The following is cross-posted from my HuffPost blog (where it has received 200 comments). It is also posted on Connie‘s and my Metanexus blog, here.

We are in the early stages of what I think historians will one day call religion’s Evidential Reformation. Increasingly, most of us (the devout included) relate to scientific, historic and cross-cultural evidence as more authoritative than the dictates of an all-male ecclesiastical body or a literalist reading of Scripture.

A good example of this is a recent Christianity Today cover story: “The Search for the Historical Adam,” which noted that a growing number of evangelical leaders are shedding a traditional reading of Genesis because of what’s been revealed through genetic evidence. In the words of Francis Collins and Karl Giberson, “Literalist readings of Genesis imply that God specifically created Adam and Eve, and that all humans are descended from these original parents. Such readings, unfortunately, do not fit the evidence.”

Just as Augustine reinterpreted Christianity in light of Plato in the fourth century, and Aquinas integrated Aristotle in the 13^th, today there are dozens of theologians across the spectrum re-envisioning the Christian faith (including leading evangelicals). Whose ideas are they integrating now? Darwin, Einstein, Hubble, Wilson and all who have contributed to an evidence-based understanding of physical, biological and cultural evolution.

What many find most inspiring is also the least disputable: what we now know (not merely believe) about big history, human nature and the vital, creative role of death at all levels of the cosmos.

Big history, also known as the epic of evolution or Great Story, is the 13.7 billion year science-based tale of cosmic genesis — from the formation of galaxies and the origin of life, to the development of consciousness and culture, and onward to the emergence of ever-widening circles of care and concern. It is the first origin story in the history of humanity that is globally produced and derived entirely from evidence. Thanks to Bill Gates and David Christian’s Big History Project, it will soon be taught in high schools around the world.

Through big history we discover that we are made of stardust and that we’re related to everything. Indeed, we can think of our own species as the way the universe itself is awakening to the magnificence of its epic journey — a tale of increasing complexity and interdependence. Big history helps us appreciate the role of science in eliciting global wisdom and the role of religion in fostering cooperation at scales larger than our biological instincts could bring about.

Moving from our outer to inner world, science offers a no less remarkable insight. Within us are instincts shaped by millions of years of evolution. Alas, those deep-rooted, compelling drives are now dangerously out of sync with modern times.

To be blunt, the very same instincts that enabled our ancestors to survive and reproduce now make many of us fat, some addicted and most of us frivolous in how we use our downtime.

Instincts can hardly be faulted, however. We are surrounded by “supernormal stimuli“: processed foods, feel-good drugs and alcohol, Internet porn, romance novels, mind-numbing television, addictive gaming — none of which our ancestors ever had to face.

What this means is that without an evolutionary grasp of why our instincts and emotions are the way they are, it isn’t just difficult to wisely choose and live our priorities. It’s practically impossible.

Finally, all religious traditions have offered beliefs that helped their adherents face the inevitability of death — face it with trust. Thanks to science, we now have knowledge that does the same (and more!), while inviting the religious traditions to evolve.

Fundamentally, we learn (via many converging lines of evidence) that death is natural and generative at all levels of reality. Consider: without the death of ancient stars (which are cauldrons of chemical creation), the universe would support nothing more complex than the simplest gases: hydrogen and helium. Without the death of generation upon generation of simple forms of life, no descendants could have evolved eyes to see, colors to attract, emotions to feel. Without the death of fetal cells during the early stages of development, we would all be spheres. And of course, this: In a finite world, without the death of elders there would be no room for children.

Until we grasp that death is no less sacred than life, and that it plays a necessary role in an evolving cosmos, Christianity will be shackled by otherworldly notions of “the gospel,” medical technologies will prolong physical and emotional suffering, and the medical industry will inadvertently underwrite the widening gap between rich and poor.

Few things are more important than transforming how we think about our inner and outer nature, and our mortality. Thus far, the Evidential Reformation has been centered in science. We desperately need our faith traditions to celebrate this momentous time. We need all the experience that the traditions can muster to guide us today. For in truth, evidence is modern-day scripture.

ALSO SEE:

• The Evidential Reformation: Humanity Comes of Age

• What’s Real? What’s Important?—Evidence as Divine Guidance

• Day & Night Language and Public & Private Revelation

by Jon Cleland Host

Though nearly everyone outside of the political right agrees that evolution has crafted our bodies (including our brains), it is still common for the huge effect of our evolutionary origins on our daily lives to be routinely ignored.  As David Sloan Wilson explains in his book Evolution for Everyone, evolution pervades nearly everything we do (especially those things we struggle with), yet is ignored like a taboo elephant in the living room.  Perhaps much of this blindness is simply that we haven’t been given the opportunity to learn these evolutionary details, but at least some of this blindness seems to be due to our reluctance to admit that we are evolved animals, not dualistic gods incarnated from some imagined spirit realm.

Regardless of the cause, this realization smacked me in the face yet again this morning when reading “Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here”, which exposed another Yoga instructor found to be having sex with his female students.  The article spends plenty of time going over the sexual impact of yoga, yet never mentions that fact that millions of years of evolution have given us males a brain core (our Lizard Legacy) that keeps us looking for sex nearly 24/7, regardless of whether we are doing yoga, riding a bike, or whatever.  That lizard legacy can easily overcome our rational brains, if proper safeguards are not responsibly put in place ahead of time.

When we understand how evolution has given us our brains, the idea of respected men looking for sex goes from being shocking to being expected.  It shows why hard safeguards should always be in place to protect everyone involved.  Understanding our lizard legacy shows why it’s not our fault to have those urges, and also why it is very much our responsibility to handle them responsibly, ahead of time.  It shows why we shouldn’t pretend to sharply divide instructors into groups of “gurus” and “misanthropes”, as the article does, but instead to realize that these lizards live within us all, ready to bite if not responsibly harnessed.

This is especially important in areas dominated by liberals, such as yoga.  Many liberals imagine human nature to be basically good, and thus can miss the harmful parts of human nature, which are very real.  The realization that our brains, and thus our natures, have been built by evolution makes it easy to understand that we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage.  This baggage, in men, includes the often harmful desire for frequent sex with many different women.  When we begin to see the world through evolutionary eyes, we realize that to suppose that men lose these urges when they become respected is as silly as to think that their hands fall off.  In fact, as we now know, fame and respect often makes these urges stronger, not weaker (see here and here).  This reminds us all of the importance of dealing with these natural urges responsibly, which is easier if done openly from the start.

This is one area where even Calvinism contains a shred of truth – that our human nature is far from perfect, and that these harmful urges are always ready to spring into action.  John Calvin interpreted these in an unnatural way, yet, by seeing the natural origin of this part of all of us, we can move past the 16th century Calvinism while still benefiting from knowing those urges are real.  In fact, by appreciating how these same urges were needed for the very existence of our Ancestors and indeed ourselves, we can work to control them from a position of gratitude, a stronger position than one of guilt or shame.

Last summer I had an opportunity to read and comment on an early draft of a book by Jonathan Haidt that will be published next month. Titled, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, I immediately perceived that this book has enormous practical implications for how economic, social, and political leaders attempt to solve civilization-scale problems.

Over the past few days I have become aware of two more forthcoming books that likewise will further our understanding of human social evolution: The Social Conquest of Earth, by Edward O. Wilson, and Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame, by Christopher Boehm. All three of these books make the case that group level selection is needed to explain human morality.

The purpose of this post is to give readers A PREVIEW OF THESE THREE BOOKS — and to draw your attention to several previously published books and essays grounded in the same paradigm shift, and which therefore deserve renewed attention in this pivotal year.

What they all have in common is the realization that we are in the midst of a significant expansion in evolutionary thinking, beyond the confines of individual- and gene-level selection to what has come to be called MULTI-LEVEL SELECTION theory.

Especially with respect to what enabled humans to cooperate in numbers far greater than instinctive kin affiliation and reciprocal altruism would support (and thus to evolve large-scale social structures), it turns out that “good-of-the group” traits actually do play a profoundly significant role.

MULTI-LEVEL SELECTION theory also makes abundantly clear that the power and pervasiveness of religions in human societies throughout the world is by no means an aberration. Religion is not, as some of the New Atheists would like to believe, merely a “virus” — propelled to advance and expand its own existence at the expense of its hapless host. Rather, religion, historically, was a profoundly important adaptive feature. Without it, group cohesiveness and the motivation of individuals to die for their tribe or state or nation would likely never have emerged from the palette of instincts we inherited from our pre-human ancestors. And without that kind of motivation, a group will not be able to defend itself against the incursions of neighboring (or long-distance conquering) cultures.

On this point, there may be no more important background reading than David Sloan Wilson’s work, especially his magisterial Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, which was published in 2003. In addition, Wilson chronicles the history of the debate in a New Scientist “Instant Expert” article, “Evolution of selfless behavior”. He also summarizes the current state of the field in a 2011 Evolution article, co-authored with Omar Tonsi Eldakar: “Eight Criticisms Not to Make About Group Selection”, introduced here. For even more background, see D.S. Wilson’s “Homage to George Williams and the Last Gasp of Individualism” I, II, III, IV, V, “Truth and Reconciliation for Group Selection” I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, “137 Co-authors Can’t Be Wrong—and That’s the Problem,” and his posts holding Jerry Coyne to account for his claims about group selection and cultural evolution (also here).

