary belief systems, superstition and political convictions. Readers of this book should be prepared to see many of their cherished beliefs turned into shreds and to perhaps see their purpose in life and their sense of determination evaporate in thin air. Basic concepts in our culture and our political systems are being subjected here to occams razor and to the sobering effects of objective reason and realism.
Gray's discourse should be obligatory reading for politicians and leaders in government. That would help prevent much of the delusions and misguidance that keep making humanity suffer from the hands of their leaders.
Below we add a short selection of Gray's text, showing in a nutshell what he is trying to convey in this book. Subsequently we will point out where, in our case, we differ from Gray's point of view and what we would like to add to his story in order to make the picture more complete and understandable.
- scans van een stuk of 5 pagina's *****************
Na pagina 280:
Over hoe onze onderworpenheid aan processen van natuurlijke selectie het principieel onmogelijk maakt dat de meest elementaire menselijke neigingen en dilemma's opgelost kunnen worden. Integendeel, de tegenstellingen en conflicten die voortkomen uit die algemeen menselijke neigingen zijn evolutionaire noodzakelijkheden, die "bedoeld" zijn om de evolutionaire selectiekrachten richting te geven en van energie te voorzien. We blijven daarom per definitie altijd met altijd maar voortdurende conflicten en tegenstellingen opgezadeld. Die zijn zelfs de kern van ons bestaan.
Toch valt er iets te zeggen over deze eeuwige basisconflicten in het menselijke bestaan en de samenleving en hoe dit uit zal pakken rond en na Point Omega, wat volgens Gray niet meer is dan weer een volgende apocalyptische fantasie. Hier andere redenen, wetenschappelijke, om zo'n omslag te verwachten. Gebruikelijke apocalyptische modellen komen voort uit een oerbehoefte van mensen om in een betere toekomst te geloven, omdat dat de enige manier is om (braaf) te blijven functioneren in een telic overdominante toestand van (onbewuste) milde slavernij. Dat zijn 2 geheel verschillende redenen om na te gaan denken over zo'n omslagpunt.
Na pagina 294:
...........................
Gray makes an important point here, which is that the human species has a very strong inborn need for religion. In western societies, in our cultures in The West, he says, religion is special in the sense that it competes with science in claiming to be rational, causing a continuous current of conflicts between science and religion, or rather between religion and rationality. Supposedly, this tendency to generate conflicting meme sets is less strong or almost absent in the East. In his view it is of the utmost importance that humanity, and in particular western societies, start recognizing religion for what it is, meme sets that fulfill the needs of human beings that cannot be satisfied by rational scientific thinking, by any rational information generated by scientific methodology. Being fully understood by its carriers, religion will thus be stopped from screwing up politics and other high level management of human societies, without needing to be abolished. It then can keep fulfilling its goals harmlessly, without endangering humanity's potential to survive.
As can be underpinned elsewhere on this Wiki, we are of a slightly different opinion. We do agree fully with Gray that the way religion has been and still is used in Christianity, in Judaism and in Islam, has become such a grave danger for humanity that it threatens our very survival. The uncontrolled proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is becoming lethal in combination with political systems that are vulnerable to religious irrationalities. However, we do not agree with the idea that the need for religion is such a strongly innate human basic drive. It is in our view indeed a strong human drive in our days, as it has been for thousands of years, but a better understanding of the present day human psychological condition, as compared to what are the innate possibilities of the human species, can explain how religious behaviour, and the drives and needs behind it, are to a large extent the result of telic overdominance (refer to .....), which, as is shown on this Wiki (refer to ......), does not need to last forever . Telic dominance destroys the capacity to play, the capacity to explore, the capacity to learn at an optimal pace. Telic dominance saddles people with an unstoppable urge to find "goals", to grab any clues available that can provide some purpose for one's activities. A typically telic attitude is to settle for the time being for "sufficiency-oriented" models and solutions of reality (refer to .........). Normally, such emergency triggered short term solutions for producing models of the situation(s) will in due time, subsequently, be integrated further with other short term sufficiency-oriented models and concepts, and will eventually be replaced by more concise "necessity-oriented" models of reality, models that are more efficient and can better survive later bouts of further exploration and challenge. Telic (over)dominance strongly blocks the production of necessity oriented models of reality and also blocks the full natural tendency for curiosity and psychological growth towards maturity. Telic dominance thus enhances superstition at all levels, combined with a seeming greed for explanatory "stories", no matter how stupid and shortsighted they may seem from an intellectual point of view.
The notion of a Point Omega being at hand shortly in human history would fit seemingly seamlessly in Grays opinion on apocalyptic world views of which type of meme sets he eloquently lays bare the irrational roots. However, we are of the opinion that on this Wiki it is argued successfully that scientific data are available, suggesting that humanity is at the brink of another qualitative shift in cognitive and social behaviour, equaling the importance of the agricultural revolution, but - rather suddenly - occurring at a very much higher speed. If our point of view is correct and can survive Gray's scrutiny, it also implies that humanity, swapping from a state of telic overdominance to a - natural - state of telic - paratelic balance, will lose its hang for superstitious beliefs, simply because the paratelic state does not produce such an all overriding need for simple but comprehensive "stories" to explain it all. Paratelic states produce curiosity instead and even a liking for uncertainties. A healthy rhythm of telic and paratelic alternations, as mother nature meant us to function, will subsequently produce more "necessity oriented" models of reality, replacing and rendering an overflow of superfluous rough and ready "sufficiency-oriented" models of reality. Few "necessity-oriented" models can replace very many "sufficiency-oriented" models, rendering a far more reliable and far more efficient overall model of the world. Religion and other superstitious belief systems will then automatically disappear through atrophy and just survive in the less important corners of the human world, without posing grave dangers to us all and without making a rational approach to governing practically impossible, as is nowadays still the case as Gray very eloquently illustrates in his book.
In the last pages of his book Gray mentions: "The chief intellectual obstacle to coexistence among religions is a lack not of mutual understanding, but of self-knowledge." We fully agree with that statement. Elsewhere on this Wiki (refer to ...............) it is argued that already from the time the hominids expanded as hunter gatherers on the African plains and intelligence started to reach higher levels, a specific block was built into our genes, making it very difficult for us to regard our own and each other's behaviour, a characteristic we labeled as "Self-Blindness". This very specific evolutionary "invention" made it possible at all that intelligence exploded in the case of one of the hominids, producing one strand called Homo sapiens. Self-knowledge is therefore not easy to achieve for human beings, but the theory behind the Point Omega idea points out that the disappearance of telic overdominance will improve the spreading of more rationality, even in thinking about ourselves and each other. "Necessity-oriented" models will automatically get the upper hand, to the extent that superstition and other "sufficiency-oriented" simplistic ideas will sink back to the level of local folklore. In our view Gray's admonition will thus come true, were it that the religions themselves will stop playing a major role in human history. They will eventually be regarded as unfortunate but unavoidable human characteristics from a past era.
