Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s

“Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition.  Specifically,                                        

the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”

© Peter Miesler, August 21, 2018

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The increasingly shrill and disconnected from physical reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals has me thinking about an essay evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen J. Gould wrote some twenty years ago in an attempt to address the tension between scientific truths and religious truths.

His solution was the notion of “Non-overlapping Magisteria” which delineated two teaching “authorities” (magisterium), the “magisteria of science” and the “magisteria of religion.” It wasn’t his original idea, rather a continuation of a centuries old dialogue between scientists and the Catholic Church that I don’t have the space to get into.

In any event, Gould concluded there should be no conflict because each realm has its’ own domain of “teaching authority.” Since these “magisteria” do not overlap, they cannot contradict each other and should be able to exist in mutual respect.

When it first came out

Earth Centrism = Geocentrism. Seriously ?

This was inspired by a conversation I had at CFI forum.

"Since you still sound confused about what I’m trying to enunciate, allow me to review what the term “Earth Centrism” actually means.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That video is almost a year old, the following post started over at the Center For Inquiry discussion Forum but since it provides me such a splendid opportunity to try and get through, I'm using it as a seed for the following clarification.  If you’re still confused please leave a question or serious comment, I’ll be happy to respond. 

W4U remarks:  “You may want to be careful with that analogy.  I’m not certain what you mean by that. And here is the reason why. “Geocentrism - Crackpot Theory?” ”  

{Playing Devil’s Advocate my long time CFI pal offers up this bizarre YouTube video, “Geocentrism - Crackpot Theory?” between a fatima.org guy, Chris Ferrara interviewing Robert Sungenis, whom I had to look up.  He’s known for being into “Catholic apologetics”.  

In others, words a god fearing religious guy - ergo, someone consumed within his Mindscape.  

8/7 Truth of Physical Reality vs Truth of our Human Mindscape

Completing the following essay is what inspired me to put together the 7/7 collection in the previous posts (having no jobs for that week helped).  It's been an exercise in distilling my lessons from a decade of active participation in the online climate science 'debate' and a half century of learning about Earth, evolution, geophysics, and her people through science and paying attention to unfolding of events.

I have been disheartened by the general apathy, but given that first and foremost this has been a self-study effort for me and that I have acquired a deeper understanding of our living creation than most, well that brings its own satisfaction.  Substance over facade and all that.  I wanted to peer inside the mind of the faith-shackled and get down into the mud pit of their malicious right wing attacks on rationality, climate science, physical facts in order to better understand their game.  It's up to others to decide if I succeeded.  With that, here's my favorite essay to finish out this particular effort.

   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s

“Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition.  Specifically,                                        

the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”

© Peter Miesler, August 21, 2018

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The increasingly shrill and disconnected from physical reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals has me thinking about an essay evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen J. Gould wrote some twenty years ago in an attempt to address the tension between scientific truths and religious truths.

His solution was the notion of “Non-overlapping Magisteria” which delineated two teaching “authorities” (magisterium), the “magisteria of science” and the “magisteria of religion.” It wasn’t his original idea, rather a continuation of a centuries old dialogue between scientists and the Catholic Church that I don’t have the space to get into.

In any event, Gould concluded there should be no conflict because each realm has its’ own domain of “teaching authority.” Since these “magisteria” do not overlap, they cannot contradict each other and should be able to exist in mutual respect.

When it first came out

f) Considering the Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

... and this one was the climax of my journey.  Doesn't matter much that few seem to get it or care, this one is my gem.  The culmination of my heroic introspective journey.  See, I was a genuine dharma bum, as a young man I threw myself to experiencing life and the road, the wind and my own wits.  Been able to walk in many shoes for a distance, known many beautiful people and have enjoyed many wonderful discussions, seen many ups and downs.  Back in those 70s, 80s our country wasn't so scared and angry.  Being of poor but healthy honest stock people hired me, so I had opportunities to work many diverse jobs and live many experiences over the succeeding decades.    Considering the odds I've had a great ride.  

