Why Darwinism Matters

It's just amazing to me the rationale that people will use to justify their behavior and paychecks. Please don't ask me to even seriously consider that "rape is not a pathology" but rather an "evolutionary adaptation, and strategy for maximizing reproductive success" as proposed in "The Natural History of Rape". I can't even believe that this topic has been seriously debated in the hallowed halls of academia for years! Seriously speaking, I want to know who funded such 'research' and paid for the publication of such a book. I think that these men need to spend a lifetime as a woman in Africa where rape is used by the guerrillas as a terrorist method to keep the people down and female genital mutilation is routinely practiced...then, we can have the conversation about rape once again and see if their opinions have changed.

And as far as author Thornhill's comment about "evolutionary background...not (being) a debatable matter", perhaps no one has told him that it's a working theory (which means it has and will continue to change) -not- cold, hard fact as he implies. In my estimation, Thornhill is simply co-opting evolutionary theory to justify his perspective and make his point.

In my estimation, Thornbill's approach is totally left-brained. As neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor writes in her illuminating book, My Stroke Of Insight: "one of the most prominent characteristics of our left brain is its ability to weave stories...it thrives on details, details, and more details; using words to describe, define, categorize and communicate about everything...our left brain is brilliant in its ability to make stuff up...and quite the genius in its ability to manufacture alternative scenarios...either good or awful, it's particularly effective about hooking into those circuits of emotion and exhausting the 'what-if' possibilities". Similarly, the "left brain language center defines our self by saying 'I am'...it is the home of our ego center...excels at academics...and manifests a sense of authority over the details it masters". In addition, our left brains "...understand everything using deductive reasoning... and manifests the concept of time by stringing the complex moments of experience in timely succession of past, present and future". In short, the left brain analyses the details of our experience by breaking them down into component parts and creating "loops of thought patterns" which it compares to previous sensory memories, using "pattern recognition", based on past experience.

By comparison, the right brain, "functions like a parallel processor" which "thinks in pictures and perceives the big picture of the present moment" where "no time exists other than the present...vibrant with sensations, thoughts, emotions and physiological responses...it thinks intuitively outside the box...it is spontaneous, carefree, and imaginative without inhibition or judgement..perceives how everything is related, how we all join together to make up the whole..contains our ability to be empathetic, to walk in the shoes of others and feel their feelings...interprets nonverbal communication and evaluates subtle cues of language, tone of voice, facial expression, and body language...it is biologically designed to readily tune in to our physiology." Jill's stroke of insight was that our right brains are "directly connected to our deep feelings of inner peace, love, joy and compassion" and their expression in the world.

So, why this treatise on the brain and how it works? Because, as Jill says, "the two halves of our brains don't just perceive and think in different ways at a neurological level, but they demonstrate very different values based on the types of information they perceive, and thus exhibit very different personalities"...which is why we need to use them in concert with one another...which Thornbill definitely is not doing. Were he and the other authors to be using both sides of their brains, they would also by extension connect to their hearts and souls...and very probably reach very different conclusions than those presented in their book.

I also take issue with Churchland's comments about the "human mind evolving to enhance the organisms chances of survival"; I see our evolution as a process striving towards knowing our own essentially divine nature. The capacity for which is determined by our level of consciousness and awareness -or- not.

And when Darwin argues that the "human mind cannot give us any real truth", I would say it would be more accurate to say the physiological left brain sans the incorporation of the right brain and the mind/consciousness/soul which strives through divine inspiration to seek knowledge of it's ultimate reality at the quantum level of spirit/God/divinity.

As to whether or not "naturalism is the new paganism", I don't think we need a new paradigm; rather, we need to honor the old ones. Deva Premal writes in the liner notes of her CD Moola Mantra, "unity in diversity is the only way for humanity to live in harmony", and I quite agree.

And as Deepak Chopra so eloquently states in his book How to Know God, our understanding of God, and I would dare say the very nature of our existence and evolution (on all levels),
evolves depending on our soul level and spiritual development. Thus, our comprehension of what God means to us is a direct reflection of physiological reactions in the brain itself which shape consciousness. And "free will" allows us to make choices both desirable and undesirable, which is how we grow and learn, ultimately moving toward the shared goal of self-realization.

So, our thinking and ideology, theories and beliefs (be they personal or institutionalized) are all a reflection of and projection of our individual belief systems; and as such create a 'snap-shot' in time of where any one of us is in our personal evolutionary process.