* * *

It is vital to remember that religion is about right relationship to reality, not the supernatural! As noted philosopher of religion Loyal Rue reminds us, religion is not about God. He writes,

The most profound insight in the history of humankind is that we should seek to live in accord with reality. Indeed, living in harmony with reality may be accepted as a formal definition of wisdom. If we live at odds with reality (foolishly), then we will be doomed, but if live in right relationship with reality (wisely), then we shall be saved. Humans everywhere, and at all times, have had at least a tacit understanding of this fundamental principle. What we are less in agreement about is how we should think about reality and what we should do to bring ourselves into harmony with it.

Again, in contrast to the assumptions made by some of the New Atheists, just because pre-scientific manifestations of religion necessarily posited supernatural beings and forces does not mean that religions of today and tomorrow need do so. “Religio,” after all, means “to link together.” Religions (past and future) provide the over-arching world pictures that link all aspects of known reality, that attempt to answer all questions of meaning, and that therefore provide “personal wholeness” and “social coherence.”

Personal wholeness and social coherence are adaptive necessities. Now that there is no longer any possibility for human groups to migrate away from their despoliation of home landscapes (e.g., salinization of soils owing to irrigation, or massive erosion of mountains slopes due to overgrazing of livestock or overharvesting of trees), religious worldviews are called upon to fulfill one more functional need: ecological integrity.

Thanks to the evidential knowledge accumulated by modern science, all three functions can now be fulfilled by secular worldviews inspiringly conveyed (i.e., “religious naturalism”).

If you scoff at the possibility of a thoroughly secular religion ever coming into being, I highly recommend Loyal Rue’s scholarly 2006 book, Religion Is Not About God. In 2000, in fact, he offered a compelling example of how evolution itself could form the basis of a modern-day, thoroughly naturalistic religion. This was his 160-page popular book, Everybody’s Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution.

Similarly, I recommend David Sloan Wilson’s 2007 book, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, Joan Roughgarden‘s 2010, The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness, and Allen D. MacNeill‘s chapter, “The Capacity for Religious Experience Is an Adaptation to Warfare.”

Finally, lest anyone assume I am opposed to the New Atheists, know that I am profoundly grateful for the evolutionary role they are playing in helping (nay, forcing) our stodgy old (all-too-often dysfunctional) religions to catch up with the wealth of knowledge that science now offers. As you can see here, listen to here and here, or read here and here, I regularly share with religious audiences of all kinds my appreciation for, and tremendous debt of gratitude to, the New Atheists.

So…let me now whet your appetite for the three books forthcoming this year that will continue the work of advancing our understanding of how human societies evolve by (a) multi-level selection (individual traits selected for “the good of the group”) and (b) the unique powers of religions to foster large-scale group cohesion and a spirit of sacrifice (with our without “God”). Here they are:

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The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
by Jonathan Haidt (Pub date: March 13, 2012)

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JONATHAN HAIDT is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis.

DESCRIPTION

A groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality, which turns out to be the basis for religion and politics. The book is timely (explaining the American culture wars and refuting the “New Atheists”), scholarly (integrating insights from many fields) and great fun to read (like Haidt’s last book, The Happiness Hypothesis).

REVIEWS

“A remarkable and original synthesis of social psychology, political analysis, and moral reasoning that reflects the best of sciences in these fields and adds evidence that we are innately capable of the decency and righteousness needed for societies to survive.” (Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University)

“The Righteous Mind refutes the “New Atheists” and shows that religion is a central part of our moral heritage. Haidt’s brilliant synthesis shows that Christians have nothing to fear and much to gain from the evolutionary paradigm.” (Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution)

“Haidt’s research has revolutionized the field of moral psychology. This elegantly written book has far-reaching implications for anyone interested in politics, religion, or the many controversies that divide modern societies. If you want to know why you hold your moral beliefs, and why many people disagree with you, read this book.”  (Simon Baron-Cohen, Cambridge University, author of The Science of Evil)

“The Righteous Mind is an intellectual tour de force that brings Darwinian theorizing to the practical realm of everyday politics.” (Christopher Boehm, University of Southern California, author of Moral Origins)

“Here is the first attempt to give an in-depth analysis of the underlying moral stance and dispositions of liberals and conservatives. I couldn’t put it down and discovered things about myself!” (Michael Gazzaniga, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of The Ethical Brain)

COMMENT BY MICHAEL DOWD

In an early draft of his book, Haidt crafted a lovely analogy to illustrate the difficulties that advocates of “multi-level selection” are facing in their encounter with the reigning paradigm of individual-and gene-level selection. In a passage that didn’t make it into the final manuscript (but you can savor here), after outlining four distinct lines of evidence in support of multi-level selection, Haidt illustrates how unique humans are in the animal kingdom (with respect to good will beyond kin selection and reciprocal altruism) while poking fun at those who argue against group level selection in human societies by pointing to examples of where it doesn’t exist among other animals…

Imagine going to the zoo with a friend who has never seen a giraffe and doesn’t believe they are real. He declares: ‘It is possible in theory for an animal to have a neck longer than ten feet. But I shall endeavor to prove that such long necks do not in fact exist.’ Your friend takes you to see lions, bears, elephants, snakes, and penguins. He takes measurements at each exhibit, each time exclaiming, ‘No long necks here!’ Each time you say, ‘Enough! Can we go to the giraffe house now?’ But your friend doesn’t seem to hear you.

Human beings are the giraffes of altruism. Yes, most of human nature was shaped by natural selection operating at the level of the individual. Most, but not all. We have a few group-related adaptations too, as many Americans discovered in the days after 9/11. We humans have a dual nature—we are selfish primates who long to be a part of something larger and nobler than ourselves. We are 90% chimp and 10% bee. If you take that claim metaphorically (not literally), then many of the groupish and hivish things that people devote their lives to doing will make a lot more sense. It’s almost as though there’s a switch in our heads that activates our hivish potential when conditions are just right.

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The Social Conquest of Earth
by Edward O. Wilson (Pub date: April 9, 2012)

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EDWARD O. WILSON, one of the world’s preeminent biologists, is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Sociobiology and the Pulitzer Prize–winning On Human Nature.

DESCRIPTION

Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? In a generational work of clarity and passion, one of our greatest living scientists directly addresses these three fundamental questions of religion, philosophy, and science while “overturning the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover magazine). Refashioning the story of human evolution in a work that is certain to generate headlines, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to show that group selection, not kin selection, is the primary driving force of human evolution. He proves that history makes no sense without prehistory, and prehistory makes no sense without biology. Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, Wilson presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth’s biosphere. 90 illustrations

REVIEWS

“The Social Conquest of Earth is a huge, deep, thrilling work, presenting a radically new but cautiously hopeful view of human evolution, human nature, and human society. No one but E. O. Wilson could bring together such a brilliant synthesis of biology and the humanities, to shed light on the origins of language, religion, art, and all of human culture.” (Oliver Sacks)

“Wilson’s newest theory…could transform our understanding of human nature—and provide hope for our stewardship of the planet…. [His] new book is not limited to the discussion of evolutionary biology, but ranges provocatively through the humanities…. Its impact on the social sciences could be as great as its importance for biology, advancing human self-understanding in ways typically associated with the great philosophers.” (Howard W. French, The Atlantic )

“A monumental exploration of the biological origins of the human condition!” (James D. Watson)

“Once again, Ed Wilson has written a book combining the qualities that have brought his previous books Pulitzer Prizes and millions of readers: a big but simple question, powerful explanations, magisterial knowledge of the sciences and humanities, and beautiful writing understandable to a wide public.” (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel)

COMMENT BY MICHAEL DOWD

E. O. Wilson, in his 1998 masterpiece, Consilience, urged natural scientists, social scientists, and scholars within the humanities to welcome rather than fear advances in knowledge that would ground each field within the knowledge base of the nested level of reality from which it emerged (e.g., chemistry emerging from physics, biology from chemistry, social dynamics from biology, and so on). Who would have guessed that, in pursuit of consilience between the biological and social sciences, Wilson would coauthor a landmark paper in 2007 with evolutionist David Sloan Wilson (no relation) that would overturn one of the ideas he himself had pioneered in the 1970s? The title of that paper is “Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology.” (Connie and I actually read an early draft of that paper when we were visiting David Sloan Wilson in his home in Binghamton, NY.) The abstract of the paper depicts multi-level selection as key:

Current sociobiology is in theoretical disarray, with a diversity of frameworks that are poorly related to each other. Part of the problem is a reluctance to revisit the pivotal events that took place during the 1960s, including the rejection of group selection and the development of alternative theoretical frameworks to explain the evolution of cooperative and altruistic behaviors. In this article, we take a “back to basics” approach, explaining what group selection is, why its rejection was regarded as so important, and how it has been revived based on a more careful formulation and subsequent research. Multi-level selection theory (including group selection) provides an elegant theoretical foundation for sociobiology in the future, once its turbulent past is appropriately understood.

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Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame
by Christopher Boehm (Pub date: May 1, 2012)

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Christopher Boehm is director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Boehm is the author of several previous books, including Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior.

