Chardin's book, The Phenomenon of Man is a game changer of the first magnitude. Sir Julian Huxley describes it in these terms. "In the Phenomenon Of Man he has effected a threefold synthesis of the material and physical world with the world of mind and spirit; of the past with the future; and of variety with unity, the many with the one." Wow! Almost sounds like the description of a script from Star Trek, except that its foundation is solid science, not metaphysics. In fact, although I love science, the first part of the book is all pure science, and is a little tough sledding. I believe Chardin wrote the book in this manner because he is first a scientist and wanted to fortify his ideas on the "World without", and the "World within" on solid ground. "To think we must eat." Sounds Zen.
When a physicist describes entropy, my sense is that the world is going to "Wind down" and stop moving eventually. As Warren Zevon would say, "Not that pretty at all." A skull resides behind the flowers type of thinking. Chardin believes that mankind is taking the lead in evolution and this world is "Winding up" to be more and more exciting as time moves along. This makes the end game fascinating rather than a hum drum entropy forecast by some in the community.
3 comments:
I'd rather feel bad, than feel nohtin' at all! And this picture was taken at the Stanley hotel- where they filmed the shinning starring Jack Nicholson... which is said to be haunted. yikes.
Sounds way more positive than doom and the end of the world. Of course when people say they are worried about the end of the world,what they mean is they are worried about the end of people. I think the world will be just fine!
I'm tempted to check out the book but am afraid I won't be able to keep those sixfold threefolds straight! D
D, I think you would enjoy the book. The second time I read the book, I skimmed some of the heavy science at the beginning because Chardin had already proved his theory to take those quantum leaps as far as I was concerned.
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