New Book and a NYT Review by Paul Bloom

THE EVOLUTION OF GOD

By Robert Wright

567 pp. Little, Brown & Company. 2009

Except of the review.

“But God still has some growing up to do, as Wright makes clear in his careful discussion of contemporary religious hatred. As you would expect, he argues that much of the problem isn’t with the religious texts or teachings themselves, but with the social conditions — the “facts on the ground” — that shape the sort of God we choose to create. “When people see themselves in zero-sum relationship with other people — see their fortunes as inversely correlated with the fortunes of other people, see the dynamic as win-lose — they tend to find a scriptural basis for intolerance or belligerence.” The recipe for salvation, then, is to arrange the world so that its people find themselves (and think of themselves as) interconnected: “When they see the relationship as non-zero-sum — see their fortunes as positively correlated, see the potential for a win-win outcome — they’re more likely to find the tolerant and understanding side of their scriptures.” Change the world, and you change the God.”

Book review by:

Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale, is the author of “Descartes’ Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human.

New York Times, Books, June 26, 2009

Comments?

Message:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

 

    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

 

 

John Keats. 1795–1821

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES: OUR SAIL BOAT

Almost all institutions of higher learning are Universities of which the premier program is “Arts and Sciences” or even more prevalent are stand-alone colleges of “Arts and Sciences”.  Then there are Arts schools, and separately Science schools. Science has a proud sibling of Technology.  

Expansion of Technology has cascaded exponentially in the second half of the Twentieth Century and shows little signs of fading, now well into the Twenty-first.

Many of us are now addicted to our laptop computers for receipt and evaluation of virtually all information, immediate, current and historical.  Also, we largely  employ the internet for banking, bill paying, and shopping, including comparative consumer evaluations.  

As fantastic as Technology has become, one should reflect often technology is only the vehicle upon which Science and The Arts take us through the Journey of Life.

The education of my wife and myself made us primarily scientists and the pursuit of these professions have yielded significant rewards both to us and the larger community.  Art enriched our lives and sometimes aided us, especially in the educational component of science.

Without our direction, our sons have chosen The Arts for their education and lifetime endeavors.  Within family discussions, our sons propose, and ,sometimes, insist that in  the BIG PICTURE, that art, not only  is more important, but, moreover is a higher intellectual arena than is science and technology.   The essence of this position is that the “evolution” of the human mind and spirit as well as our cultural development, has been driven and documented by artists.  Science and technology is viewed as nice, e.g. cleanliness, protective shelter, clothing, improved and nutrition but these worldly endeavors serve the higher mental and spiritual activities.  

Currently, nationally, there is a crescendo of heated arguments of, on the one side, faith based conservatives (who emphasize a traditional view the immutable value of the categorical intangibles of mind, spirit and the constraints of interpersonal and community behavior.)  Science is not a priority  of this group.  This community of thought highly values art, but as I see it, art to them is primarily a tool with which they reinforce and promote their message.

On the other side of this argument are “The Progressives” which is a genuine historically defined group with a clear philosophical objectives including assessment and refinement of proposals for the improved pragmatics of the members of the community.  Science, and its essential intellectual discipline, is a critical component for this group.  Art is highly valued for its self-evident qualities, existentially, but is also employed to promote its goals.

All the current media seems to have been torn with, sometimes even to adoption of views, in reporting current events in terms of Right and Left positions.  Although the steam behind these fights is political, the “end justify the means” basis of this activity is a great disservice to The Arts and Sciences.

This food fight between waring factions of post-development minds, bothers me less than the influence and confusion of young minds still in a formative state, whose substance has not yet gelled or solidified.  Furthermore, it is regrettable for the discussions to mix the “apples and oranges” of our intellectual nutrition (Art, Sciences and Technology) and then insist that one must abandon one for  another.

I see the success and values of personal relationships, families and nations as requiring the calm recruitment and repeated rehearsal of the cooperation of the three components of life cited above.