DESCRIPTION:

For three decades, genetic altruism has been cited as the dominant theory to explain the paradox of human generosity; experts claim our altruism is limited to close kin. But Moral Origins tells a different story. By studying the social and natural environments of primates, Boehm has devised a convincing new hypothesis: as autonomy-loving humans became large game hunters, severe group punishment began to genetically favor individuals with superior self-control. Essentially, bullies and free-loader types were killed or expelled from social bands because they interfered with the survival of others in the group. This social bias singled out highly altruistic individuals as preferable marriage partners, political allies, and group leaders—what Boehm calls “social selection.” The result was the first stirrings of conscience, and the genetic effects eventually led to a fully-developed sense of shame.  Rigorously researched and expertly argued, Moral Origins offers a new evolutionary paradigm of human generosity and cooperation. With its new perspective on the forces that shaped human morality, it offers insight into some of the toughest problems of our time—dealing humanely with those who transgress, and, perhaps, realizing how to prevent them from going bad to begin with.

COMMENT BY MICHAEL DOWD

This is my first encounter with the work of Christopher Boehm. I eagerly await his book.

I’m often described in the mainstream media as an ‘evangelical minister’ or ‘Pentecostal preacher’, even though I speak far more often in moderate and liberal churches (and in secular settings) than I do in evangelical, Pentecostal, and Emerging Church venues. Not surprisingly, I’ve been asked on a number of occasions, by both religious liberals and conservatives, “In what sense do you consider yourself a Pentecostal evangelical, and how does that mesh with your being an outspoken religious naturalist?”

For 33 years I’ve proudly called myself a Pentecostal, though my political and theological views are by no means right-wing, and for the past two decades I’ve tended to say “evolutionary Pentecostal” or “Pentecostal naturalist” for clarification. My experience in Pentecostal and evangelical contexts has been almost entirely positive—indeed, salvific—and continues to nourish my life and work.

I was raised Roman Catholic and struggled with sex, drug, and alcohol-related issues in my teens, during the mid 1970s. Soon after my 20th birthday, I had a born again experience and went on to graduate from an Assemblies of God college and an American Baptist seminary. I pastored three churches in the 1980s and 90s and have been an itinerant evolutionary evangelist for the past ten years. Speaking in tongues (see below for my naturalized interpretation) has been a vital part of my spiritual practice for decades.

The primary reason I unabashedly call myself an evolutionary Pentecostal, however, is this: The core tenets of the evangelical-Pentecostal tradition accurately reflect the nature of the Universe and the human condition so long as they are REALized—that is, interpreted as undeniable in a this-world realistic way. And, yes, as I shall explain below, it is quite easy for an evolutionary evangelical to translate faith statements such as the following in natural, science-based (demythologized), and profoundly life-giving ways . . .

For me, these core evangelical teachings have become more meaningful and inspiring now that I interpret them in ways that mesh with a 21st century understanding of reality. What God/Reality has revealed through evidence about the nature of the Universe and our own inner workings now fundamentally shapes my religious interpretations.

I foresee a time, not long coming, when millions and eventually tens of millions of evangelicals and Pentecostals delight in discovering that their religious identity and salvific faith do not, in fact, require beliefs that fragment one’s experience of the world. Almost all of us are quite comfortable in partaking of the fruits of the scientific enterprise when it comes to how we travel long distances (jet planes instead of carriages) and how we deal with injury and disease (X-rays, MRIs, antibiotics). For me, one of the greatest miracles is that I can receive information from anywhere in the world and from almost any time in history—and that I can press a little button and have my own thoughts and insights join that glorious parade. Why should we not, then, also value what science teaches us about ourselves and our collective journey: about how we got here, what a glorious role we get to play in the body of life, and the grandeur of this amazing Universe?

Referring to myself as a “born again, Spirit-filled Christian naturalist” has everything to do with personal experience and with language I find inspiring. It has nothing to do with otherworldly, unnatural beliefs. For me, supernatural beliefs have been REALized through many years of learning and exulting in God’s work as presented through the sciences. I do not feel diminished by the shift; rather, I feel uplifted. Thus I consider myself a religious naturalist, and I celebrate being part of that group, too.

As an evolutionary Pentecostal evangelical naturalist, I cherish the very same doctrines and teachings that other Pentecostal and evangelicals cherish. But rather than interpreting the core elements of my faith in unnatural and otherworldly ways, as I used to, I now interpret these concepts in natural, undeniably real ways. As I write in Chapter 4 of Thank God for Evolution (in the context of distinguishing public from private forms of revelation),

A distinction must be made at this point between flat-earth faith and evolutionary faith, as I shall use these terms throughout the rest of this book. What I mean by flat-earth faith is not people believing the world is flat. Rather, it refers to any perspective in which the metaphors and theology still in use came into being at a time when peoples really did believe the world was flat—that is, when there was no reliable way for humans to comprehend the world around them by means of science-based public revelation. Religious traditions that are scripturally based, and whose texts have not changed substantially since the time of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Hubble, Crick, Dawkins, and Hawking become, necessarily, flat-earth faiths when interpreted literally.

An evolutionary form of a religious tradition differs from its flat-earth form in a striking way.  The evolutionary version is grounded in knowledge rather than beliefs and in the authority of cumulative wisdom (what God has been revealing through scientific, historic, and cross-cultural evidence) rather than the authority of an ancient past.  Thus, every meaningful religious meme in my tradition—God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin, salvation, the kingdom of heaven, the return of the Lord—I now interpret as night language.  Night language carries an inspiring interpretation of reality that gives voice and meaning to real human experience—experience that may or may not be fully explicable even today but that would have been outright impossible to understand objectively prior to what God has revealed in the past two hundred years through scientific, historic, and cross-cultural evidence (see here and here).

How was the world made?  Why do earthquakes, tornados, and other bad things happen? Why must we die? Why do we struggle with inner feelings and impulses that tempt us to act in ways detrimental to ourselves and our loved ones? And why have other cultures answered these same questions in different ways? These and other big questions cannot be answered by the powers of human perception alone. Yet answer them we must. Thus, long before modern science could be recruited to the task, ancient cultures gave useful and inspiring answers—answers that now compel literalistic forms of religions to engage in endless battles with the scientific worldview.

Prior to advances in technology and scientific ways of testing truth claims, factual answers were simply unavailable. It wasn’t just difficult to have a natural, factual understanding of infection before microscopes brought bacteria into focus; it was impossible. Similarly, it was impossible to understand the large-scale structure of the Universe before telescopes allowed us to see galaxies.  I prefer to think of the venerable answers recorded in ancient scripture not as supernatural but as pre-natural (and unnatural, if interpreted literally). Indeed, they could not have been otherwise.

REALizing Core Evangelical Tenets

1. The faithfulness of God and the authority of God’s word. I no longer imagine an invisible landlord or an otherworldly king whose main business is engaging in unnatural acts—that is, supernatural interventions. Thanks to a science-based, deep-time worldview I now know God; I do not merely believe in Him. For me, the word God is a compelling way to personalize my relationship with Inescapable Reality, especially when I am humbled by awe, gratitude, sorrow, confusion, or disappointment. Under these circumstances, “God” is to whom I am spontaneously led to pray. Similarly, “the authority of God’s word” no longer applies merely to ancient mythic texts; I now recognize evidence as modern-day scripture and facts as God’s native tongue. Only by submitting to ‘the authority of God’s word’—that is, by aligning with Reality and living integrously—can I know heaven, not just mythically but really—here, now.

2.  The necessity of Christ and the centrality of the cross. This core evangelical meme teaches that, as individuals, we are saved by grace through faith—and that, as a species, our salvation really does hinge on both horizontal (ecological) and vertical (evolutionary) integrity. The stories of Jesus the Christ in the early Christian scriptures reveal a divine man who was the very embodiment, the incarnation, of what I now regard as the four essential characteristics of “big integrity”: trust, authenticity, responsibility, and service. I choose to believe that this is not a coincidence. ‘Jesus is Lord’ and ‘Integrity is my religion’ are night and day language reflections of each other.

3.  The need for conversion. This teaching I now enthusiastically interpret through the lens of what God has been revealing through the sciences of neurobiology and evolutionary psychology (see chapters 9 and 10 of TGFE, and here, here, here, and here.) Thanks to the prefrontal cortex, which is the locus of our sense of the divine and the brain component concerned with good judgment, we have the opportunity to habitually choose to abide “in Christ”—in deepest integrity—and thus to override ancient instincts for safety, sustenance, sex, status, and such. These are instincts that other animals are incapable of choosing against. But we can. To walk the path of integrity, however, a conversion experience of some kind is generally required. That is, we must choose this path above all else, and do so with vigor, time and again. The support and accountability of community in this effort is crucial, hence the need for what early Christians referred to as ‘the body of Christ’. It is now widely accepted that integrity is a precondition for true joy. Indeed, I would argue that integrity is everything. With it, heaven on Earth is ours. Without it, hell is the inevitable result. Getting right with God (abiding ‘in Christ’, in integrity) really is the only way we will ever experience ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.’ Thus, evolution matters—profoundly and practically. Without a meaningful deep-time perspective grounded in our best collective understanding of the Universe and our role in it, we can’t possibly know what integrity (i.e., right relationship to reality) is, much less know how to live in it.

