Post by MagnetMan on Feb 21, 2008 13:56:35 GMT -5
Tailhard was a Jesuit priest as well as a world renowned man of science. He was present at the discovery of Peking man and became an acknowledged expert on the evolution of mankind. His particular focus was on the evolution of consciousness. He was interested not only in the origins of consciousness, but its ultimate destiny: Where is our evolution taking us?
This question positioned him as a man caught right in the middle of the two major conflicting world views
His scientific arguments on the orgins of man from our primate beginnings, put him odds with the Vatican who insisted that his scientific papas remain unpublished. His religious belief on the essential Divine nature of consciousness put him at odds with the lodge of science. His papers were only published after his death. Tailhard died precisely in the day he predicted, 10th April 1955, Good Friday.
The dichotomy of de Chardin's thought was then, and still is today, shared by thousands of other luminaries, including Albert Einstein who died eight days after Tailhard.
It is also the position shared by some 200 million New Agers who also struggle to find a meeting ground between science and God.
Sir Julian Huxley had some penetrating remarks to say about Tailhard's awkward position on the world stage
"In the Phenomenon of Man, de-Chardin has effected a three-fold 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. ...he is able to envisage the whole of knowable reality not as a static mechanism but as a process." Sir Julian Huxley
Below are a few of Tailhards remarks. I thought it might be interesting to hear what members might contribute to this never-ending argument.
Extracts from the Phenomenon of Man, Tailhard De Chardin
"Admittedly an animal knows, but it cannot know it knows itself."
"Reflection is, as the word indicates, the power acquired by a consciousness to turn in upon itself, to take possession of itself as an object endowed with it own particular consistence and value: "
In the evolution of this planet "we saw geogenesis promoted to biogenesis which has turned out in the end to be nothing but psychogenesis."
"With homonisation ...we have th beginning if a new age. The earth gets a new skin. Better still it finds it soul."
This question positioned him as a man caught right in the middle of the two major conflicting world views
His scientific arguments on the orgins of man from our primate beginnings, put him odds with the Vatican who insisted that his scientific papas remain unpublished. His religious belief on the essential Divine nature of consciousness put him at odds with the lodge of science. His papers were only published after his death. Tailhard died precisely in the day he predicted, 10th April 1955, Good Friday.
The dichotomy of de Chardin's thought was then, and still is today, shared by thousands of other luminaries, including Albert Einstein who died eight days after Tailhard.
It is also the position shared by some 200 million New Agers who also struggle to find a meeting ground between science and God.
Sir Julian Huxley had some penetrating remarks to say about Tailhard's awkward position on the world stage
"In the Phenomenon of Man, de-Chardin has effected a three-fold 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. ...he is able to envisage the whole of knowable reality not as a static mechanism but as a process." Sir Julian Huxley
Below are a few of Tailhards remarks. I thought it might be interesting to hear what members might contribute to this never-ending argument.
Extracts from the Phenomenon of Man, Tailhard De Chardin
"Admittedly an animal knows, but it cannot know it knows itself."
"Reflection is, as the word indicates, the power acquired by a consciousness to turn in upon itself, to take possession of itself as an object endowed with it own particular consistence and value: "
In the evolution of this planet "we saw geogenesis promoted to biogenesis which has turned out in the end to be nothing but psychogenesis."
"With homonisation ...we have th beginning if a new age. The earth gets a new skin. Better still it finds it soul."