I'm a bonafide student of the University of Life you could say.  Among my early professors were a parade of enthusiastic research librarians before the days of personal computers.   Next to living, there was keeping up on science news and proactively researching things that interested me and since understanding myself and the entire Earth and her story interested me, it's been a busy life.  I dare say I've been attentive to every day, good and bad.  These days I'd label myself an Earth Centrist and I've accumulated some deep understanding.  Here I was finally able to summarize it in a way that feels complete and that opens whole new vistas for me.  I fancy this my U of L Master's Thesis.    ;- )

(Evening Jan 1, 2019:  Spent many hours today reviewing this 6 post collection and making final changes, then more final adjustments, plus adding some closing observations at the end of this piece.  I do believe this annotated collection is now finished.   

Happy New Year to you and best wishes, cc.)

   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s

“Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition.  Specifically,                                        

the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The increasingly shrill and disconnected from physical reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals has me thinking about an essay evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen J. Gould wrote some twenty years ago in an attempt to address the tension between scientific truths and religious truths.

His solution was the notion of “Non-overlapping Magisteria” which delineated two teaching “authorities” (magisterium), the “magisteria of science” and the “magisteria of religion.” It wasn’t his original idea, rather a continuation of a centuries old dialogue between scientists and the Catholic Church that I don’t have the space to get into.

In any event, Gould concluded there should be no conflict because each realm has its’ own domain of “teaching authority.” Since these “magisteria” do not overlap, they cannot contradict each other and should be able to exist in mutual respect.

When it first came out

Demystifying Roger Penrose's Three Mysteries of Reality

In a recent discussion about Sir Roger Penrose’s '3 realms' view of reality, Penrose set the stage by listing his Three Mysteries:

1)   “Mysteries (of) the physical world, physical stuff.”

2)   Mystery of the “mental world that's our experiences, consciousness, feelings about things.”

3)   Mystery of “the world of mathematical abstraction”

(Below the fold I’ve transcribed the full quotes in context.)

Those points stopped me right there.  Before continuing I needed to be able to enunciate why I found the above so inadequate for such an exploration of reality.

Here I take a moment to suggest a more fruitful approach.  When Penrose mentioned “the mystery of physical stuff,”  there was no talk of Evolution.  Why?  

After all, all the physical stuff around us is the product of an evolutionary process that started billions of years before humanity and will continue billions of years after we are dust and forgotten - why ignore that this Earth created us and we will die back into it?  

Seems to me acquiring such an awareness is a prerequisite for any subsequence discussion.  While the omission relegates understanding Evolution to insignificance leaving our outlook on “reality” decidedly egocentric and myopic.

Index for Confronting Science Contrarians, citizenschallenge

Lets close out 2019 with an index of previous posts.  

Happy New Year (what a shame it rings more hollow than in times past.)  

A healthy democracy requires and informed and engaged citizenry.

My Mission Statement:

We The People have a moral ethical right - along with a pragmatic need - to learn what scientists have learned about this planet's biosphere and climate engine without constant dishonest crossfire.     

We should not tolerate serious scientists always being drown out by amoral, dishonest and frankly ignorant arguments - that an astoundingly ruthless PR factory repeats over and over again, without ever learning a damned thing from the evidence in front of us.       ( email @ citizenschallenge gmail com )

Confronting Science Contrarians BLOG ARCHIVE:

Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part one

Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part two

• ▼  2019 (83)
• ▼  December (7)
• Diary, 12/25/2019 - Rhetorical Jujutsu, case in point
• Questioning the Geologic Column. Mind over Matter.
• Examining an Intellectual Juvenile Delinquent, "Anonymous", Dec 12, 2019
• Bringing it back to Earth Centrism
• Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part two
• Introduction to Cc's Pageant of Evolution project.
• Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part one

Why Accept Malicious Willful Ignorance and the Embrace of Lies?