4.  The call to live the gospel in word and deed. Evangelicals and Pentecostals alike have a robust and honorable tradition of supporting one another in growing and living in integrity, doing important work in the world, and sharing with others the good news they have experienced. I stand firmly in this tradition. The only difference for me and for other evolutionary evangelicals is that the good news, or gospel, we share is informed by cumulative knowledge. What I call “The Gospel According to Science: Evolutionary Good News” has everything to do with celebrating and evangelizing the saving good news that God has been revealing through the entire range of sciences and for centuries. It has nothing to do with believing literally in past miracles or so-called supernatural events. The idea that the gospel—God’s Great News for Humanity—is merely (or mostly) about saving select individuals from the torment of an otherworldly hell when they die degrades and defiles this teaching. ‘The gospel of Jesus Christ’ is infinitely more real and more inspiring than cosmic fire insurance!

In sum, traditional evangelical language supports both my walk with God and my commitment to an empowering and unfragmented view of the world. The following declarations are my way of translating traditional belief statements into experiential truth:

1.  “I believe in the faithfulness of God and the authority of God’s word” becomes . . .

Reality is my God, evidence is my scripture, and integrity is my religion. I trust life. I trust time. I trust the truth.

2.  “I believe in the necessity of Christ and the centrality of the cross” becomes . . .

I know that Integrity is the key to joy and that I cannot walk this path alone; I need others. Living “in Christ”, with no resentments, no secrets, or unfinished business, I know the peace that passes all understanding and can embrace my mortality and honor death as no less sacred than life.

3.  “I believe in the need for conversion (i.e., that one must repent of sin and accept Jesus as personal Lord and Savior)” becomes . . .

Lasting freedom and happiness will elude me unless I make right relationship to Reality/God my highest commitment, and keep choosing Big Integrity as my compass one day at a time.

4.  “I believe that we are to live the gospel in word and deed” becomes . . .

How can I not express love and compassion, share the good news, and do everything in my power to ensure a thriving future for planet Earth and for the millions of species that constitute my larger family? What greater calling could there be? What more honorable legacy could I leave?

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Note on Speaking in Tongues

The defining characteristic of Pentecostalism is ‘speaking in tongues’. What follows is a naturalized interpretation of this spiritual gift, which I present as one of the ‘evolutionary integrity practices’ in my section on ‘evolutionary spirituality,’ pages 212-14 of Thank God for Evolution.

Speaking in tongues has been a significant part of my spiritual practice for half my life. Speaking in tongues has its detractors, but there are sound evolutionary reasons for its effectiveness. The following practice will REALize the act of speaking in tongues, because it doesn’t require you to believe anything. It’s an experience available to anyone who tries it.

How I speak in tongues is simple. I pretend I can speak a foreign language; vocalizing nonsensical sounds in a gentle, melodic, or rhythmic way. I encourage you to try it, right now. Do it in whatever way comes naturally, for a few minutes or longer, until it becomes effortless. Now speak in tongues again, but this time inaudibly, though perhaps still moving your lips. Then continue this ‘speech’ without moving your lips; have it happen just internally. Whichever form suits you best, you should notice almost immediately that your awareness expands. You are more aware of what you see and hear and feel—without trying. Just as a person who speaks a foreign language can also think in that language, if you can speak in gobbledygook, you also can think in gobbledygook. Because you cannot think in made-up syllables and in English at the same time, this practice effectively silences the verbal part of your brain. It gives your Monkey Mind a banana to chew on. Speaking in tongues (outwardly or internally) makes it easy to attend to noticing what’s real and what’s important in the present moment, rather than falling back into distraction. It’s no coincidence that many report feelings of ecstasy and a sense of the divine when speaking or thinking in tongues.

When speaking in tongues first came to me a few months after my born again experience in 1979, it truly was baptism in the Holy Spirit, as my Pentecostal Christian tradition had taught me. ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is a resonant way to describe this experience using night language. Speaking in tongues is immersion in the holiness of this moment, this time and place. I often do it intentionally, to quiet my mind while driving, for example. Or it may arise on its own, especially when I am overcome with gratitude or overwhelmed by beauty. On such occasions, emotions take control of my body: arms lift skyward and I babble away in gentle ecstasy.

While there may be documented cases of people ‘speaking in other tongues’ who were actually speaking in a language that they had not yet learned (e.g., Acts 2:8), for most Pentecostals the experience is an incoherent babble—as if they were speaking a foreign language. The emotional, psychological, and spiritual benefits are the same either way. When I speak in tongues or quietly think to myself in tongues, even for a few moments, I usually feel a connection to God and to everyone and everything around me—a connection that is difficult, if not impossible, to experience when my Monkey Mind is doing its thing. My conscious mind is released from the bondage of words.

Speaking in tongues helps me give voice to emotions too difficult to express any other way. I thus often pray in tongues. Early on in our relationship, Connie and I occasionally relied on this gift of the Spirit during difficult times. I could express my anger, frustration, or disappointment to her, and she could hear it and respond similarly, and neither one of us had to deal with the aftermath of cleaning up hurtful words or compounding the problem by misstatements or misinterpretations. Recently, I have begun to rely on the gift of tongues not only for emotional expression in times of great feeling, or while in prayer. I now regularly think in tongues simply to still the otherwise constant conversation in my head, quieting the jabber of opinions and insistent trivialities that otherwise isolate me from the presence of the Holy Spirit. Quietly speaking and thinking in tongues, at will, has thus become my preferred form of meditation. The Great Story, Epic of Evolution, and Big History all help me understand how this gift of tongues is both a natural outgrowth of the human developmental journey (day language) and a gift of the Holy Spirit (night language). The Great Story thus helps me receive the blessings of an ancient spiritual practice, while living fully in our contemporary world.

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Michael Dowd is America’s evolutionary evangelist. He is the author of the bestselling bridge-building book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (Viking 2008 / Plume 2009), which was endorsed by 6 Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics and atheists, and by religious leaders across the spectrum. Since April 2002, Michael and his wife, Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer and evolutionary educator, have traveled North America non-stop, and have addressed more than 1,600 religious and non-religious groups—ranging from Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical Christian churches, to Unitarian Universalist and secular high school, college, and university settings, to New Thought, New Age, and Eastern spirituality groups. Their passion is teaching and preaching the great news of what God is revealing through evidence about human nature, death, and the trajectory of big history, and how this can inspire people of all backgrounds and beliefs to live in integrity and to cooperate across political and religious differences in service of a just and thriving future for all. Their work has been featured in numerous national and local TV, radio, and print media, including The NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, CNN, ABC News, and Fox & Friends. (Video clips and recorded interviews, here.)

I was recently a plenary speaker at Integral Spiritual Experience 3, at Asilomar Conference Center, in Pacific Grove, California. After my presentation, which was almost identical to the one listed below as the main presentation I now deliver to all secular and religious audiences, I was asked by nearly a dozen people, “Where can I go to to learn more about the science-based ‘big integrity’ approach to spirituality and cultural transformation that you just presented?“

The following is intended as a resource for those interested in deepening their knowledge base and/or improving their skill-set re living in big integrity (in right relationship to Reality/God) and supporting others and our species in doing the same. This list of resources is for religious and non-religous folk alike.

* * *

“The most profound insight in the history of humankind is that we should seek to live in accord with reality. Indeed, living in harmony with reality may be accepted as a formal definition of wisdom. If we live at odds with reality (foolishly), then we will be doomed, but if live in proper relationship with reality (wisely), then we shall be saved. Humans everywhere, and at all times, have had at least a tacit understanding of this fundamental principle. What we are less in agreement about is how we should think about reality and what we should do to bring ourselves into harmony with it.”  ~ Loyal Rue, Religion Is Not About God

QUESTION: How do we (as radically diverse individuals, groups, and societies) support each other in growing in ‘right relationship to reality’ so that, together, we can ensure a just and healthy future for the entire body of life?

What follows are links to some of the best resources online and in print for dwelling in right relationship to reality, individually and collectively. Here you will find perspectives and tools to help you live authentically, love deeply, relate joyfully, contribute meaningfully, die peacefully, and leave a sweet legacy—regardless of your background or beliefs, or whether or not you meditate.

These resources reflect humanity’s current global collective intelligence—i.e., our best evidential, science-based understandings—of (A) how life works, (B) how your life works, (C) how social systems work, and, given all this, (C) how to thrive and help our world thrive in the 21st century and beyond.

What follows is intended to help you enjoy maximal success and fulfillment (and deepest communion with God/Reality) in this life and this world, by honoring your real nature (as evidentially understood). If you are honestly more concerned with what happens in a supposed afterlife or otherworldly, supernatural realm, I suggest you stop reading now and consult with your priest, minister, rabbi, guru, or imam. The following is probably not for you.

* * *

Right Relationship to What’s Real and What’s Important TODAY

• The main program I’m now delivering in ALL secular and religious contexts (from Roman Catholics and Mainline Protestants, to Evangelicals and Emerging Churches, to skeptic gatherings and science conferences, to New Age, Eastern, and Integral groups, to the United Nations) can be found on YouTube in two versions: one narrated (in two parts) and one live. Both are accessible HERE. This program shows how a meaningful, science-based view of human nature, death, and the trajectory of big history makes sense of our world, clarifies our priorities, and offers a realistically hopeful and deeply inspiring vision of the future.

