War of the Worldviews

In the realm of science fiction, there is an ongoing battle betwixt humans and hostile agencies which are dispersed throughout the capacious cosmos. The battle plays out in literature, television sitcoms, movies, comics, and even theater. The aliens have powerful ships that shoot matter-melting lasers, or fleets that outnumber ours, or even an intelligence that outwits ours. Usually and miraculously, we somehow defeat the hostile agencies right at the last moment. We, the cosmic underdogs, somehow pull off an upset victory over the unruly, slimy, and incensed aliens. Go humanity!

If I were a materialist--an animate thinker shackled to the reason-wall in some dank secular cell--I would view this ongoing battle as an anthropomorphic drama. The aliens are strictly an elaborate construct of a finely tuned imagination in the materialist's schema. Nothing more, for there is nothing more beyond the firing neurons that make-up the heavens and hells of imaginative thought. Conversely, if I were a spiritual explorer--an animate thinker who tries to discover or unveil the metaphysical truths inherent in nature and reality--I would view the ongoing battle as a necessary drama that values the imagination and the divine basis of all of our colorful thoughts.

The materialist: the imagination is the epiphenomenal vomit of overactive neurons. The spiritual explorer: the imagination is a holographic thought-medium that creates matter. Who is right? Who is wrong? Mind before matter, or matter before mind?

In the book I am currently reading, "War of the Worldviews," Deepak Chopra goes head-to-head with Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard defends the position of people like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins. Deepak Chopra defends the position of people like Ken Wilber and Amit Goswami. Leonard prefers reductionism. Deepak prefers holistic understanding. The writing from both scholars is engaging and thought-provoking, and the topics they explore--the emergence of life, mind, and everything in between--are deeply philosophical, relevant, and important in this postmodern age of clashing paradigms and paradigmatic synthesis.

Deepak defends the paramount role of consciousness in evolution. Leonard derides it. Deepak says evolution has a purpose. Leonard denies the teleological angle altogether. Deepak says the cosmos is moving towards a state of endless complexity and conservation (evolution is in an eternal state of mutation). Leonard says entropy will rule the roost at the end of the cosmos, and disorder will reign supreme at the end of time. Thankfully, Deepak and Leonard have little faith in the mythological perspective of religious zealots.

Back to the book, and the battle against those dreaded space pirates!