I haven't posted anything since the COVID-19 roller coaster hit us and truth be told I'm feeling too angry and contemptuous of our current leaders, business, political, news oligarchs and their continued delusionals thinking spawned contempt for health experts and serious professional scientists.  

I don't have anything to add, except for focusing on enunciating my perspective and specifics about our dysfunctional public dialogue.  Perhaps better defining our need for some genuine militancy in defense of respecting Physical Reality along with truth and Honest Constructive Debates, where good faith learning is the goal.

Unfortunately, or then again perhaps fortunately, I've gotten myself involved in a different and very time consuming project so, other than the usual fits and starts and sloppy notes, I haven't done much beyond letting it simmer.  Though I have been writing, it's been over at Center For Inquiry where I can let my hair down in a way I won't do around here.

The following comes from a thread I started at CFI - simply food for thought: 

REGARDING MALICIOUS WILLFUL IGNORANCE AND THE EMBRACE OF LIES.

https://centerforinquiry.org/forums/topic/regarding-malicious-willful-ignorance-and-the-embrace-of-lies/page/4/#post-326347

please click on the images for a clear version.

Or visit the post itself and participate in a discussion.

______________________________________________________________

Perhaps I should add the first post of this thread

______________________________________________________________

For what it's worth:

DECEMBER 30, 2018

d) Considering our dysfunctional public dialogue in 14 verses.

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/our-dysfunctional-public-dialogue.html

a) Who says understanding Earth’s Evolution is irrelevant? 2018

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/earths-evolution-is-irrelevant-2018.html

DECEMBER 31, 2018

f) Considering the Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-missing-key-gould.html

e) Map v Territory Problem, Statistical Certainty vs Geophysical Realities

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/statistical-certainty-vs-geophysical.html

DECEMBER 30, 2018

c) Intellectually Confronting Faith-Based thinking and Dogma Driven Deceptions

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/confronting-faith-based-delusions.html

b) Saying No To Reality. Questioning the Geologic Column.

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/saying-no-to-reality-questioning.html

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Considering a Fundamental Cosmic Truth

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2020/02/accepting-fundamental-cosmic-truth.html

FEBRUARY 22, 2020

Diary - Musing on a half Century of Climate Science Awareness, 2020-02-22

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2020/02/diary-half-century-agw-awareness.html

DECEMBER 25, 2019

Diary, 12/25/2019 - Rhetorical Jujutsu, case in point.

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2019/12/diary-rhetorical-jujutsu-caseinpoint.html

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Bringing it back to Earth Centrism

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2019/12/bringing-it-back-to-earth-centrism.html

DECEMBER 7, 2019

Introduction to Cc's Pageant of Evolution project.

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2019/12/introduction-pageant-evolution-project.html

Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part two

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2019/12/pageant-of-earth-evolution-1.html

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2019/12/pageant-of-earth-evolution-in-24hr-part.html

STOP CALLING SURFACE "COOLING" GLOBAL COOLING ! ! !

https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2018/12/stop-calling-surface-cooling-global.html

email:  citizenschallenge gmail dot come

Diary 4/24/19_Democrats Stop Talking Past GOP Trumpsters (index)

We’re* going to lose this struggle to save American democracy if we continue talking past each other!  Trump supporters, or rather their arguments and PR strategies, must be better recognized and exposed and understood and vocally countered by an energized, engaged grassroots movement!

Stop following the GOP script - get better educated and eloquent and create a new one.  Then directly address Trumpism and the vandalism its inflicting upon our society - something that has not been happening.

Intellectually Confronting the Faith-blinded and the Faith-shackled would provide a much needed second benefit, to better educate OUR OWN people, who for the most part don't understand today's issues and rather withdraw within the comforts of consumerism than get engaged.

What is “Earth Centrism”?

edited November 5, 2021

The Earth Centrist’s perspective acknowledges that Earth; her material constituents and physical processes, unfolding one day at a time, are our fundamental touchstone with reality.  We acknowledge Earth and glory in understanding her pageant of Evolution and appreciating how that pageant is reflected within our own bodies. 