• “One-on-one with Michael Dowd”: NH Public Television documentary on me and the above program.

• What’s New? on The Great Story website: links to TONS of wonderful, free online stuff, posted and edited by Connie Barlow

• Everybody’s Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution: Loyal Rue

• Loyal Rue, Religion Is Not About God – 6 minute YouTube video

• “Richard Dawkins for Christians and All Spiritual People?“:  Text & YouTube reviews of Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True

* 3-minute YouTube introduction, by Richard Dawkins

* 6-minute YouTube video introduction to Richard Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality

* 23-minute YouTube video introduction to Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality

• “Good and Bad Reasons For Believing”: letter by Richard Dawkins, written to his (at the time) 10-year-old daughter, Juliet

• “What’s Real? What’s Important? Evidence as Divine Guidance”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: (8-min YouTube clip)

• “We Are All Connected”: Symphony of Science music video featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye the Science Guy

• “Religion Is About Right Relationship to Reality, Not the Supernatural”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• Thank God for the New Atheists: sermon by Michael Dowd published in Skeptic magazine / shorter version published in Australasian Science

• The New Atheists as God’s Prophets: podcast 2 hours after I learned I had cancer / sermon audio / interview with The Infidel Guy

• Journey of the Universe: Brian Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker (book and film)

• ”Coming Home to Reality“: audio of a sermon by Michael Dowd

• “The Evidential Reformation: Humanity Comes of Age”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “Evolutionary Spirituality: Coming Home to Reality”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “The Salvation of Religion: From Beliefs to Knowledge”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “Evolution and the Revival of the Human Spirit”: secular sermon (text): Dowd

• Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World: Michael Dowd (endorsed by 6 Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics and atheists, and by religious leaders across the spectrum). Here is an 80-second book trailer.

• Carl Sagan: Apple Pie (introduced by Michael Dowd) - 2:28 minute YouTube clip, by Connie Barlow

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Right Relationship to Your History and Self: Knowing Who & Where You Are

• 13.7 Billion Years of Evolution in 85 Seconds: YouTube clip

• What Is The Great Story? The Epic of Evolution: our common creation story (Lots of really great stuff linked from this page!!)

• This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity: David Christian

• Born With a Bang / Lava to Life / Mammals That Morph, 3 kids books: Jennifer Morgan

• The Universe Is a Green Dragon: Brian Swimme

• Canticle to the Cosmos DVDs: Brian Swimme (12 one-hour programs)

• The Dream of the Earth and The Great Work: Thomas Berry

• The Universe Story: From Primordial Flaring Forth to Ecozoic Era: Swimme & Berry

• The View From the Center of the Universe: Joel Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams

• The Cosmic Society – 3 minute YouTube clip: Nancy Ellen Abrams

• Nancy Ellen Abrams: “View From the Center of the Universe”: 9-minute YouTube interview

• The New Universe and the Human Future: Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack

• Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century: Howard Bloom

• A Theory of Everything: Ken Wilber

• Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution: Steve McIntosh

• Cosmos: Carl Sagan (13 hour-long episodes): On DVD or free viewing on Hulu.com

• Wonders of the Solar System: BBC TV series with Brian Cox

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: (8-min YouTube clip)

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha: 1-hr YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “My Soul”: 5-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Time: Honoring the Past, Ensuring a Healthy Future

• The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and Pursuit of Social Justice: Peter Corning

• Evolution’s Arrow: The Direction of Evolution and Future of Humanity: John Stewart

• “The Evolutionary Manifesto: Our Role in the Future Evolution of Life“: John Stewart

• The Trajectory of Human History: Ever-Expanding Cooperation and Compassion: blog post by Dowd/Stewart

• Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants: Russell Genet

• Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny: Robert Wright

* Ghosts of Evolution – 5-minute music video celebrating deep-time eyes, by Connie Barlow

• The Empathic Civilization: Jeremy Rifkin

• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined: Steven Pinker

• The Rational Optimist: Matt Ridley

• Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future: Duane Elgin

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011: Omaha: 1-hour YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “The Play” – 5-minute YouTube music video

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Right Relationship to Your Instincts: Harnessing Your Inherited Drives (more accurate model than “ego”, “id”, “shadow”, “sinful nature”, “inner demons”)

• Thank God for Evolution: Michael Dowd (Parts III and IV: Chapters 8-13)

• Physical instincts: Your reptilian brain’s cravings for safety, sustenance, and sex

Experiential exercises for honoring and taming your physical instincts

• Social instincts: Your old mammalian brain’s drives for bonding, status, and play

Experiential exercises for befriending your social instincts so they serve you

• Interpretive instincts: Your neocortex’s quest for knowing, meaning, & morality

Experiential exercises for mastering your interpretive (self-deceptive) instincts

• Co-creative instincts: Your prefrontal cortex’s zeal for wholeness & contribution

Experiential exercises for unleashing your creative, self-giving instincts

• Evolutionize Your Life: Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow: How to eliminate self-judgment and create a big-hearted life of purpose and joyful integrity by honoring your Stone Age Instincts. (It’s basically about how new discoveries in evolutionary brain science clarify how to gain freedom from self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors, cultivate healthy relationships, and thrive in the face of life’s challenges.) Free online teleseminar / 5-week online course

• Supernormal Stimuli: Deirdre Barrett

• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain: David Eagleman

• Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Human Sexuality—How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships: Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jetha

• The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness: Joan Roughgarden

• Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People: Joan Roughgarden

• You Still Don’t Understand: Richard Driscoll

• Evolutionary Psychology 1: The Science of Human Nature: Allen MacNeill (7 hr audio)

• The Moral Animal: Robert Wright

• The Science of Good and Evil and The Believing Brain: Michael Shermer

• The Age of Empathy: Frans de Waal

• The Male Brain and The Female Brain: Louann Brizendine

• The Happiness Hypothesis: Jonathan Haidt

• Straight from the Heart: Paul and Layne Cutright

• Getting Real: Ten Truth Skills You Need for Living an Authentic Life: Susan Campbell

• The 5 Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find By Embracing Them: David Richo

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha, NE – 1-hr-YouTube clip

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Right Relationship to Death: Living Life Fully by Celebrating Your Mortality

• Death Through Deep-Time Eyes (main webpage portal) by Connie Barlow

• Litanies: (1) The Gifts of Death (2) Is This a Universe We Can Say ‘Yes’ To? by Connie Barlow

• In the Beginnning: Stardust Video – 3 minute YouTube clip, by Connie Barrow

• “Thank God for Death: Could Anything Be More Sacred? More Necessary? More Real?”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• “Time and Death: Secrets of Evolution with Sagan, Cuvier, Darwin, Eiseley, and Barlow”: 9-minute YouTube clip

• “Tree Talks About Death” (a.k.a, “Even Stars Die”) by Connie Barlow

• “How Doctors Die: An ICU Nurse Responds”: blog post

• The Scientific Understanding of Our New Sacred Understanding of Death by Connie Barlow

• “Death, Budgets, and Generational Justice”: by Connie Barlow: YouTube clip / blog post / podcast

• “Death Through Deep-Time Eyes”: audio sermon by Connie Barlow

• Connie Barlow’s YouTube program on a sacred, science-based view of death: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, finale

• “Immortality Projects in the Internet Era: The Rise of Volunteerism, the Demise of Consumerism, and the Democratization of Cultural Progress”: blog post by Connie Barlow

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha, NE – 1-hr YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “One More Circle ‘Round the Sun” – 4-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Your Social and Ecological Context—and Your Legacy

• Green Space Green Time: The Way of Science: Connie Barlow

• Peter Mayer: “My Soul” – 5 minute YouTube music video

• The Sacred Depths of Nature: Ursula Goodenough

• Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World: Joanna Macy

• Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture: Toby Hemenway

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things: Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart

• Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution: Paul Hawken, et.al

• Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World: Paul Hawken

• Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, & Society in the Age of Transition: Charles Eisenstein

• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism: Howard Bloom

• Reflections on Evolutionary Activism and The Tao of Democracy: Tom Atlee

• Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity: Peggy Holman

• EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want: Frances Moore Lappe´

• Religion Is Not About God: How Spiritual Traditions Nurture our Biological Nature and What to Expect When They Fail: Loyal Rue

• Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist: Joan Roughgarden

• Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society: David Sloan Wilson

• Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives: David Sloan Wilson

• The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time: David Sloan Wilson

• Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World: David Gershon

• Integral Life Practice: A 21^st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening: Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.

