16AR21-14

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AR 21:14 - Beyond ‘McMindfulness’

In this issue:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - plenty of promise, no commitment

CONSCIENCE - is this “evolutionary adaptation” actually “contrary to the direction of much modern liberal theology?”

MEDITATION - why much “mindfulness” has lost its focus

Apologia Report 21:14 (1,287)

April 9, 2016

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence, by George Zarkadakis [1] -- Kirkus (Jan ‘16 #2) reports the author’s view that AI “is an ancient human obsession. ... In the first third of the book, Zarkadakis [with a PhD in AI from City University, London] delivers an ingenious history of our fascination with nonhuman entities, such as ancient religious totems, which were regarded as sentient, and Pygmalion, golems, medieval mechanical automata, Frankenstein, robots, and a torrent of movies.... Having described the reality, the author then moves on to theory. Some thinkers and scientists and most laymen believe that the mind is immaterial. If so, ‘how can we ever hope to construct a material computer with a soul? How can we force mindless electrons inside computer chips to become self-aware?’ Zarkadakis inclines to the opposing view that the mind is an emergent property of living tissue. Whatever billions of neurons and their trillions of connections can accomplish will eventually emerge from the right software.” Apparently, the author is satisfied that we’re “already turning out products that, if not yet intelligent, seem awfully clever.”

Mind the gap. - RP

CONSCIENCE

God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human, by Dominique Johnson [2] -- in his brief review for Skeptical Inquirer (Jan/Feb ‘16, p61), Kendrick Frazier observes that “Scientific skeptics often wonder how religious belief prevails so widely. Dominique Johnson, who holds a DPhil from Oxford in evolutionary biology as well as a PhD from Geneva University in political science, presents the case that religion - and specifically the fear of supernatural observation and punishment - is an evolutionary adaption. He says the idea of supernatural retribution has helped preserve moral order and achieve remarkable levels of cooperation. His book seeks to show that belief in supernatural reward and punishment is no quirk of western or Christian culture but is a ubiquitous phenomenon of human nature that spans all cultures; second, he argues that this is no accident but is an evolutionary adaption; and third, he asks us to think through the implications of all this. His valuable exploration into the evolutionary reasons for the power and perverseness of religious belief raises troubling issues for us all.”

Choice (Apr ‘16) adds: “Johnson (politics and international relations, Univ. of Oxford, UK) [finds that] religion became a valuable evolutionary adaptation in the early stages of human social development and remains today ‘part of [human] biology’ - even if only a residual part, rather like wisdom teeth or the appendix. Whereas Johnson apparently agrees with new atheists’ judgments of the content of religious belief, he disagrees with those who would wish to eliminate religion - given its important function - arguing that such an ‘untested experiment’ would likely have significantly negative social outcomes. He concludes that the idea of God in fact ‘cannot die so long as human beings have human brains.’ Although some scholars of religion and philosophy may find the book wanting, this broad, reasonable presentation is amply documented with anthropological and biological evidence that religious belief is a by-product of evolution. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” [3]

Writing for Library Journal (no date credit), Graham Christian (formerly with Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA) notes that “Johnson’s provocative claim runs contrary to the direction of much modern liberal theology, which stresses the love of God and the other rather than fear of punishment, and involves a certain amount of special pleading and selective understanding of both the world’s religions and evolutionary biology - but it deserves discussion. Verdict: A flawed but interesting argument, excellent for study groups as well as academic libraries.”

MEDITATION

“Cynical and amoral: The dark side of the mindfulness fad” by Zac Alstin -- finds “something apparently overlooked in the high tide of the ‘McMindfulness’ fad: all forms of meditation, whether they focus on counting breaths, being mindful of one’s mental states, cultivating a sense of loving kindness, or discursively analysing metaphysical conundra, are known in their full religious contexts to be gruelling disciplines when undertaken in the proper spirit.

“The proper spirit is precisely what has been lost amidst the growing popularity of meditation and mindfulness. Buddhists are increasingly critical of the ‘non-judgmental’ stance injected into mindfulness programs by corporations keen to harness meditation’s cool self-improvement vibe without touching on any of the awkward ethical stuff that goes with it. ...

“In 2013 Ron Purser, a Professor of management at San Francisco State University and Zen teacher David Loy wrote a sharp critique <www.goo.gl/GLFSJr> of the mindfulness movement as it infiltrates schools, corporations, prisons and government agencies:

“‘Up to now, the mindfulness movement has avoided any serious consideration of why stress is so pervasive in modern business institutions. Instead, corporations have jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon because it conveniently shifts the burden onto the individual employee: stress is framed as a personal problem, and mindfulness is offered as just the right medicine to help employees work more efficiently and calmly within toxic environments. Cloaked in an aura of care and humanity, mindfulness is refashioned into a safety valve, as a way to let off steam - a technique for coping with and adapting to the stresses and strains of corporate life.’

“Let’s all check in with our bodies and feel what it’s like to realise that our corporate overlords will exploit even spiritual development for the sake of profit. ...

“Critics of the current meditation fad have pointed out that mindfulness can, paradoxically, amount to a form of dissociation. The supposedly non-judgemental quality of mindfulness meditation is often packaged as a way of dealing with painful and difficult emotions, and can become a means of avoiding rather than processing uncomfortable feelings. As one critique noted: ‘The idea that each of us is unique is a cornerstone of individual-based therapy. But with mindfulness-based approaches there is little space for one’s individuality, in part because it’s a group practice, but also because there has been no serious attempt to address how individuals react differently to this technique.’

“Then there are the genuine spiritual goals of meditation. While meditation is typically couched in the safe language of self-improvement and stress relief, there’s no denying that the end-goal of meditation in its original context is a radical departure from a conventional view of life and reality. ...

“Wisdom 2.0 may be all about well-being and workplace efficiency, but Wisdom 1.0 doesn’t sit well with these ‘accommodationist’ concerns. From a Buddhist point of view, it is absurd to watch people espouse mindfulness while changing nothing in their deeper values or daily life. It is as senseless and egoistic as practicing some kind of secular ‘prayer’ for the sake of health and feel-good benefits.

“In its proper context, mindfulness is supposed to be right mindfulness, and is but one of eight components of the Noble Eightfold Path. It is supposed to be grounded, contained, and expressed through right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right concentration. To fixate on non-judgemental mindfulness alone is simply not right.” Mercatornet, Oct 13 ‘15. <www.goo.gl/zX0zy3>

“Does Mindfulness Belong in Public Schools?” That’s the question addressed in a recent dialogue between Candy Gunther Brown and Saki Santorelli in the spring 2016 edition of Tricycle magazine. <www.goo.gl/30fN7z>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of

Artificial Intelligence, by George Zarkadakis (Pegasus, 2016, hardcover, 384 pages) <www.goo.gl/WbLllP>

2 - God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human, by Dominique Johnson (Oxford Univ Prs, 2015, hardcover, 304 pages) <www.goo.gl/m2QvUn>

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