The historical attempts to achieve a “universalis scientia” since the Modern age have always crashed against the permanent temptation of syncretism1. This paper is a continuation of a paper presented at the 2005 Metanexus Meeting, where it was proposed some essential issues to consider for an integration of knowledge: a. The level of reliability of…
I. Introduction As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species, we can survey the history of the science initiated by Darwin. Its majestic sweep and enormous explanatory and integrative potential have combined to make it a pivotal intellectual issue of our time. Because evolution can illuminate an enormous range of phenomena, its…
I. Introduction One of the most vexing and pernicious aspects of science in general and the evolution controversy in particular is the tendency to make evolution and, by extension science, into general explanatory paradigms encompassing and/or supplanting philosophy, art, religion, and most other fields of human knowledge. The level of conceptual confusion inherent in this…
I. SEEK and SOLVE “ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves …” opening lines of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Aristotle’s opening comment from the Metaphysics1 gives us a starting point for an exploration of…
Introduction This paper is a part of a larger project in which I argue that a reconnection with nature, and a reconceptualization of nature, are necessary accompaniments to a well developed sensus divinitatis. Schleiermacher talks about faith being neither a knowing nor a doing but a kind of feeling, a sense of absolute dependence, and…
Some contemporary researchers (e.g., NoÎ and Thompson, 2004) would have us believe that the acquisition and processing of information to produce thoughts takes place bymeans of electrochemical exchanges in the axons and dendrites of the brain. Our thinking process is said to be the product of a complex interaction of neurons and neurotransmitters, generated through…
INTRODUCTION The first true question we would propose is: can the manifestation of the human anthropology be exclusively explained in terms of brain actions, in extensive sense, or does it require the addition of new ontological essences that imply doubts about (even the destruction of) the monism principle? This complicate question, in my opinion, is…
The overwhelming disproportion of the size of the universe as compared to our human size has always been a matter of concern and surprise in the reflections about our relation with God and the Universe. Though God is thought to be beyond time and space, this disproportion is usually felt as amazing and paradoxical enough…
We do not have even a preliminary draft of a story of “culture,” i.e., human history, that has the degree of consensus that exists about our stories of cosmos and nature.
I will discuss, and refute, a number of classic arguments against the pantheistic/panentheistic worldview.