• The Moral Landscape and Letter to a Christian Nation: Sam Harris

• Is Biblicist Christianity Bankrupt?: Michael Dowd’s public blog debate with Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. (The NY Times iNewp service: “The People’s Press” also ran this debate as a series: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

• The Success Principles: Jack Canfield

• Landmark Education’s “Curriculum for Living” (The Forum, Advanced Course, SELP)

• Practicing Radical Honesty: Brad Blanton

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: 8-min YouTube clip

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011: Omaha: 1-hr YouTube clip

* Bruce Sanguin: Evolutionary Christianity: 7-minute YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “Holy Now”: 5-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Children: Inspiring Evolutionary Educational Materials

BEST BOOKS:

• Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story: Lisa Westberg Peters and Lauren Stringer

• Born With a Bang / Lava to Life / Mammals That Morph, 3 kids books: Jennifer Morgan

• Bang! How We Came to Be: Michael Rubino

• Billions of Years, Amazing Changes: Laurence Pringle

• The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True: Richard Dawkins

ONLINE TEXT, AUDIO, and VIDEO:

• Evolutionary Curricula for Children and Youth: main portal on TheGreatStory website, by Connie Barlow

• Imprinting is NOT Indoctrination (by Connie Barlow): Introduction / podcast / PDF

• Inspiring Naturalism for Families: podcast interview with Jon Cleland Host

• The River of Life: programs for kids based on Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale

• “Tree Talks About Death” (a.k.a, “Even Stars Die”), by Connie Barlow

• Skeptic’s Dictionary for Kids: portal to lots of great stuff (Robert Carroll)

• Remember Who You Are: middle school curriculum by Connie Barlow, based on The Lion King

• Evolutionary Songs: Ages 6 to Adult

• We Are Made of Stardust curriculum by Connie Barlow, plus recommended resources

• Coming Home to North America: how to become indigenous to this continent

• Celebrating North America: scripted plays by Connie Barlow

• Evolutionary Parenting: Jon Host: (1) An Introduction, (2) Thoughts About Holidays

Note by Michael Dowd: A week ago a colleague sent me a link to an obscure blog that had “gone viral”:

“How Doctors Die — It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be“

Tremendously moved, I decided to do my part in spreading this sobering news and vital perspective. One of those who received my email was a young nurse, newly certified for working in the Intensive Care Unit. Below is her response (slightly modified for confidentiality).

Her story brought me to tears of joy and gratitude when I first read it. May there be ever more nurses with the training, the courage, and above all the heart exemplified by this unheralded young hero.

____________

Response by a young “Intensive Care Unit (ICU)” nurse:

Thank you so much for this timely article. Only two months ago I participated in an “End of Life and Palliative Care in the ICU” class, where I was genuinely moved/tormented by the suffering my fellow nurses and I are surrounded with in the ICU.

A peaceful, gentle death is so valuable — and so rare.

I recently cared for a young adult cancer patient at the end of her life.  She came to the ICU after having a bone marrow transplant to deal with the “pre-leukemia” she had developed, owing to an aggressive chemo regimen initiated several years earlier for her breast cancer.

By now, her whole body had deteriorated to such an extent that she required a mask that forced air into her lungs in order to oxygenate.  She spent two weeks in our hospital’s ICU, with her lungs progressively worsening.

All the nurses knew she was not going to leave our unit. But her oncologist kept telling her to “fight it out!”

Finally, and this was on my shift, with her parents at her side, “Gloria” (the name I’ll use) finally said that she just wanted the pain to go away.

Suddenly, everything changed.

I had just brought into her room her evening meds — literally thousands of dollars worth of antibiotics and anti-rejection medications.  None of it mattered anymore.

I took down all the unnecessary tubing, started a morphine drip and administered Glycopyrrolate (which dries secretions and softens the “death rattle”).

This felt massive to me. I remember this mix of emotions: sadness, relief, and an overwhelming sense that I was a part of something huge.  I still cannot wrap my head around it.

I was able to help transition one profoundly suffering human being from a regimen of “Come on! Power through! Endure, endure, endure!” to, “It’s okay, Gloria. You fought so, so hard. Now close your eyes, let your pain fade, and rest.”

It was beautiful.

Gloria died the following day — not on my shift, but I felt so happy that I had been able to share the transition with her and her parents.

To think of everything we had put this woman through in hopes of an inaccessible cure is just … sickening.

Medicine has gotten to the point where we’ve gone as far and as invasive as we can go. I wish people — both we professionals and the public at large — would begin to prioritize a dignified death above all.

Family members need to know that there is far more beauty in spending quality time (rather than simply a quantity of time in the hospital) with their unalterably disabled and ultimately incurable loved ones.

Sadly, when family members must make medical decisions, too often those decisions are influenced by a subconscious need to palliate our own emotional suffering. As well, an irrational fear that we will otherwise be guilty (or at least will feel guilty) spurs good people to say “yes” to absolutely every intervention that forestalls death.

Though I wish everyone could die at home surrounded by love and comfort, I know it is the nature of those battling cancer to often push themselves far past their ability to survive the journey home.

It is my duty to honor this incredible fight and allow them to pass peacefully, without pain — and to let them know that accepting death is the greatest victory.

~ by an ICU nurse

Evolutionary thinking is the extension of this historical thinking to the natural world. To a small extent that is already part of the biblical account. In the beginning things come into being successively. In the end there will be a new earth. But of course, that only points in the general direction of evolutionary thinking. Our spiritual ancestors knew very little about the way humanity emerged in a long process of development and even less about the history of the cosmos.

Some Christians have, nevertheless, tried to adjust their understanding of the natural world to the pre-scientific worldview of the Bible. The Bible does not invite that kind of use, but some have not accepted its historical understanding. In their imagination some have transformed the Bible into a once and for all inerrant expression of God’s knowledge. Fortunately, overall most of those whose vision is formed by the Bible understand that its historical character invites continuing openness to new knowledge. Thought and understanding developed and changed over time in Israel. Christian theology has had a long development, greatly influenced by new information about history and about the natural world. To live and think in the authentically Christian tradition is to participate in the continuing evolution of faithful thought.

In the past century and a half faithful thinking has involved appropriating the evolutionary understanding of life on this planet and setting it in the context of the evolution of the whole universe. Evolutionary Christianity is Christianity that continues to be faithful to the God who about whom we learn in the Bible and especially in the person and teaching of Jesus.

Learning from the best thinking of the day is being faithful to the God who is Truth. But the best thinking of the day may not be that which is most celebrated by the culture of any generation. It is not faithful to God simply to accept what persons who are not informed by our tradition say and then try to make some aspects of our tradition fit into the ideas these celebrated leaders teach. The most accepted thinking in the late middle ages was that of Aristotle, and it was right for Christians to learn from it. But the church suffered from giving too much authority to Aristotle. Certainly the church Christianized his thought to some extent, but not sufficiently. The deep insight we have received from our scriptures was compromised. Protest was needed.

The Enlightenment may have broken too sharply with Aristotle, and in any case the worldview with which it replaced Aristotle’s had serious problems. That worldview’s dominance threatens Biblical wisdom. We learn from science because as Christians we know that all truth is God’s truth and that science provides us with a vast amount of useful and exciting information. But if we are faithful, we incorporate that information into a biblically- informed understanding. We do not adopt the seventeenth-century metaphysics still shaping so much scientific theory.

We affirm the evolutionary understanding of all creaturely things. That is a wonderful extension of our historical consciousness. But in our biblical perspective what happens takes place out of interaction between God and creatures. The purposes of both are important. The systematic exclusion of the purposes of both God and creatures from the dominant forms of evolutionary theory taught in our universities does not result from the information for which we are so indebted to scientists. It results from their metaphysical assumptions to which they hold despite the empirical evidence against them.

For evolutionary Christianity the facts of evolution guide us in our evolving understanding of God’s purposes and direct our human ones. They heighten our sense of the importance of what we have learned from our scriptures about the evolution of thought in Israel. They do not, however, lead us to necessarily accept the teachings of some of the leading scientific evolutionists of our day.

Mary, the mother of Jesus is a central figure in the Advent and Christmas story. However, her portrayal in the Christian Gospels is problematic on several fronts and is deeply disturbing for many women particularly. She is over-spiritualized and consequently her identity and integrity as a woman and mother are seriously compromised. I suggest that we obtain a more authentic – and more truthful – portrayal of Mary in Elizabeth Johnson‘s book, Truly Our Sister (2004). From the reflections of that book, I have composed the poem below, which hopefully honors Mary’s deeper story, and her potential to inspire us in our at this special time of year.

(SOURCE: Diarmuid O’Murchu, Jesus in the Power of Poetry, New York: Crossroad 2009, 49-50)

1. The Archetypal Mary

CHORUS:
I am the Madonna who’s black to the core.
And I birth forth a freedom that lasts evermore.

You have cast me in stone like a Queen of the Right,
A white European, so humble and trite.
From head to toe veiled, bizarre the décor,
You have robbed my uniqueness in Palestine’s lore.

My birth was as simple and poor as the rest,
Begotten by God in the power of real sex.
No fancy angelic triumphalist hype
But tendering care amid my struggling tribe.

I grew up with stories of struggle and pain,
My people were waiting for God to regain
Our freedom from those who burdened our way.
So we eagerly waited for God’s bright new day!

Messiahs by the dozen claimed they were the one.
Begotten they said by miraculous turn.
And my eldest darling decided he’d claim
To have been selected for Messianic fame.

If only they knew what the background was like
Out of wedlock conceived – a merciless plight
And all that I suffered – so undignified
Suspecting all through a remarkable child.

He was restless and strange from a very young age
And questioned religion with the wit of a sage.
He travelled the world, to places on end
With a freedom in heart I could not comprehend.

He joined with a commune down near Jordan’s shore
And a guy called the Baptist with prophetic lore
Marked him out for a mission I don’t understand
My wild little lad and his ‘postolic band.

