From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sat Oct 23 2004 - 13:42:45 BST
All:
While roaming around in the Internet today I happened across
www.bicosm.org, a site devoted to a book by James Gardner. Since it was,
like the MOQ,. about evolution, my curiosity was aroused. On the site I
clicked on "Ideas and Implications" to get a summary of the book's theme.
The first paragraph, read as follows:
"What is humankind's place in the universe? That fundamental question
underlies both scientific inquiry and millennia of religious thought. The
traditional answer of science is that life and human intelligence are of
no cosmic consequence but merely the random outcome of the interplay of
natural forces. Mainstream religions answer the same question in many
different ways but most share the view that the mind of the Creator of the
universe is ultimately inaccessible to mortal minds. BIOCOSM challenges
both viewpoints and suggests that the emergence of life and mind is a
cosmic imperative encoded in the basic laws of nature and, further, that
highly evolved intelligence will eventually play the key role in
reproducing the cosmos."
I don't know about you, but the last sentence immediately translated in my
mind to the following:
"Moral values are a cosmic imperative encoded in the basic laws of
nature."
Further along in the "Ideas and Implications" summary came the following
excerpt:
"The inescapable implication of the Selfish Biocosm hypothesis is that the
immense saga of biological evolution on Earth is one tiny chapter in an
ageless tale of the struggle of the creative force of life against the
disintegrative acid of entropy, of emergent order against encroaching
chaos, and ultimately of the heroic power of mind against the brute
intransigence of lifeless matter."
Here is reflected the MOQ thesis that Pirsig presents in Chapter 11 of
LILA that "life in evolving away from any law" and that "The patterns of
life are constantly evolving in response to something 'better' that that
which these laws have to offer."
It would seem with this cursory glance that Mr. Gardner, like Mr. Pirsig,
is taking a second look at the materialist's explanation of evolution,
finding it lacking, and suggesting a new, more encompassing explanation of
how we got here and why.
I think I will get a copy of Mr. Gardner's book.
Platt
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