October 31 Cancer Update: Tumor Shrank 60%

I'm a little more than half-way through a 6-cycle R-CHOP chemotherapy regimen (I had my 4th infusion on Thursday, October 29). The CT scan that was done last Monday, October 26, showed that the tumor in my spleen has shrunk 60% since I began chemo in mid-September—and there seems to be no sign of cancer anywhere else in my body. My oncologist, Dr. Green, with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, says he still thinks I may need radiation or surgery in December or January, but the fact that the tumor has been so responsive is really good news. Also, I've had almost no negative reaction to the chemo (most days I feel wonderful), for which Connie and I are, of course, hugely grateful.

Thanks for all your continued good thoughts in our direction! 

If you've not already done so, please consider becoming a "Friend of Michael and Connie".  Every little bit helps.

Thanks!

In trust and gratitude for all life's gifts, the excruciating and the exquisite,

~ Michael

email: Michael(AT)ThankGodforEvolution.com

5246 Mutinay Bay Rd.Freeland, WA 98249

Good and Bad Reasons for Believing, by Richard Dawkins

"Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence whatsoever." —SAM HARRIS

NOTE: The following letter was written by Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most respected scientists. It is addressed to his daughter Juliet, who was ten years old at the time. The letter originally appeared as the last chapter of his 2003 book, A Devil's Chaplain. It is reprinted as an appendix in my book, Thank God for Evolution, by permission of the author. I included it for three reasons. First, it powerfully distinguishes the relative value today of, what I like to call, private and public revelation. Second, it provides an invaluable critique of traditional, flat-earth faith, while offering sound guidance for an evidence-based, naturalized faith. Third, it shows why scientific, historical, and cross-cultural evidence provide a far more accurate and useful map of reality than do tradition and authority.

"Good and Bad Reasons for Believing" — by Richard Dawkins

Dear Juliet,

Now that you are ten, I want to write to you about something that is important to me. Have you ever wondered how we know the things that we know? How do we know, for instance, that the stars, which look like tiny pinpricks in the sky, are really huge balls of fire like the Sun and very far away? And how do we know that the Earth is a smaller ball whirling round one of those stars, the Sun?

The answer to these questions is "evidence." Sometimes evidence means actually seeing (or hearing, feeling, smelling...) that something is true. Astronauts have traveled far enough from the Earth to see with their own eyes that it is round. Sometimes our eyes need help. The "evening star" looks like a bright twinkle in the sky, but with a telescope you can see that it is a beautiful ball -- the planet we call Venus. Something that you learn by direct seeing (or hearing or feeling...) is called an observation.

New Music Video Celebrates Science—and tops the charts

On October 15, "A Glorious Dawn" music video hit the 1 million view threshold on YouTube and thereby launched Carl Sagan's new singing career. Yes, SINGING career. New software (Auto-tune) made this possible, and now the younger generations are experiencing Carl as electronica music star. As evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson comments on this phenomenon, this video "shows how science can become more potent when fused with the arts."

As of October 19, "A Glorious Dawn" has become the #1 Top Rated (All Time) Music Video on YouTube, and it is the #2 Top Rated Video of any genre. That same day, musician/video-artist John Boswell launched his encore, "We Are All Connected", which features astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson singing the title line, the late Richard Feynman grooving on drums, Bill Nye the Science Guy rapping for the universe, while Carl weaves in and out of the video, his resonant voice singling him out as lead singer for this four-man band, deftly served by the back-up musicians of John Boswell, John Boswell, and John Boswell.

 PREDICTION: Within a few months, this newest emergent novelty in evolution, which John Boswell calls "Symphony of Science" (and which is, in fact, the symbiotic union of science with the arts) will be seen as doing more for turning young people onto science than all the textbooks ever published. More, it feeds their souls. As one YouTube commenter wrote, "No matter how bad things ever get for me, this video makes it all good."

UPDATE: Oct 22 Connie and I posted a new half-hour podcast on this phenomenon, titled, "Symphony of Science."

After you watch the videos (if you can pull yourself away from that activity; many people report becoming addicted to watching or listening to them), do check out the blog my wife, Connie Barlow, wrote on this phenomenon, titled "Sacred Science Music Videos: Symphony of Science". She's been communicating with the artist for the past several weeks, and he has appreciated her suggestions for more scientists to recruit into the music industry. As he told her, "I'm looking for lyrical passages by excited scientists."Connie has also been sifting through the some 5,000 posted comments on YouTube as they emerged, and has used her blog to share about a hundred of these, sorted into five categories: (1) OMG, (2) Canonizing Carl, (3) Shifting Musical Tastes, (4) Opening to Science, (5) Hope. Here are a half dozen comments on that first video:

Sacred Science Music Videos: "The Symphony of Science"

Guest post by Connie Barlow, 17 October 2009

UPDATE (Oct 19): New website by musician and videoartist JOHN BOSWELL: "The Symphony of Science", with two amazing "sacred science music videos"! BIG NEWS: Boswell's music video that features CARL SAGAN is now YouTube's "#1 TOP-RATED MUSIC VIDEO of all time!

Two days ago I watched my (to-date) all-time favorite music video hit the 1 million view mark on YouTube -- in less than a month. New software, juxtaposed with the brilliant musical artistry of someone who last month was just one of a million humans with musical aspirations, has changed the world of possibilities: possibilities for what young people will choose to listen to in the way of music, for the way science is taught and appreciated, for the prospect of millions of people finally seeing that science itself, artfully presented, can bring one to a sense of mystical oneness with the Universe/God and transform one's outlook forever. If ever any artistic work could help our species take a quantum leap toward more peaceful relations with Earth and with one another, this is it!