They say he worked marvels and preached like a lord,
And among the great leaders caused no little discord.
I never could answer when the neighbours did ask
The meaning and purpose of his missionary task.

It all turned sour after three years astream.
It seems he reaped havoc on the Temple’s regime.
By the time I was called, in a cruel twist of fame
He was dead on a cross; my God, what a shame!

For months, I kept out of the public domain,
But the women disciples kept calling my name.
And that woman from Magdala, she never gave up
‘Till the vision was grounded in a new Christian Church.

I tried to support what the new group brought forth,
New freedom and peace, and some enduring hope.
We laughed and we suffered, yet knew it was right
While I never forgot my bright wayward child.

They say I assumed to the heavens above
Once more robbing from me the earth that I love.
How I wish they would cherish my feminine truth
As a woman and mother to God’s earthly rule.

ENDING:
To the earth I belong like the Goddess of yore
A radiant woman – but dark at my core!

by Connie Barlow

A year or so ago a colleague suggested that I submit an article to an excellent magazine to which he regularly contributes. I responded along the lines of,

“Why would I want to do that?! The magazine has no free online presence. At most, my article would be read by a few thousand subscribers and then utterly lost to posterity. Meanwhile, the trees cut to produce the paper would add to my ecological footprint. No thanks!”

As the author of two books and two anthologies ushered into print by respectable publishers over the course of a decade (1991 – 2001), I have been responding in a similar vein when asked whether I plan to write another book:

“Why would I want to do that?! At most my book would be read by a few tens of thousands of individuals over perhaps a decade; I’m not famous enough for a publisher to produce an audio version; and I wouldn’t be allowed to keep updating the content.  Besides, the publishing industry has crashed; there is no money anymore for my class of writer, so I might as well keep creating, posting online, and updating my own stuff for free.”

Ten years ago, all I could do on my computer was type, save, and print a text document. That was a marvel, of course, compared to the IBM Selectric typewriter on which I composed my first book (published in 1984). Today I still type in text, but now I convert that text into html and upload it into one of my websites, or I convert it to pdf and link it into the Internet. Or I might post the text as a blog, as I plan to do here.

I enjoy creating audio, too, using the recording, editing, and music-making software that comes with my Apple computer. I convert the final product to an mp3 file and upload it onto a commercial podcasting site, for which I pay a small monthly fee.

Best of all is the opportunity to create and publish in video format. Not only is video the richest, most emotionally compelling and artistic mode for communication, but the final product enters an arena that is as close to immortal as anything humans have yet devised — and it costs me nothing, thanks to YouTube.

I’m not sure whether Google is God, but I darn well know that YouTube is my ticket to eternity. And Google is godly enough to have provisioned YouTube with the best indexing-and-finding system yet imaginable.

If a video truly has merit, if it offers something unique, and if I have done a satisfactory job of embellishing it with a text description and keyword tags, then ultimately it will be found; it will be appreciated. That may happen long after I am dead. But it won’t moulder in some descendant’s basement and be tossed into the trash during a move. It won’t stand idle on library shelves, where my four books now repose. (And I’m not convinced there will still be bricks-and-mortar libraries in a hundred years.)

Note: Just this moment I discovered a website that lists all the libraries in the world where each of my books resides, in order of distance from anywhere in the world. My 1997 book, Green Space Green Time: The Way of Science stands in 698 libraries, the furthest being Botswana.

As to most digital forms of legacy projects, long life and accessibility is, at present, far from assured. Consider: If my husband and I were to die today, within a year or two our websites would go down, for lack of payment to the server and for nonrenewal of domain names. Within a few months, all three of our podcast channels would vanish, archives and all — again, for lack of payment.

YouTube not only freely accepts all my videos. It requires zero upkeep on my part.  At this moment, it is by far the best bet for immortality.

Google Scholar is also as close to immortal as anything gets. But it is decidedly undemocratic. It preserves and makes available only scholarly texts, and then, if there is a copyright issue, only in bits and pieces. Portions of two of my four books are preserved on Google Scholar.

Bottomline: if you haven’t attracted the attention of a real publisher, Google Scholar is unlikely to be interested in your immortality project — however dear it may be to you.

Ernest Becker, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Denial of Death (1973), popularized the notion of “immortality projects” — portraying them as the offspring of our human awareness of death and our consequent attempts to overcome it. When Becker was alive and writing, people (other than brilliant scholars like himself) had few opportunities for immortality projects other than producing offspring or excelling in business, arts, politics, or war. With the Internet, all that has changed — and that is great news for our species and our world, as well as for aspiring individuals.

Consider these shifting opportunities for leaving a lasting legacy:

1. GENETIC LEGACY: Opportunities for leaving a genetic legacy have vastly improved in the developed countries, thanks to the virtual elimination of famine, malnourishment, unsanitary public water supplies, and plagues, and by turning childhood death from a fact of life that nearly all parents experienced into a rare and shocking event. Whether our genetic legacy will be something we can be proud of is another question.

Youth are launched into a complex and often unfriendly world in which they must find their own way. No longer does the eldest son simply inherit the farm or the hardware business. No longer is the second son, while barely a teen, apprenticed out to a shoemaker in the next village. No longer do young women expect that marriage will come soon, last until death, and adequately provision themselves and their children with life’s basic necessities.

In just my lifetime, industrial and manufacturing vocations for securing a spot in the middle class have collapsed, and even a college degree no longer guarantees a living wage and a fulfilling career. And marriage for young women? Dream on. Young men no longer need marry to obtain legal, emotionally nurturing, and recurrent sex. Thus, what began in the 1970s as a welcome and exhilarating choice for women like me, has now become a near necessity: virtually all young women now need to scramble for a living wage and fulfilling career — no less than the young men.

Meanwhile, our stone-age instincts all too easily succumb to the escalating temptations of modern life, notably the “supernormal stimuli” of addictive foods, psychoactive substances, gaming, gambling, and internet porn.  Hence, good people do not necessarily die delighted in their offspring.

2. MEMETIC LEGACY:  Opportunities for passing forward a memetic legacy, no matter how lowly one’s family of birth, have long been improving. In the USA, public funding of primary education blossomed in the early 1800s. In 1883 American business tycoon Andrew Carnegie began funding free public libraries in the USA, Canada, and elsewhere, so that even the poorest kids and adults could self-educate with Great Books. The 1930s ushered in compulsory secondary education. In 1944, the G.I. bill made it possible for working class war veterans to attend college, thanks to public funding of tuition support.

In my lifetime, the cultural release of blacks and women to compete equally as generators of valuable ideas and arts (“memes”), as well as businesses, will surely go down in history as a great leap forward for our species. I am a grateful beneficiary of this cultural shift.

Finally, opportunities for creating a worthy memetic legacy (I’m not talking about “celebrities” and psycho-killers who briefly secure facetime on what is sometimes called “news”) have taken another great leap forward — and beginning only about ten years ago. Thanks to the Internet, no longer does one need to acquire a graduate pedigree, an impressive resume, or a famous mentor in order to get a hearing in the intellectual marketplace of ideas. For the first time, virtually anyone with the intellect and the drive can (a) self-educate and (b) self-express.

That is what I mean by the democratization of idea generation and exchange.

We’ve all seen it. We’ve all marveled at it. We’ve all benefited from it. And yet it goes largely unheralded.

Some obscure individual gets a great idea, launches it via a blog or video and the thing “goes viral.”

Here’s my favorite example. His name is John Boswell, and I first heard about this newly graduated econ major in September 2009.  He had just posted a video on YouTube that emerged from a combination of his musical talent, his veneration of Carl Sagan, his delight in the cosmos, and his tinkering with some fun new software.

Just three-and-a-half minutes long, this music video (titled “A Glorious Dawn”) garnered a million views in just one month. (As I write, in December 2011, it is now up to 7 million views.) More important, a scan of the comments reveals that the video is still powerfully affecting — even to the point of tears — viewers young and old. (Check out one of my blogposts to read some of the over-the-top comments that were posted on the video’s YouTube page.) Or listen to me and my husband jam about it on our podcast episode titled “Symphony of Science.”

I’ve kept in touch with John Boswell by email. He continues to post more music videos in this genre — still for free. He’s got a donation button at the bottom his webpage, symphonyofscience.com, and I have donated twice. Somehow he keeps himself alive financially.

Boswell is an example of volunteerism unaltered by fame. Here is a passion to produce something that matters, that uplifts, that just might inspire a 12-year-old to pursue a career in science and maybe even to discover something that will astonish the next generation of 12-year-olds.

Call it a yearning to be noticed and respected. Call it a desire to make a difference. Call it an immortality project. Call it what you will. But you need only dabble on YouTube to get a sense that, right here, people of little or no stature are posting results of intense avocational pursuits that ultimately (in many cases) will serve the world.

YouTube’s free outlet for creative sharing has made it possible for just about anyone to launch into the world their memetic legacies. All one need do is acquire some basic geek skills (which is no more difficult than breathing for our youth), hone a fascination, and persevere in self-education and exploration of their topic of choice.

When the video is finished, it is uploaded and the waiting and watching begins. Alert your Facebook “friends” to your new video, and the “views” start to rise. As soon as one person posts an appreciative comment, you get a dopamine hit. What remains and grows is a sense of accomplishment and the warm feeling of knowing you are valued and respected.

