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How Do I become a Dawkinist? https://hm.dinofly.com/UP/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1083 |
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Author: | andywight [ Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:50 pm ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Post subject: | How Do I become a Dawkinist? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This was a question asked by Steven at Yahoo Answers with some of the posted answers:
Source... |
Author: | Chicodoodoo [ Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:00 pm ] | |||||||||
Post subject: | Re: How Do I become a Dawkinist? | |||||||||
NOOOooo.... ! I was sure the specially constructed fire pit in my back yard would be sufficient! Why must I go into the woods? Why?! WHY! Woe is me, I did it wrong. |
Author: | andywight [ Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:24 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: How Do I become a Dawkinist? |
Author: | Chicodoodoo [ Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:40 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: How Do I become a Dawkinist? |
Rupert makes some great points here, primarily that Dawkins has fallen into the certainty trap. Any belief system, whether based on scientific evidence or intuitive feelings, is at risk of narrowing its perspective due to the certainty of being right, or the certainty of not being wrong. Yet all of truth-seeking is the pursuit of certainty of being right. So is it any wonder that truth-seekers fall so often into this trap? I point to Zook as an example. |
Author: | andywight [ Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:41 am ] | |||||||||
Post subject: | Re: How Do I become a Dawkinist? | |||||||||
All in the Mind
After reading Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene I was a convert to Neo-Darwinian genetics. In that best-selling work life is traced to individual genes, each seeking to confer advantage on the ‘replicator’, which carries the genes, in order to survive through reproduction. ‘Successful’ genes are passed on, unchanged, to descendents. Its title alone reveals an analysis that sees human life, and nature more generally, as characterised by competition rather than cooperation. That my actions, thoughts and emotions were reduced to a battle for expression between DNA sequences generated slight despondency; idealism, morality and kindness are simply ‘memes’: ideas that, like genes, proved durable in evolution. Intriguingly, The Selfish Gene was the favourite book of Jeffrey Skilling, CEO of Enron. He interpreted Neo-Darwinism to mean that selfishness was ultimately good, even for its victims, because it weeded out ‘losers’ and forced ‘survivors’ to become strong. Over time I developed a more nuanced view of the world. An awareness of the limitation of human intelligence (especially my own) and of the historical specificity of any position made me reluctant to accept any one explanation in full. Read more... |
Author: | Chicodoodoo [ Wed Nov 20, 2013 7:53 am ] | ||||||||||||||||||
Post subject: | Re: How Do I become a Dawkinist? | ||||||||||||||||||
How easy it is to misinterpret things. It's so easy. What I learned from "The Selfish Gene" is that there is a balance between competition and cooperation in Nature. Genes play a role, but so does the environment (the old nature/nurture controversy). The third edition of "The Selfish Gene", the one I was fortunate enough to read, contains a vital chapter that is not in the prior versions. That chapter highlights the complexity of that balance between competition and cooperation, and it expanded my mind like nothing else in the book. I wonder what edition Frank Armstrong read...
A great example of this is Robert Lanza arguing for biocentrism based on the illusion that the "constants" of the universe (which Sheldrake suggests may not be constant at all) are perfectly tuned for life to exist, and thus must be derived from life itself. That's pretty anthropocentric, wouldn't you say? Not to mention a source of cognitive dissonance, if you happen to believe both Lanza and Sheldrake. |
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