We find justification in the physical fact that humans were created out of Earth's processes. 

Science shows us that we belong to the mammalian branch of one of Earth’s amazing animal kingdoms.  Yet, it’s undeniable that something quite unique happened around six million years ago when certain apes took a wild improbable evolutionary turn.

By and by, besides the marvel of our two hands, we developed two feet and legs that could stand tall or run for hours and a growing brain that learned rapidly and remembered. 

During this period our brain physically morphed in some significant ways that enabled it to host a profound leap in cognitive information processing, storage and retrieval ability. 

On the outside hominids learned to make tools, hunt, fish, and select plants, plus they mastered fire for cooking and better living.

On the inside our brains were growing and benefiting from the new super nourishment while human curiosity and adventures started filling and stretching our Mindscapes with experiences and knowledge beyond anything the "natural" physical Earth ever knew.

By Mindscape, I mean the product of all that our body/brain perceives and processes, which of course, evolutionarily speaking, was dependent on our brain’s hardware keeping pace with and driving the ever increasing volume of information and thoughts.

While the human mind and spirit seem ineffable mysteries, they are also of tremendous consequence and real-world physical power.  They drove our growing ability to study and manipulate our world; to communicate and record our experiences; and to formulate explanations for a world full of mysteries, threats and wonders.

People learned to think and gossip and paint pictures upon the canvas of cave walls, and even better, upon the canvas of each other’s imaginations.  We’ve been adding to our mind’s awareness and complexity ever since.

Appreciating the Physical Reality ~ Human Mindscape divide

edited November 5, 2021

I believe, consciousness, “mind,” can’t be understood by studying modern people in these modern times.  It requires an evolutionary perspective of the natural, biological forces at work in concert with geologic processes that produced creatures that eventually evolved into us.  It me it seems rather self-evident that our current masterpiece body/mind is the result of hundreds of millions of "experiments", untold iterations unfolding over an unimaginable expanse of seasons and generations.  

So how can we ponder the human brain and mind without appreciating how it evolved out of the mammalian body plan and life style.

A couple years ago I realized that for all the talk about body-mind, consciousness, perception, reality, or no reality, there’s a most fundamental divide, that I believe, needs to be explicitly enunciated and thought about.  A prerequisite before anything else can really start to make sense. 

Physical Reality is the physical world of atoms, molecules, universal laws of physics and Earth’s laws of nature.  It is Earth’s dance between geology and biology and time and Earth's evolving creatures, (and one in particular that learned to contemplate the universe and its short life), along with everything else around us.

Human Mindscape is all that goes on inside of our minds.  The landscape of your thoughts and desires and impulses and those various voices and personalities who inhabit our thoughts.  The ineffable ideas that our hands can turn into physical creations, that changed our planet.  

Mike Hulme's Tenacious Grip on Physical Reality. An examination.

After reading Hulme's "Am I a denier, a human extinction denier?" he invites us to read: "‘We Always Get the Weather We Deserve’: The Tenacious Grip of Moral Accountability."   So I did.  It was an even deeper exploration into his Mindscape rather than climate science.  Needless to say, this essay also deserves a serious examination.

I'm looking for a job, researcher and writer, 
dedicated to confronting the deliberate calculated lies 
of the climate science contrarian community!
PO Box 56
Durango, Colorado 81326
citizenschallenge - at - gmail com

@ mikehulme.org  |  25/01/2018

TEXT REPRINTED UNDER PROTECTION OF FAIR USE COPYRIGHT LAWS. 

My intention is a review of ‘libertarian' deception in action. 

________________________________________________________________

Abstract: 

Different cosmologies, religious thought, political ideologies, social practices and scientific paradigms of knowledge all contribute to the rich cultural matrix in which theories of climatic change and causation have emerged, flourished and declined. 

____________

Sure, but lets be clear, this is about our inner perceptions and not about understanding our climate system.

