Post-materialist science manifesto (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, February 22, 2015, 17:27 (3345 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I can certainly accept this as very plausible:-http://www.opensciences.org/files/pdfs/Manifesto-for-a-Post-Materialist-Science.pdf-Thank you for this. One needs to read the whole piece for a proper overview, and I myself can certainly accept their arguments against narrow materialism and the need for serious research into all those mental and psychic phenomena that materialistic science has so far failed to explain. I am, though, a little put off by some of the statements that you have yourself quoted:
 
Mind “cannot be derived from matter”. Such an assertion is every bit as blinkered as the assertion that mind IS derived from matter. We do not know the source of mind, and so yes, scientists should investigate all aspects of the subject, but without prejudice.-Minds “may unite in ways suggesting a unitary One Mind that includes all individual, single minds”.
 
The use of capitals alone suggests that they have an agenda here. I began the “brief guide” with a response to what I see as Dawkins' agenda, in which scientific observation is coloured by personal prejudice, and although I would heartily endorse most of the manifesto, I have a nasty feeling that by post-materialist science they mean “come and join our congregation”. But if they use science as you have done in your book, David, to counter the arguments of atheistic scientists, at least they may restore some kind of balance to the discussion.