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This series (cf. menu to left) accompanies the tutorial and will
outline the basic concepts of the eonic model as they appear in the Second
Edition of World History and The Eonic Effect. That text is highly
recommended because the model makes best sense with a rich context of historical
data. The Introduction lays the groundwork with discussions of : 1.
The Legacy of Darwinism Darwin's theory is
subject to endless confusion based on the claims for natural selection, which
are not properly verified in practice.
2. Intelligent
Design Theology The current critics of Darwinism are the relatively
sophisticated ID faction. In fact, this movement tends to skirt the many classic
challenges to design arguments springing from Kant and Hume.
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History's Black Box One of the
current ID texts is T. Behe's Darwin's Black Box. This work cogently
zeroes in a basic problem with Darwinism and then veers of into speculative
ambiguity. The point is simple. DNA structures show a resemblance to
computer programs, which operate on different levels. The imputation of a
'designer', however, provokes a metaphysical issue of the 'will', and this
leaves all such questions as obscure as anything as Darwinism.
We look at history in this sense, to discover clear evidence of a
developmental mainline, but we cannot easily say that this is designed. This
creates a dilemma for the theistic historicism in the background to the ID
discourse. A thorough dose of Biblical Criticism is needed to challenge
thinking that produces statistical arguments against Darwin, but leaves the
Old Testament alone, 'taken on faith'. Our approach is neither atheistic or
theistic. We grind this question to bits in Kantian fashion. Theistic
historicism
3. Evolution
of Ethics The weak point in Darwin's
theory is the issue of ethics. The current efforts to extend natural selection
arguments to explain the origins of ethical behavior will directly contradicted
by the evidence of the eonic effect. The obsession with selfishness creates a
suspicion of economic ideology 4. Theory,
Ideology, and Economics The biologist S. J. Gould pointed to the obvious
connection between Darwin's theory and the economic views of Adam Smith. This
connection has often been noticed, in fact. But economic systems are not the
same as biological ones, and the evolution of culture that creates advanced
economies does not spring from economic laws. 5.
Visions of a Ghostseer The works of Kant virtually prophesied the Darwin
debate which shows two forms of metaphysical reasoning at odds with each other.
We get stuck in one camp or the other (material, spiritual), failing to see the
subtle flaws shared by both viewpoints. Kant's work suggests the necessity
of a science of metaphysics and the inability to produce one. Questions of Soul,
Divinity, and Free Will equivocate dialectically ad infinitum. We need to take a
stance on these three questions which obviously haunt Darwinism. Actually we
won't take such a stance, since we can produce the model without doing so. Our
non-stance will consist of
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Divinity: We don't exclude the 'god
hypothesis', but in practice we would demand new terminology and a series of
careful definitions and, most important, evidence of theistic action. The
Old Testament is NOT evidence of theistic action in history. The Darwin
debate is a poor rehash of the classic Spinoza/pantheism debate of the late
Enlightenment.
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Soul Questions of soul haunt Darwin,
but as Kant makes clear you are almost damned if you do, damned if you don't
here. Our stance challenges the Darwinist to actually define what he means
by an 'organism'. The total organism' may have a concealed component.
Questions of soul are not in good shape. Monotheists speak of transcending
the body with a spiritual soul, immortality, while Buddhists speak of
transcending the material soul to get beyond the round of immortal rebirths.
So who got it straight? Kant's intuition here is just right. The metaphysics
here seems impossible to settle. Small wonder scientists get impatient. But
Science dogma is as limited as the rest.
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The issue of 'free will' is critical, yet we
will adopt a useful trick to have our cake and eat it too, using the
category of 'self-consciousness' as a hybrid, near free nor determined.
6. Reductionism and Values There is no
mystery to the problem science is having with evolution. The distinction of
facts and values may put current science methodology outside the range of a true
theory of evolution which requires the joint consideration of facts and values.
There is an obvious strategy to extend that methodology, the idea of freedom
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System/agent combinations The example
of a computer and the user with a mouse is taken to show the existence of
'mixed systems' where a system and a population produce two levels. The
computer is deterministic, while the used interacts via a GUI. This
relationship of a system and a 'free agent' will reappear in the model's
distinction of 'eonic determination' and 'free action'.
We are ready for the basic evidence of
non-random evolution
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