I have enjoyed  sail boating earlier in my life.  I see a happy relationship of the components of our partnerships and communities to be like the components of a sailboat.  One needs the integrity of the hull to keep us afloat and the integrity of the rigging to move us.  This is the Technology.

Next, one needs an energized spirit to power us to exciting speeds, with confidence and even a modicum of drama.  This is symbolized by the Spinnaker sail where much of the thrill and excitement live.  I put this clearly in the Arts Department.

As beautiful and inspiring as the sailboat is, any sailor, with ten minutes of experience, can tell you that your boat  is a useless, nearly inert, collection wood, ropes and canvas without that which  is hiding beneath the surface, the absolutely essential components of stability and steerage: the keel and rudder.  This I claim for Science.

Polarized and fixed positions in the culture wars and politics are, at best, self-defeating.  To cherish one component as superior, is terribly inefficient or destructive.

I trust everyone has heard of the  parable of the nine blind men describing the elephant.

Confidence In the Truth of Our Knowledge

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge..."   Charles Darwin

What do we know?  What can we know?  What have we been taught?  Of that which we were taught, what was indoctrination of unchallenged dogma?  What can we verify?  All of the teachings and "information" which I have received and  am continuously exposed to, cannot possibly be true and some statements are blatantly  contradictory.   Recent examples of conflicting  "information" propagated before and during the Iraq War compared with the release of leaks and now the knowledge in declassified government documents are illustrative.  The Nixon "Watergate" recordings and  discoveries published in The Washington Post are a permanent feature of our national memory.

What was ignorantly proposed as science, included the four humors, spontaneous generation and leaching.   From the dawn of human history, until only about five hundred years ago, there was acceptance and authoritarian defense of  the flat earth  and then more defensive denial of the heliocentric universe.

  

 From elementary school we are taught geography  with all of the heavily lined  borders, pastel colored countries and unmemorable names.   When Armstrong and Aldrin photographed the earth from the moon, I was struck by how there were no boundaries separating nationalities and how small and isolated the earth is.  Of course, my classroom map lines and colors were not to be seen.  This observation seemed self-evident and not subject for debate However, even after four decades of manned and unmanned space missions of several nations, there remains organizations of those folk who contend that the moon landing proved nothing as they are confident that the televised documentation was a staged trick taking place in the Western deserts of the United States.

Testing science:  Do I have go back the laboratory and verify atomic structure, acid-base chemistry, the physics of light and optics?  Must every idea be discarded if it does not with stand the syllogisms of the hypotheses/test/proof model?  What if something obviously works by most people's assessment, when only a few people understand it?  Is it no less true?  If you are advised to have a high Tesla MR chemical analysis or have your  own genome deciphered, do you have to be able to go to the blackboard and explain it to the class before submitting to the procedure?

Doubt, skepticism and examination are core values but if, I, for one, am limited to that which can I can explain, to say nothing of "prove it",  my ability to function would be greatly impaired.  

So at this time, I have several decades of an accumulated inventory of various categories of facts, observations, stories, opinions and indoctrinated religious and philosophical beliefs which have been strongly held by someone slightly ahead of me in life's journey.  Thankfully, some of my mentors gave us some tools with which to examine and review these things.  However, I have come to accept that a lot of what we experienced and do, is based on : somethings just seem right and somethings just feel wrong.  It is impossible to describe the covenant which I have with my wife and children.  I have had a lesser but similar bond with a few teachers, patients and students.  There is a moral core of my soul which I received from the example of the life of my Grandmother.  Before Gandhi, she knew that: you must BE what you want the world to become.

These things are not  scientifically provable, but they are as true as gravity or the proportions of the sides and angles of a right triangle.   

As The King said to Anna: "Life is a puzzlement!"

THE SILVER EGG

April 29, 2009   More Practice, Practice, Practice

SOMETIMES A SILVER EGG IS THE BEST PRODUCT.

("The perfect may be the enemy of the good.")

It is said that artists never finish their works but simply abandon them.  Those who experience the artist's work may believe it to be great but the artist just goes on to something else.  Success is in the next performance.  I don't think that anyone can make the performer feel great about the performance if it did not feel right to him.   Self esteem may be reinforced but probably cannot be kindled by others.

