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To: D-fendr
Are you familiar with Lewis's "Abolition of Man"?

Not actually. I read his Screwtape Letters in my youth, but that was about it.

302 posted on 08/19/2005 11:25:38 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew

Your post and the one early about "moving God to the margins" reminded me of it.

One of its points, quickly: Our efforts to conquer nature actually increase nature. More and more of reality becomes "just a force of nature" a pure cause and effect billiard ball universe.

The desire to have and nurture children? That's just "nature." And in this manner what was in the sphere of man's purpose and meaning in life - metaphysics is moved to the sphere of nature - physics. Nature increases.

Lewis's primary point is that the values of the tao, which is what he calls the perennial philosophy (what is Good and True and Beautiful in the largest sense) cannot be known from the natural sciences, from the effort of conquering of nature.

In a purely natural view of humanity, values are not found, they cannot be seen at all, except as to their utility in natural selection. (I.e., honesty, having compassion, etc. do no have inherent value, they are the result of natural forces which no values in this sense.)

Therefore, moving them to the realm of conquered nature means they can be controlled, selected, manipulated, chosen for all future human kind.

In this final conquering of nature, man is both the object of conquest and the subject of it.

Hence, the abolition of man.

Anyway your posts reminded me of this. I think this does occur, but I think it happens in error based on a false view of the reality of the cosmos and man's relationship to it.


306 posted on 08/19/2005 11:45:13 PM PDT by D-fendr
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To: dr_lew

Sorry, I have to retype this paragraph to make it coherent:

In a purely natural view of humanity, values are not found, they cannot be seen at all, except as to their utility in natural selection. (I.e., honesty, having compassion, etc. do not have inherent value, they are the result of natural forces which have no values in this sense.)


307 posted on 08/19/2005 11:48:26 PM PDT by D-fendr
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