GET INTEGRAL WITH SAM HARRIS AND STUART DAVIS
Integral Naked
May 22, 2006

THE END OF FAITH?
Sam Harris & Stuart Davis

http://in.integralinstitute.org/talk.aspx?id=656

Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The End of Faith:
Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. He has studied both Eastern and
Western religions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for 20
years, and is in the process of finishing a doctorate in neuroscience.

By many accounts, The End of Faith is one of the most compelling and
alarming analyses of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Always
straight to the point, Sam explains why he believes the single greatest
threat to humanity is the fact that billions of people on this planet
believe in things like the metaphysics of martyrdom (suicide bombers go to
heaven) and the literal truth of the book of Revelation (the second coming
of Christ, Judgment Day, etc). In fact, Sam argues that in the presence of
weapons of mass destruction, we cannot survive our religious differences
indefinitely. Furthermore, he asserts, our pluralistic, postmodern concern
for being politically correct is complicit in accommodating and encouraging
the kind of pre-rational religious belief systems that, if left to their own
devices, would tear the world apart in the name of a mythic God -- and very
well may.

Sam's critiques of mythic-literal fundamentalist religion are sustained,
cogent, and devastating. Indeed, it would seem that mythic religion is left
without a leg to stand on -- and from a rational perspective, that's exactly
right. Sam goes on to suggest that we need to start an international
discussion to get people "talking reasonably about the good," and to
formulate a kind of "universal morality" based on the alleviation of
suffering.

An Integral Approach to spirituality would support these sentiments, but
would go on to comment on a few of the thornier issues involved in having
these kinds of conversations move forward in a meaningful way. Perhaps the
most challenging aspect to contend with is the developmental dimension of
human growth. Developmental studies show that human beings all move through
similar levels, waves, or stages of expanding care and concern, from
egocentric / "me" (archaic, magic), to ethnocentric / "us" (mythic), to
worldcentric / "all of us" (rational, pluralistic) to Kosmocentric and
higher (integral).

What Sam expresses so clearly, and with such urgency, is the moral demands
of rational, worldcentric awareness when confronted with the problematic
dimensions of ethnocentric, fundamentalist, mythic-literal religion, and its
occasionally egocentric acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, you can't just
ask people to "think differently," adopt the cognitive stance of a rational
worldview, and all of a sudden they're worldcentric. Bob Kegan at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education estimates that it takes five years for
most people to develop to a new stage in a way that they are truly "walking
their talk."

It is because of these vertical stages of development that discussions
concerning universals can be difficult. In large part this is because at
archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral, the words
"reasonable," "good," "moral," and "suffering" all mean something different.

What an Integral Spirituality therefore suggests is the conveyor belt notion
of religion. Every stage of development is also a station of life, and
there is a different form of religion at each level. People are always
encouraged to continue their developmental journey, but if they stop their
growth at, say, mythic, that is their right. It is then the responsibility
of an Integral Approach to governance to help them live their lives as fully
as they can, without them being allowed to violate the rights of people in
any other religion, or at any other stage of development. So, in that
sense, an Integral Spirituality wouldn't call for the end of faith -- that
is as developmentally impossible as it is wrongheaded -- but rather a
healthy form of faith at each stage, because these stages aren't going away,
and they can't be skipped.

Every human being is born at square one, and if they are to ever reach
worldcentric awareness, they must find a way to navigate egocentric and
ethnocentric in a healthy way. For Integral Spirituality, this means not
the end of faith beliefs, but the end of faith behavior. In the interior or
Left-Hand dimensions, individuals can think what they want; but in the
Right-Hand behavioral commons, they must act as if their behavior stemmed
from worldcentric levels. They can't control their beliefs, but they can
control their behavior.

This is a fascinating dialogue exploring the very real problems of premodern
religion threatening to undo a modern and postmodern world that has not yet
found a way to uncover and integrate its own thread of spiritual
intelligence, and therefore offer people a way out of the limitations of the
religion of yesterday, and into the fullness of tomorrow. We invite you
join in on this extraordinarily important and timely conversation....




To learn more about an Integral Approach to spirituality, see ³What Is
Integral Spirituality?²

http://in.integralinstitute.org/faq-pdf.aspx?id=10

NHNE's coverage of Ken Wilber and his work:
http://www.nhne.org/tabid/489/Default.aspx

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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