When his brother said a certain artist was "mediocre "  Van Gogh protested.  He wrote: "mediocre in its simple significance, I do not despise at all.  And one certainly does not rise above that mark by despising what is mediocre.  In my opinion one must begin by at least having some respect for the mediocre and know that it already means something and that it is only reached through great difficulty"

I am told that Franklin Roosevelt said that There are no final victories and that when you win, what you win is the opportunity to play for bigger stakes.

If these observations are true, perhaps one should judge motivations and accomplishments less by winning and more by skill development and capacity to meet the next problem.  Are there small and large goals?  Are there worthy achievements and lessor ones?  An old adage from the theater is: There are no small roles, only small actors.   Perhaps one has had a good day when one met and conquered the challenge of that day whether one slew a dragon or only walked one more step that the previous day.  Some days I can be thankful for having lost nothing.

I have thought about motivation and how one can motivate people.  I mean motivate people to achieve long term goals, and accomplishments of which they will always be proud. 

Goals: I find that I label someone as being highly motivated if they work hard to accomplish goals which I believe to be worthy and to be poorly motivated when I have not believed that the goal was worthy of their efforts.    I have had acquaintances at school who failed to complete their lessons or be perform on school test and then on Saturday night quote songs or racy poetry at great lengths when it entertained their peers  It is truly  remarkable how much investment in money, time and effort some may spend to please their peers while resisting performance that parents or teachers have instructed..   We cannot say that these folk are not motivated, they are just motivated toward goals that they value.  Until or unless they recognize the value of my approved goals, can I motivate them?  Or should they pursue the goals of which I approve ?  Henry David Thoreau wrote:  If a man appears out of step with those around him, perhaps it is because he hears the beat of a distant drummer.  Let him march to  that music, no matter however far away.

Age and attitude:  A college teacher wrote about an experience he had visiting a kindergarten class.  After the experience of having taught college age students  he was struck by the attitude and confidence of the young students.  They were doing classical operas; singing them and then interpreting them, never considering that they were too young or naive to understand what they were doing.  He said he asked the class, who can sing? every hand went up.  What can you sing?  Anything.  What would you like?  Who can draw?  Who can dance?  Each time every child was confident he or she could do anything.  He compared this with his college students who had become convinced of what they couldn't do.

I  remember in LIFE magazine many years ago a picture of a flower.  I wish I could find that picture.  The flower's bulb had been left in a plot of soil which had subsequently been paved over with asphalt for a walking path.  The flower had grown and forced its was up through the asphalt creating enough space to make a bloom.  I marvel at the "motivation" of the plant to, not only survive but bloom.  Perhaps motivation comes as a characteristic which is inherent in the individual.  Perhaps we can only nurture it.  Just as the kindergarten children who can do anything.  Can we teach anyone this or perhaps just hold their coat while they let it out.

Every year there is a The Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.   In addition to the  Marines who very fit,  there are other  runners. Then there are  people on crutches, in wheel chairs and I have even seen a man do it on his hands.!  Twenty-six miles!  What motivates these folk.  They could use lots of excuses.  Why aren't some of us motivated to run or walk a few blocks, learn a new skill or work at improving a skill we have?

I may have come across a little insight.  I may not be able to just tell anyone to do something.   I may be be only able to influence others behavior by my own example.  If that is so, I may not be able to say" do what I say, not what I do.

Robert Louis Stevenson said: "Success in life is  not a matter of holding good cards, but in playing a poor hand well."

Today, I think that what we can do is to create or nurture an environment for success, demonstrate what success looks like, and reward small victories.

There are no final victories. 

Thought for the day April 24, 2009

ALBERT EINSTEIN

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth.  The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible."

Thought For Today

“…our lives, after we are gone, survive only in the memories of others, and those memories butt up against the walls we erect and the roles we play.”

Roger Ebert
(His May 24, 1998 review of CITZEN KANE)