An avocation is thus nurtured. More projects will follow. Gone are the wasted hours, the boredom, the existential angst, the fear that “I am nothing.” Sure, for some lucky souls their fascinations may eventually yield a paying vocation. But for most of us, we are not only content with volunteerism; we are drawn more and more into it.

Thanks to the Internet, the democratization of the flow of information and the exchange of ideas is prompting a surge of volunteerism and a push-back against consumerism in the western world.

This is very good news, as both trends bode well for our culture, our society, and the community of life.

Thanks to the Internet, more and more individuals — and at astonishingly young ages —are discovering not only outlets for their creative energies but also the joy of giving away their gifts, of volunteering their time, of participating in the democratization of cultural progress.

Those of us besot with an avocational passion need no monetary draw to keep us producing and giving, producing and giving. More, we begin to start structuring our lives to free up more time to “play” in this worldwide and open exchange, this supremely democratic form of meritocracy that with no hesitation gives all comers a platform to prove the value of their projects.

For the still-in-school, this always-available creative outlet is a reminder that we do have worth and that life is not just confusion, boredom, and a set of rules and timetables not of our making. It is a way to gain respect and a sense of accomplishment.

For those who have launched into the adult world of earning a living, we learn by experience that if we really want to pursue our passion, then we have to cut back on what we buy, what we consume, what we think we must have and must do. We thus shed the default foundational value of our culture — that is, the goal to get, to spend, to acquire. Consumption as an end in itself.

For those who have fared well enough and long enough in life to no longer need to earn income, here is an outlet for putting wisdom to work. We happily volunteer time and energy toward projects of our own making — not just what our local community may offer. And, here too, the drive to consume diminishes. There is “something more” and that something more is a way to grow our legacy — to attend to our “immortality projects” — in this final phase of life.

Even the computer-phobic among us can manage to write (and with help, post) an Amazon (or Google Books) review. Old folks have a special role to play in this regard. Just tally up your favorite books of the past, find them on Amazon or Google Books, and post (what may well be) the very first review!

Let’s take a look at what the Internet era means for the folks who have long stood at the helm of idea generation and exchange at a societal level. This is the arena of “public intellectuals.”

Many in this category are scholars employed at colleges, universities, and privately funded think-tanks, whose ideas and communication skills launch them into public view. A rare few make their living as columnists with the top tier of newspapers and magazines. Others are entrepreneurs who must generate their own paycheck, by way of published articles, books, and speaking fees.

In September 2011, best-selling author Sam Harris posted on his blog ruminations on the dismal future for both the publishing industry and “public intellectuals.” Entrepreneurial public intellectuals, like Sam, have grown accustomed to earning their living by writing books and articles and giving the occasional invited talk.

Sam titled his essay, “The Future of the Book.” It begins,

Writers, artists, and public intellectuals are nearing some sort of precipice: Their audiences increasingly expect digital content to be free. Jaron Lanier has written and spoken about this issue with great sagacity. You can purchase his book here, which most of you will not do, or you can watch him discuss these matters for free. The problem is thus revealed even in the act of stating it.  How can a person like Lanier get paid for being brilliant? This has become an increasingly difficult question to answer.

Where publishing is concerned, the Internet is both midwife and executioner. It has never been easier to reach large numbers of readers, but these readers have never felt more entitled to be informed and entertained for free. . .

After a fascinating tour of his own experience in print and recent forays into ebook self-publishing, blogging, and vlogging, Sam concludes:

One thing is certain: writers and public intellectuals must find a way to get paid for what they do—and the opportunities to do this are changing quickly. My current solution is to write longer books for a traditional press and publish short ebooks myself on Amazon. If anyone has any better ideas, please publish them somewhere—perhaps on a blog—and then send me a link. And I hope you get paid.

As a “public intellectual” and author, I too am feeling the financial pinch. For ten years my husband and I have been travelling the USA in our van, giving talks — mostly at no charge. We do, however, routinely set up a book table at each venue, where we sell our own books and dvds along with a selection of books by others — meaning, we earn our living more as booksellers than as idea-makers. With the crash in the economy, fewer people are buying books and dvds. To be sure, audiences enjoy the free lecture. Individuals may even be moved and remade by it; and they tell us so.  But most leave without purchasing anything.

I cannot fault them for that. I do the same. As Sam Harris pointed out, “audiences increasingly expect digital content to be free.” I would add that audiences increasingly expect to find all forms of content online (and for free), including the most alluring format of all: free videos on YouTube.

Indeed, over the past decade of this ongoing “major transition in evolution” (in the way information is stored and passed forward), software and hardware technologies for all three modes of communication have become increasingly available to those of even modest means — limited only by one’s drive to self-learn and persist in internet empowerment.  (See also Kevin Kelly’s superb blogposts on this theme: “The Major Transitions in Technology” and “Evolution of the Scientific Method”.)

And so, while I continue to love thinking and writing and talking (on audio and video), I am no longer doing so with the hopes of producing a salable product.  No more books!  (And beginning three months ago when YouTube eliminated the 10-minute limit on video uploads, I now also declare, No more dvds!)

More and more, I am drawn into volunteerism. More and more, I look for ways to reduce my spending so that less and less of my time needs to generate income.

The game has changed utterly, irrevocably.

Halleluia! . . . (I hope)

Let me be clear: Facebook pages that survive the individual’s death, along with the plethora of self-focussed and fluff YouTube videos, will of course pass forward in a memorabilia sort of way. One’s great-great-great grandchild might someday thrill to catch a glimpse of what life was like for an ancestor in the days of digital deprivation, when there were still places where one had to purchase Internet access — indeed, when there were still regions lacking optical fibers or satellite feeds. As well, all such digital memorabilia may serve some function as part of a vast and easily accessible database for future scholars of cultural history and transformation.

But there are growing numbers of us whose creative and volunteer energies are sparked by a chance to pass forward something of lasting value — something that might actually improve a life (maybe a million lives) or help preserve the planet.

And we are willing to invest time in learning about that which captures our heart, our mind, our imagination, so that we truly will have something of value to post.

After weeks and months (even years) of soaking up the wisdom of others, one day an idea for a new project arrives unbidden. It may even be something we feel uniquely positioned to offer the world. So we get busy, taking great care that our text or audio or video baby will have a decent chance to capture the scarcest resource of all: the attention of other Internet surfers, public intellectuals, and immortality project creators.

Within the last few months, not one but two now-elderly creators of information-rich websites have sought to bequeath their digital babies to my husband and me. We are both in our fifties, so we are still a pretty good bet.

The websites are superb and uniquely valuable. Nonetheless, we declined. Both of us have a backlog of creative Internet projects we are aching to pursue. Assuming responsibility for somebody else’s website cannot compete with our existing creative To Do lists — no matter how worthy we regard those projects as contributors to the public good, to cultural progress.

Who will take those websites over?

And who (or, more likely, what) will take over ours in another few decades?

What new digital emergent will assure that these painstaking contributions are accessibly archived — maybe even periodically updated so that their worth not only maintains but grows?

Sure, I could take all of our audio podcast episodes one by one and laboriously turn each into a black-screen or minimal-jpg video and post them as a distinct playlist on my YouTube channel. But that is a cop-out. There really ought to be a way to keep ideas-rich audio as audio, while securely passing forward and superbly tagging each mp3 with a description and keywords, in YouTube fashion.

And there really ought to be a way to secure the continuity and accessibility of educational websites when their creators and caretakers give up the ghost.

I am certain that among the wealthy of the world are benefactors who have already secured in elaborate bunkers digital records and instructions for rebooting the Internet after a civilizational collapse (see update, below). That would be the greatest immortality project of all! Here is why:

We can direct our human ingenuity to perhaps safeguard the world from nuclear and biological terror. And it is well within our reach to nudge the flight paths of asteroids coming our way, if only we are willing to fund the effort.

But there is nothing we can do about our planet’s half-dozen civilization-destroying supervolcanoes.

So maybe digital “immortality” is a physical impossibility, even for the likes of Google.

Nonetheless, I am content to believe that at least some of my digital babies will live on — and continue to make a positive difference — until Yellowstone blows.

____________________

UPDATE 12/20/11: Kevin Kelly (author of What Technology Wants) directed me to one of those “bunkers” online, known as the WayBack Machine. It has a simple enough url: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. And yes, indeed, my thegreatstory.org website is fully on there. It hasn’t yet connected the podcast archive pages of mine with the actual mp3’s, but finding a way to do that myself will go onto my long-term To-Do list. (BTW: I made a financial donation to the archive.)

Kevin’s email also said,

“YouTube will die some day. This is a certainty. What we need is a pan-civilization, non-profit record for all time. This is technically possible —even safe from Yellowstone supervolcano. We at The Long Now made a “backup” of 1,000 language versions of the same text (Gen 1-5) put it on a nickel disk (optical readable), and it is on its way to land on an orbiting comet right now. See the Rosetta Project at Long Now.  We could put the entire library of earth there if we wanted to.”

____________________

Connie Barlow’s immortality projects (in text, audio, and video formats) can be accessed through her main educational website: TheGreatStory.org, especially this page.