From: Integral World [newsletter@integralworld.net] Sent: zondag 6 september 2009 21:48 To: f.visser3@chello.nl Subject: [personal] Pop-evolutionism INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST =========================== http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 292 Amsterdam, September 6th, 2009 TWO ROADS DIVERGING INTEGRAL THEORY AND CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE - Tomislav Markus In science, the term «evolution» means primarily biological evolution by (neo)darwinian natural selection. For pop-evolutionism, «evolution» has a much broader meaning, becoming identical with any presumably «progressive» and purposeful change, from the cosmic Big Bang to social macrodynamics of recent human history. «Evolution» is, as quasi-neutral synonym for «progress» or «development», all what someone interprets as «progressive» or «upward» movement. Pop-evolutionism is a remnant of 19th century's myth of progress, still well and alive in the beginning of 21th century, because the myth of „historical progress“ is a fundamental metanarrative of the industrial societies, still dominant social realities. Many contemporary thinkers, from advocates of the „universe story“ to integral theorists, subscribe to an unscientific untestable notion of „progressive evolution“ in which humans are „emerging consciousness of the unfolding cosmos“. But in science one term, like „evolution“ in darwinian biology, can't be arbitrarily transferred to other domains. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/markus2.html THE GURU HAS NO TURBAN - Why Perfect Masters Don't Exist - David Lane One of the more celebrated, if inappropriate, honorifics we have bestowed on our chosen gurus is the term "Perfect Master." It may be one thing to call a teacher a master (he or she may know more than us in a certain subject), but it is quite another to call such mastery "perfect." The first and most troublesome problem is one of definition: what do we actually mean by "perfect"? My sense is that we fundamentally misunderstand the honorific and we do not fully understand the implications involved when applying such terms to living human beings. My argument is a very simple one: The guru is not perfect, at least not in the ways that we may assume. But despite the fact that we can easily demonstrate the limitations and fallibilities of our gurus, we somehow hold on to the naive concept that a Guru can be an all-knowing and all-powerful being. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/lane11.html A ADDTHIS button has been placed at the top-left of the homepage, so you can send this site to your social neworks friends easily. If you know other people interested in this Integral World Newsletter, please forward this mail to them. Thanks. To SUBSCRIBE to this Integral World Newsletter or change your email address, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/subscribe.php To UPDATE your email address or UNSUBSCRIBE, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/login.php