Consciousness Evolving: Can Enlightenment Save the Planet? 

New age guru Andrew Cohen’s magazine, What Is Enlightenment?, offers a route to planetary salvation based in the evolution of “higher consciousness.”  But an analysis of Cohen’s dualist philosophy suggests we’d be better off sticking with mainstream science to avoid global catastrophe.

 

The Specter of Brain Science

Those of the New Age persuasion often suppose that reductionist science threatens what makes us most human, the immaterial soul or spirit, and what makes life most meaningful, the existence of a transcendent non-physical realm.  To escape the perils of materialism and mechanism, they take refuge in the pseudo-science of paranormal and occult phenomena.  But we needn't resort to pseudo-science or deny our physical nature to defend humanity or find meaning in life. This appeared in Free Inquiry, May-June, 2006.

 

The Specter of Scientism

Michael Lerner and other spiritual progressives see the West in thrall to the worldview of scientism, which marginalizes all values but capitalist consumerism. To counter scientism and ground progressive values, Lerner says we must access intuitive spiritual knowledge, which reveals an ethical dimension at the heart of reality. But we need not resort to a questionable epistemology or claim that values are fundamental in nature to ground progressivism, which is a political, not metaphysical, project. A thorough-going naturalism, based in science, offers significant resources in the quest for a humane and equitable planetary culture.