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1 On Darwin’s Theory
2 On Subjectivity and Objectivity
3 ‘Knowing’, the Basis of Experience
4 Knowing and Evolution
5 On a New Way of Thinking
6 On Intention
7 Intention as Dynamic Process
8 The ‘Blind, Unconscious, Automatic’ Process of
Intention
9 On Causation and Programming
10 What is Creativity?
11 Creative or Mechanical Evolution?
12 The Evolution of Intelligence
13 On the Evolution of Consciousness
14 The Ambiguity of ‘I–You’
15 The Birth of Ego
16 On Humans and Evolution
Epilogue
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
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“Currently director of the Montreal
Zen Centre, Low has written widely about Zen Buddhism for many years.
Being an educated, modern, Western, generally cool guy, he had no
trouble taking sides in the creation/evolution debate. Then one
night, reading Dawkins, he realized that neo-Darwinism is a materialistic-mechanistic
theory arguing that matter is the element from which all is derived,
and that the evolution of life is no different from the evolution
of matter. He decided that he needed to think a little deeper about
that, and shares the insights he stumbled upon.” Reference
& Research Book News
“Albert Low breathes new
life into old terms – the transcendent, consciousness, awareness,
evolution, creativity, intention – not by going around science,
but by going through it. In the current frenzy to purge science
of purpose, meaning, direction, and values, Low’s insights
are a welcome resource. One might say that our survival depends
on the wisdom in this book.” Larry Dossey, MD, author
of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Everyday Things
“The old religious models don’t
seem to work for us these days. And so we have turned to secularity,
to the cooler gaze of science, especially the neo-Darwinism of Richard
Dawkins and others. Albert Low shows that the bloom of their answer
– the random-mutation mechanistic evolutionary system –
that once seemed so promising, cannot account for our capacity for
love, appreciation of beauty, altruism, creativity or intelligence.
And it cannot offer us meaning or direction.
… So we find ourselves in an uncomfortable place of ambiguity…
The Origin of Human Nature offers a model that lives creatively
in just that ambiguity. Living up to his life-long effort to integrate
the hard sciences with his years of Zen practice and teaching, Low
makes room for the best of evolution while welcoming space for the
mystery of consciousness and the humble contemplation of the abyss.
His is a welcoming of science and mysticism, and we would all do
well to walk with him.” Professor Robert Forman, founder/CEO
of The Forge Institute of Spiritual Leaders and Teachers, Professor
Emeritus of Comparative Religion, CUNY, founding Co-Editor of The
Journal of Consciousness Studies and author of Grassroots
Spirituality
“In this intelligently written book Albert Low gives us a
modern Guide for the Perplexed; a richly thoughtful reflection on
the roots of human nature that glows with a deep respect for both
science and the spirit.” Allan Combs, author of The
Radiance of Being
“The battles over evolution are fought
by two sides that are far too rigid in their thinking, the Biblical
literalists on the one hand and the mechanistically committed materialists
on the other. But our human and spiritual nature is much bigger
than fanatic literalism or scientistic dogmatism, and Low’s
refreshing book offers a more open direction to explore the potentials
of evolution for real human beings.” Charles T. Tart,
Core Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Professor
Emeritus of Psychology at UC Davis, author of Body Mind Spirit:
Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality
“I enthusiastically recommend this book. As a hard-core scientist,
I was overjoyed to read Dr. Low’s ‘knowing’ centered
approach to human origins and nature, as well as his eloquent rebuttal
of the ‘selfish gene’ neo-Darwinism that now dominates
mainstream views. Dr. Low’s vision
dovetails perfectly with the broader scientific vision of evolution
that I work with but perhaps it takes a Zen master to communicate
the profundity of its human implications to a world so desperate
for a deeply felt
understanding of purpose and meaning.” Dr. S. J. Goerner,
Director of The Integral Science Institute, and author of After
the Clockwork Universe: The Emerging Science and Culture
of Integral Society
“Albert Low offers us a strikingly original
vision of evolution and human nature. He presents us with a choice
that is stark, with implications that are far-reaching. On the one
hand, we can take the metaphor of ‘man as machine’ literally
and, as a consequence, abandon those very qualities that make us
human and make life worth living. On the other hand, we can come
to see that the evolutionary process, and therefore ourselves, is
fundamentally intelligent and creative. The choice, Low tells us,
is fateful and ours to make.” Dr William Byers, Mathematics
Professor at Loyola University, Montreal, author of How Mathematicians
Think
“Transcending the clichés on both sides of the modern
God/evolution debate, Dr. Low’s book offers a most welcome
invitation to the joyful work of thinking like a human being about
what an evolving human being is and can – for the sake of
our world, must – become.” Jacob Needleman, Professor
of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, author of Why
Can’t We Be Good?
“This book emerges from the conviction that ‘we have
no greater intel¬lectual need at the moment than a reality based
understanding of the origins and development of the human being’
(pp. xviii–xix). The author, Albert Low – Director of
the Montreal Zen Centre – is disturbed by the alternative
accounts of human development on offer: ‘random mutation,
Genesis, or Intelligent Design’ (p. xv) and aims to develop
an alternative view that is consistent with the facts of scientific
research, while placing these in a new interpretative framework.
Low is particularly exercised by the mechanistic view of neo-Darwinism,
which, he argues, fails to adequately account for ‘the immensity
of human nature, and the marvel of the human mind’ (p. x).
Human creativity, for Low, is crucially dependent on intentionality
and this is why neo-Darwinian accounts of origins are unconvincing.
The problem here is the tendency to seek an account of human through
a focus on the primitive past and the assumption that human life
can be treated it as just another aspect of inanimate matter and
explained in terms of the increasing complexity of the material
world. Whereas, in Low’s view, a more fruitful procedure is
to start with fully orbed human intelligence, with the capacity
for love, thought, altruism and the appreciation of beauty, and
to ask how it emerged. …
… The Origin of Human Nature is an ambitious book
that sometimes suffers from a corresponding tendency to high level
generalizations and nonsequiturs. Its primary thesis that mind and
matter are ‘basic ingredients of the world’ (p. 47)
is a controversial and thought-provoking one. The concomitant idea
that evolution is promoted by mind operating at the micro-level
is somewhat reminiscient of William James. Its overall argument
that there is an alternative to creationism, intelligent design,
and neo-Darwinism is certainly worth considering. Low accepts –
for unexamined reasons – the idea that human life must be
explained within a closed evolutionary system and works to expound
an evolutionary view that allows for human creativity and freedom,
as against Neo-Darwinism, which, for Low, denies those qualities
that distinguish the human race. I am not convinced that Low requires
to depart from the standard Darwinian view to safeguard human goods,
but found his book fascinating, often enlightening and always thought
provoking. It would be useful for anyone interested in the questions
around the evolution of humankind and human consciousness and the
implications for ‘soul’.”
Religious Studies |
