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Cornel
Slenters response to
the Council of
Europe Subject: Council of Europe report on The
Dangers of
Creationism in Education,
doc 11297, 8 June 2007
Dear Mr.
Lengagne,
While
the
motives behind the above report are noble, the tone
and direction spell
disaster for generations of students in The growing dilemma
Surprisingly
absent
in your 15 page report is the notion of
‘self-organising
systems’, the mathematical foundation for much of what
we can observe
around us, including the dynamics behind classical
theories of
evolution. Given
then that classical theories of evolution are so much
easier to defend
with the
aid of such a mathematical foundation, why was it
omitted? Possibly:
Because
self-organising system theories predict an additional
dimension to the
classical theories of evolution, a dimension of higher
energy
(spiritual
connection?). Hence,
interpretations
of evolutionary principles on pure materialistic
criteria are
heading for a growing dilemma. Yet understandably, the
scientific
communities
involved will wish to maintain their scientific
independence
unobstructed by
religious dogma. The result is ‘science by policy’,
which is no
longer in the spirit of open enquiry and leads to
‘mental
amputation’ of the student’s full potentials. Moving
now
from theory to facts:
How
many
people can sense their souls? After a brief introduction to a diverse audience of young adults, 50 to 80 percent of the audience can sense their souls. Are we denying these people the legitimacy of their own feelings? Moreover, these aspects should be encouraged because the soul is an important pathway to a person’s full creative potential. Are we denying these people the opportunity for the development of their full creative potential because of a ‘science by policy’?
There
are
thousands
of excellent scientists around the world who have
learned to tap into
these
potentials and are now in one of your boxes as
‘undesirable
aliens’, as if the enemy is on the outside. Recommended
changes to curriculum
1. The
polarization between religion and evolution can be
diminished if we add
a third
‘pole’ to the curriculum. This pole would provide an
extended
offering of courses on Emotional Intelligence. With
the third
‘pole’ in place, questions about the soul can be
raised in the
context of Emotional Intelligence, thus allowing
students to explore
their own
feelings, away from religious dogma and the rigours of
science.
2. The
treatment of evolution should be taught in the context
of
self-organizing
systems principles, thereby gaining broader acceptance
because these
principles
can be observed in every day life.
3. Students
should be taught simple meditation techniques, again
in the context of
Emotional Intelligence. Disconnected from religion and
mystique they
can be
taught the benefits from learning to ‘stop their
thoughts’. The
benefits for students and society are immense: greater
self-reliance,
reduced
drug consumption, greater creativity etc. With
my
thanks for your consideration, yours
sincerely, Cornel
Slenters Engineer, author, educator,
management coach,
philosopher and concerned
grandfather.
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