Hi TOK List,

 

  Last week, I did a blog “There Have Been Four Big Bangs, Not Three” which started with Holmes Rolston’s book, Three Big Bangs: Matter-Energy, Life, Mind and then went on to say that this is sort of helpful, but he is wrong and this should be clear, as it is known that there have been “four big bangs”.

 

I wrote the blog in what might be called my “assertive matter-of-fact voice”. My wife Andee tells me when I am in that voice, I often don’t come across as assertive and matter of fact, but can easily come across as a know-it-all asshole. Indeed, this is exactly how the blog was received. I first received a backchannel, asking me to reword the final statement. This was from someone I trust and respect.

 

And then, I got this message from the Editors at PT:

 

Hi,

Thanks for sharing this. However, we are concerned that your posts are increasingly harder to understand. Can you please explain this in simpler terms for the average reader? Please let us know. This post is currently not on the homepage. Thank you for your attention.

 

To me, this feels weird, and I definitely would love feedback or suggestions on framing ToK basics. By that I mean…there is an established literature that clearly and obviously demonstrates that if you are going to conceptualize the world in terms of “big bangs” in the way that Rolston did, he is simply wrong. He collapses the “mind” into a single dimension, when it is now known to be separable.

 

The physicist head part of me cannot fathom why that is not obvious. The feminine therapist heart part of me can. I would love help putting this together in a way that is digestible for people and would welcome any feedback.

 

Best,

Gregg

___________________________________________

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)

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