A Physicist's Resolution Between Darwinism And Intelligent Design
I've added some youtube videos that illustrate the spiritual perspective from which Goswami speaks. The book is much closer to science than the videos.
Creative Evolution: A Physicist's Resolution Between Darwinism And Intelligent Design
Creative Evolution: A Physicist's Resolution Between Darwinism and Intelligent Design
Amazon Price: $17.79 (as of 11/22/2009)
Scientific materialism is a metaphysical assumption
(page 13) "Any organizing principle that is nonmaterial is automatically excluded from science by definition. However, mainstream scientists themselves, biologists included, have a fundamental but unproven metaphysical assumption behind their work called scientific materialism."
An analysis of the limitations of Darwinian Evolution
A critique of conventional biology
- Why has evolution proceeded in jumps and starts? Darwin himself predicted a gradual evolution.
- Recent discoveries make it clear that not all inherited traits are genetic in source.
That is: gene expression is regulated by something other than genes. - How can consciousness emerge out of matter?
The basic illustration of this question is the computer: it can do all kinds of things, but it cannot process meaning - and that's a fundamental property, not something that merely requires more calculating power. So where does our sense of meaning come from?
The last point is the one that is most fundamental, but the other ones can't be easily explained away either. The basic charge against mainstream biology that Amit Goswami levels is: Darwinian evolution is not a scientific theory because it cannot be falsified as used at present. For this reason he reformulates the theory in various ways throughout the book. Some variations are clearly true, some can be proven wrong. Either way - logic demands more than biology gives.
In other words: is the creativity of nature an 'emergent property' or the result of some inherent consciousness in the universe? Amit Goswami answers that consciousness is primary and matter secondary. I'm not sure where I stand on this - but I can't believe that matter itself is creative.
"Difficult, profound, imaginative and probably true"
What do you think of Amit Goswami's version of creationism?
Do you buy this version of Intelligent Design?
The fundamental point
If matter cannot even process meaning or organize consciousness, how then can matter produce meaning and consciousness as adaptive epiphenomena from which nature may select? (p. 19)
Amit Goswami, Quantum Physics & Consciousness 1 of 3
Biology is an incomplete science
(page 8) "Every biologist must be painfully aware that biology is an incomplete science. It needs new organizing principles, ones that are nonphysical and nonmaterial, to explain three perennial mysteries: the difference between life and nonlife, the development of an embryo into an adult biological form, and, as emphasized here and by Eldredge and Gould, the discontinuous epochs of evolution. Unfortunately, it is not politically correct for biologist to admit these shortcomings in public."
My blogposts about Quantum Spirituality
Goswami's version of Intelligent Design explored
- Limits to quantum mechanics and spiritual freedom
- I've been reading Creative Evolution: A Physicist's Resolution Between Darwinism and Intelligent Design, by Amit Goswami. I'm impressed, the chemist in me (I was taught some quantum physics in college) doesn't find fault. Nor does the biologist or the philosopher (I took biology and philosophy of religion classes in college too).
But I do have some reservations with the implications of Amit Goswami's quantum spirituality for our every day lives. And I have quantum physical reasons to back them up too. I hope you all don't mind a little chemistry lesson today. - What makes us human? about evolution and religion
- Just summing up what biology has to say about this - purely from a genetic standpoint.
- Creating the universe: consciousness choosing to observe
- Quantum spirituality explained and questioned from the perspective of classic quantum physics.
- Tangled hierarchies and the creative evolution of consciousness
- The core of Amit Goswami's argument in his 'Creative Evolution' is that consciousness is an active force in 'creation'. And at the heart of that argument is the argument of tangled hierarchies.
- Upward, downward and pluralistic causation
- Does consciousness cause everything (Goswami)? Or matter (classic scientism)? Or something else?
- Unity in diversity - about a holistic approach
- The traditional spiritual approach - in East AND West - is that there is unity behind all that diversity. Christians and Muslims call that unity God, in Vedanta it's called Mulaprakriti. So I went walking just now to clear my head and come up with a new way of writing about this. I'm afraid though, that even the beauty of the sound of the wind in the leaves of the trees did not help me with this. So bear with me as I repeat what to many of you may already be obvious:
Humans have total freedom, in God Consciousness
(page 33) "In God-consciousness, we have total freedom to choose among the possibilities that quantum dynamics offers for the states of quantum objects. Conditioning limits this freedom of choice in favor of past responses to stimuli (learning). Eventually, we become conditioned to identify with a particular pattern of habits for responding to stimuli; this identification is the ego."
Amit Goswami, Quantum Physics & Consciousness 2 of 3
Why do I feel seperate from you?
Consciousness chooses among the possible choices
(pages 203-203) "In quantum thinking, genetic determinism gives only part of the answer - the possible variations. However, natural selection in Darwinian form cannot collapse these possibilities into an actual change; that requires consciousness. But if we reinterpret `natural selection' as choice by nature in the form of Gaia-consciousness according to the creative requirements of the situation, this selection can collapse the possibilities into actually."