Introducing A New Philosophical Perspective: Earth Centrism (1/2)

 Inviting Intelligent Critique & Constructive Challenges:

Introducing a New Philosophical Perspective.

Peter Miesler, September 2022

Founded on a life time of learning through the findings of scientists.

Earth Centrism

Because Earth is our ultimate touchstone with reality and ourselves.

This insight leads to a realization that, for this complex living Earth that we experience, to exist at all, is proof positive that our Earth evolved down one particular pathway, no matter what we people imagine one way or the other. 

Ours is to figure it out and appreciate - not to presume to define it!

We appreciate that we are evolved biological creatures born of Earth’s processes, as expressed through its singular Evolutionary Pageant.

We appreciate the profound divide between physical reality, that is matter, biology, laws of nature, on the one hand, and on the other, our thoughts unfolding within our amazing minds, (or more descriptively, within the realm of our “human mindscape").  

We appreciate that fundamentally, awareness and life’s “consciousness spectrum” started over a couple billion years ago with the invention, then prospering, of the unbelievably complex organization of Eukaryote cells (some suggest guided by microtubules).  

Consider that in due time these cells created colonies of cells that demonstrated a sense of place and order and purpose or the organism would have dissolved into a chaotic blob.  Increasingly complex creatures depended, at every step, on increasing awareness, sensing, data processing, physical systems growth & maintenance, internal communication along with improving and refining manipulatory abilities.   

By and by, along came one particular clade the eutherians, small nocturnal insect eaters who gave birth to the class of mammalian animals, which begat the primates, which begat hominids, which begat our modern humankind species. 

Every stage required new refinements and developments within the complex sensing/body/brain system and the mind they collectively produce - refinements that are dependent on previous refinements and lessons.  Your Being is the sum total of all the days of Evolution that went into producing the human form you possess and live through, while your mind reflects the sum total of all the days you’ve lived and experienced.

I believe a genuine understanding of oneself starts with the realization that we are an evolved biological sensing creature, and that our consciousness is fundamentally the inside reflection of your body/brain dealing with itself and the environment/circumstance it is embedded within.  

This understanding leads to another inevitable realization, namely that our “Gods” are in truth creations of our minds, tailored by our self-serving egos. Which is okay, if one doesn’t take their God, or themselves, too seriously. 

 

“I Am, therefore I Think”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diary: Is anybody out there? (what is Earth Centrism?)

Should you care?  Do you care?

What is Earth Centrism anyways?

Earth Centrism is an Emergent Appreciation, when all those insights one’s collected come together into a tapestry, a pageant of life and circumstance so harmonic and graspable that it blossoms into a visceral feeling that infuses one’s body.

That’s when Earth Centrism begins to mean something.

I am an element in the flow of creation and it is good.

Earth Centrism, is a perspective on our human condition that’s based on the understanding that Earth is our fundamental touchstone with Physical Reality and that we are creatures of Earth’s own natural processes.

Earth Centrism comes from appreciating the “Human Mindscape ~ Physical Reality divide” and getting a handle on how the three Abrahamic traditions, that are fundamentally self-serving and self-obsessed, continues dominating philosophical though to this day. The Mind/Brain conundrum, the Hard Problem of Consciousness, are ancient arguments dressed up in modern language.

Earth Centrism is founded on the understanding that scientific study of the material world is our best window into understanding physical reality, because Science is, at it’s core, a set of rules for observing and recording and learning about our natural world that strives as much as possible to eliminate the human ego from its deliberations.

Science is founded on an unspoken understanding that we need each other to keep ourselves honest. It’s a community of educated, competitive, skeptical, experts who are constantly looking over each other’s shoulders. With fidelity to honesty being their Golden Rule.

I also contend that science, at its core, offers spiritual/mystical challenges, experiences and resolutions, well beyond the traditions of our human made, ego straddled, religions with their tunnel vision and that resentment towards Earth and learning.

Further reading for the curious: