Reply #23: Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow

[selmo7]

Was going to write more on this last night, but just getting around to it today. I've known Connie for a number of years. She's GREAT! Met her some years ago at an IRAS conference on Star Island in New Hampshire which featured a number of science, religious and cultural academics and writers. I saw both of them speak a few months ago in Cambridge, MA (and Connie remembered me! which was cool.)

I just want to mention that despite her husband Michael's fundamentalist bent (which I agree is overbearing given he was a ~groan~ fundamentalist preacher - and treats this material similarly...~groan~), their work is rooted in the hard science of evolutionary dynamics...it's based on the work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry.

Swimme and Berry's work is, in fact, the antithesis of the "creationism" movement as they are attempting to inspire awe in the reality-based aspect of creation and evolution. Thus the idea is to inspire wonder in the Universe _as it is_ and inspire a cosmological cosmology RATHER than a consumer- oriented cosmology. Swimme has often cited the fact that children watch 35,000 commercials before they even get to school and barely even look at the stars (let alone if they could see them given all the light pollution.)

Swimme teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies and if you EVER get a chance to see him speak or take a workshop, do so and I guarantee you will NOT regret it. His 12 part Canticle to the Cosmos video series is FANTASTIC! Here is his bio from CIIS site:

"Brian Swimme received his Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Oregon in gravitational dynamics. His research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of the universe, the relationship between scientific cosmology and more traditional religious visions, the cultural implications of the new evolutionary epic, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of Earth and cosmos. In 1998 he founded the international Epic of Evolution Society, a forum for artists, scientists, ecofeminists, ecologists, religious thinkers and educators interested in the new story. He is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996), Manifesto for a Global Civilization (with Matthew Fox) (Bear and Company, 1983), The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984) and The Universe Story (Harper, 1992) which is a culmination of a ten-year collaboration with cultural historian Thomas Berry. Brian's media work includes the video series, Canticle to the Cosmos and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. "

Google "Brian Swimme" or go to www.brianswimme.org to read more about this work. For DUers, I recommend Swimme rather than Dowd for this stuff.