Amit Goswami on Wikipedia
Amit Goswami is a theoretical nuclear physicist and member of The University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics since 1968, teaching physics for 32 years. After a period of distress and frustration in his private and professional life starting at the age 38, his research interests shifted to quantum cosmology, quantum measurement theory, and applications of quantum mechanics to the mind-body problem. He became best known as one of the interviewed scientists featured in the 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know!?. Goswami is also featured in the recent documentary about the Dalai Lama entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance, and stars in the newly released documentary "The Quantum Activist"
Unitive consciousness is God-consciousness
(page 32) "We choose not from ordinary ego-consciousness, but from a nonordinary state of unitive consciousness - call it quantum consciousness. You can easily recognize, though, if you are familiar with esoteric spiritual traditions, that this unitive character of consciousness is widely recognized as God-consciousness. Quantum physics is introducing God-consciousness as the agent of downward causation."
Amit Goswami, Quantum Physics & Consciousness 3 of 3
Ultimately it's about BOTH God consciousness, AND individual consciousness. The place from which I create - there we are ONE. The individual, the I, the ego has to prepare. It then has to use the insight in this world.
Spiritual traditions sometimes denigrate the individual. It's both the meaning of the individual and the movement of the whole. It can not be otherwise.
What did you think about Creative Evolution?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byFossil Gaps - about the speed of evolution
(page 15) "According to theoretical predictions of Darwinism and its later versions, there should have been thousand upon thousands of reported cases of intermediates filling up most of the fossil gaps. That hasn't happened, and therefore the question of the fossil gaps cannot be refuted simply because a few cases of transitional fossils have been found."
More books by Amit Goswami
Vote for your favorites, or add any I missed.
God Is Not Dead: What Quantum Physics Tells Us about Our Origins and How We Should Live by Amit Goswami
'God Is Not Dead' is a fascinating guided tour of more...0 points
The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightment by Amit Goswami
A thrilling synthesis of science and mysticism by more...0 points
Physics of the Soul: The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation and Immortality by Amit Goswami
At last, science and the soul shake hands. Writing more...0 points
The Quantum Doctor: A Physicist's Guide to Health and Healing by Amit Goswami
For Amit Goswami, Ph.D., a leading quantum physici more...0 points
The Self-Aware Universe by Amit Goswami
Consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all ex more...0 points
What's the buzz about Creative Evolution
A Physicist's Resolution Between Darwinism And Intelligent Design?
- The Quantum Activist (2009) DVDRip XViD
- Amit Goswami, Ph.D., a pioneer of this revolutionary new perspective shares with us his vision of the unlimited potential of consciousness as the ground of all being, and how this revelation helps us to live better. ...
- podcast: evolving ideas & creative evolution
- dr. goswami discusses creative evolution on evolving ideas radio show with elaine smitha. if evolution is growth and change, just how does it differ from the creative process itself. a conundrum it seems. tune in to hear dr. goswami ...
- Paylaşım Güzeldir.: Dr. AMIT GOSWAMI
- Creative Evolution adl? yeni kitab?nda Darwincilik ile ya?am?n zeki tasar?m sonucu oldu?u görü?ü aras?ndaki çat??may? uzla?t?ran Goswami, God is not Dead adl? en yeni kitab?nda ise bilimin Tanr?'y? yeniden ke?fedi?ini ele almaktad?r. ...
The biological arrow of time
(page 77) "With an understanding of the evolution toward complexity, the biological arrow of time is no longer a mystery. As organisms get more sophisticated as a result of evolution, they represent within themselves more and more sophistication. Over the course of this change, the organism become more sophisticated in processing feeling. And all this creation of complexity, this increasing order and sophistication, requires the involvement of creativity from consciousness."
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What does this mean to you?
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Reply
- JoDeeVale JoDeeVale Jun 25, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
- I am a HUGE fan of Amit Goswami! He makes the unfathomable understandable to those of us that merely dabble in quantum physics! It is truly remarkable that science and spirituality are meeting in the same place!
I am featuring this lens here: http://www.squidoo.com/evolution_consciousness
Thank you for creating this! Blessings!
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Reply
- Jun 19, 2009 @ 1:28 pm
- For those who take the time to read and study the new and advanced science discoveries that are being made, without prejudice, are in for a glorious journey of self understanding, as well as understanding the earth and the universe, the cycles, the mathematics, and the history.
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Reply
- CleanerLife CleanerLife Jun 15, 2009 @ 11:18 am
- Very interesting. I've believed for a long time that belief in Evolution takes just as much faith as belief in Creationism. It is interesting how some people who claim to be skeptics, and bash Creationism, simply put their skepticism aside when it comes to Evolution. I'll have to check this book out for myself, I haven't heard of Amit Goswami before, but he sounds fascinating.
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