A definite great read..

-Bill-Bartmann

I recently posted this on a members on Freedom From Religion Foundation forum site:

As I continue with the introduction of this subject of Symbols and Symbolic Form vis-à-vis Evolution, let me introduce some further foundation elements from Clifford Geertz (see The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973, ISBN 0-456-09719-7 [paper]) and Ernst Cassirer (see Language and Myth, 1946, Std Book # 486-20051-5 and Symbol, Myth, and Culture, 1979, ISBN 0-300-02666-8 [paper]).

Within Cassirer’s marvelous “little book” (99 pages) of Language and Myth, he pursues in summary form, a discussion of key issues, that also serve as the chapter headings – The Place of Language and Myth in the Pattern of Human Culture; The Evolution of Religious Ideas; Language and Conception; Word Magic; The Successive Phase of Religious Thought; and the Power of Metaphor.

Although Clifford Geertz tends to minimize the accomplishments of Cassirer throughout his book cited above, Geertz does go into detail (as a cultural anthropologist) about the significance of the three-fold increase of the skull size of Homo sapiens sapiens over the past 3 million years of species adaptive differentiation due primarily to the use of tools and Symbols and Symbolic Form.

For both Cassirer and Geertz key elements are that Homo sapiens sapiens are not only a social animal, but also an animal that externalizes (and subsequently teaches internalization of) culture from generation to generation through Symbols and Symbolic Form. Thus, Symbols serve both a conservative normative function of Cultural preservation through time – and through genetic mutation that effect both language and conception over time, stimulate new thoughts through the creative powers of word magic and metaphor. Therefore, quite literally, the three-fold increase in the size of brain-mass over these past 3 million years brings forward an increase in the abstracting abilities and expressions within the species. As genetics change over time, Symbols and Symbolic Form become more abstract over time.

A rather simplistic example of the significance of these phenomena would be that of the concept of the Space-Time continuum from the days of Ptolemy to our present day. In the days of Ptolemy, due to observation and “divine revelation”, Earth-centricity became the excepted norm in explaining the motions of “heavenly bodies” throughout the universe – a learned Symbolic tradition lasting better than 17 centuries throughout the academic community within the Western tradition. As observation of the “heavenly bodies” became more acute throughout these 17 centuries of observation, the Symbolic concept of Epicycles found addition to Earth-centrism to reconcile observation with the Symbolic Theory of Earth-centrism.

Even when Galileo introduces a new tool, the telescope, to enhance observation, the normative functions of the Symbolic Theory of Earth-centrism remain in force throughout Western academia for some time. However, over time, the use of tools (the telescope) and Copernicus’ Symbolic Theory of Helio-centrism change the Symbolic representation of how one views the motion of “heavenly bodies” within our little nook of the Universe. Newton contributes further Symbolic representation to the Copernican Symbolic system in an “explanation” of Gravity through the famous Symbolic Mathematical formula of the inverse square law – that works kinda, sorta – but mysteriously works at a distance. The Newtonian Symbolic Theory lasts but just a few centuries through Western academia.

It took Einstein’s Mathematically Symbolic representation of Gravity being a local (rather than distant) phenomenon to bring us up to date with the Space-Time continuum. This also leads to an expanded Symbolic representation of the size of the Universe from the days of Copernicus (largely limited to our solar system), through the time of Newton (where the Milky Way is viewed as the Universe) to our present time of Einstein (where the Big Bang of 13,700 Million years ago) is the current understanding throughout Western academia.

Returning to our topic at hand – Symbols and Symbolic Form vis-à-vis Evolution – and how this relates to differences between Atheism and the various Theisms of every shape and kind (from Christian, to Islam, to Buddhist, to Taoism, to Zen, to National Socialism, to Stalinist Communism, to Native American Spiritualism, etc. [ad nausea]) – one becomes aware that Symbols and Symbolic Form permeates everything. And most importantly – provides the key in differentiation between Propaganda and Epistemology – the study of how one knows what one knows. In short – in the contest between Atheism and Theism – what is Epistemology for one is Propaganda for the other – and vice versa. But this – Epistemology for one being Propaganda for the other – is another topic for another day.

Bob Allen