Okay, so here is John Boswell's brilliant remix of 3.5 minutes of Carl Sagan's classic Cosmos series, with a pinch of Hawking added to the brew.

UPDATE: Oct 22 Michael Dowd and I posted a new half-hour podcast on this phenomenon, titled "Symphony of Science." 

And if you can pull yourself away from viewing it over and over, just loop it for listening, or download the mp3 into your I-Tunes and then leisurely scroll through the comments on that video page. Wow!

Below are some of my favorite comments that viewers have posted on this video. But first, let me summarize: viewers write that they were brought to tears watching it -- indeed that they can't stop watching it ("addiction" is even mentioned). They also say that it gives them hope for the world, that it makes them want to learn more science, watch Cosmos, read more Sagan. For the young, it offers a shift in musical taste toward more uplifting themes. So here we go, Connie's picks of comments, grouped by category:

Fixing the Gallup Poll on Human Origins

In the Appendix of The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, which I reviewed here, Richard Dawkins talks about a notorious Gallup poll, conducted in America periodically since 1982, on the question of human origins. I say "notorious" because whenever this poll is discussed, complaints invariably arise. You see, by confusing mythic with measurable language, the questions force people into camps which do not, in fact, reflect the views of many—perhaps most—Americans on the subject. I propose to fix to this problem by offering a fourth question.

Currently, the sample of national opinion on the question of our origins is worded this way (with the 2008 percentages of the American population supposedly holding each position represented in parentheses after the question):

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings?

1.  Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process. (36%)

2.  Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in the process. (14%)

3.  God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so. (44%)

All of the above confuse mythic-meaningful religious language with factual-measurable scientific language (in my book I call this crucial distinction night language and day language; see links below). By distinguishing rather than collapsing these two ways of speaking, the following question would, I believe, much more accurately reflect what many Americans and others around the world hold to be true:

4.  Human beings emerged naturally from a long process of physical and biological creativity that can be spoken of religiously as "God's creation" or scientifically as "evolution". 

I predict that when Gallup or any other reputable polling organization incorporates a question like #4 into their survey of opinions about human origins, the national and international news media will see it as a story worthy of wide and prominent coverage. Why? Because the results will not only evidence a radical shift in the creation vs. evolution debate in America, but the reporting of such will also stimulate fresh conversation on the subject of science and religion around the world.

Here's an analogy some may find helpful...

Poseidan is widely known in Greek mythology as "the god of the seas". What is less known, however, is that for perhaps millions of people Poseidon was a powerful, meaningful (i.e., mythic) personification of the seas. He was not merely some trivial, unnatural entity who managed or ruled the oceans from on-high or down-below.

But over time, as stories of Poseidon's adventures proliferated and were passed from generation to generation, and as people confused night language for day language by taking the poetry literally, they forgot Poseidon was a personification and began thinking of him as objectively real, rather than subjectively real. That's when this god began to die—that is, lose influence. Why? Because these "sacred stories" were no longer aligned with reality—either objective reality or subjective reality!

So, given this little bit of "Theology 101" as background...

Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of squid.

• 1.  Squid came into being over millions of years from less advanced forms of marine life, but Poseidan guided the process.
• 2.  Squid came into being over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but Poseidon had no part in the process.
• 3.  Poseidon created squid pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.
• 4.  Squid emerged naturally from a long process of physical and biological creativity that can be spoken of mythically as "Poseidon's creation" or scientifically as "evolution".

ALSO SEE (or hear):

Preface to the paperback edition of Thank God for Evolution
Reality: God's Secular Name
Are God and Satan Real? 
God as a Personification of Undeniable Reality
Podcast: The New Atheists as God's Prophets

"Friends of Michael and Connie"

Click HERE to support our work through a one-time tax-deductible gift or monthly donation of $5 or more. Click HERE if it's not important to you that your donation be tax-deductible. Thanks!!

The main way we've generated income during the last eight years of itinerant ministry has been through selling books and DVDs after our programs, plus the honoraria we sometimes received for speaking. Now because of my cancer diagnosis and our need to stay in one place for treatment, we are being forced to evolve from primarily itinerant to mostly Internet forms of evolutionary evangelism and education. Given that it will take time to build a viable Internet ministry, however, we still need to generate income in the next six months to help make ends meet. As one dear friend admonished,

Michael, for the better part of a decade you and Connie have been on a mission to ensure a better future for us all. You've traveled the continent non-stop living out of your van, with no home base, and you've made a real difference in the lives of countless people. Through your writings, websites, and presentations, you've been giving, giving, giving. But now it's time to receive. There's lots of us who would love to support you and your ministry during these trying times, and beyond. Just tell us how.

So here's the "Friends of Michael and Connie" vision in a nutshell:

We envision those donating to our ministry on a one-time or monthly basis getting special attention and opportunities to interact with us on a regular basis. For example, we expect to begin monthly teleconference calls with Friends next month, using MaestroConference (which allows lots of interactivity). In this way, Connie and I will get to share what we're most passionate about, respond to questions, and walk people through the volumes of cool educational/inspirational stuff on our TheGreatStory.org, ThankGodforEvolution.com, and ThankGodforEvolution.net websites. We will announce the dates and times of such calls in an email that we'll send out to our list in November. We imagine other benefits of being a "Friend of Michael and Connie" as well, but one or two monthly MaestroConference calls feels fun and easily doable in the short run.

For those who are not familiar with what exactly "our ministry" is...

Craig Hamilton: Integral Enlightenment

One of the things I plan to do throughout this year and next (assuming I survive cancer) is interview and write blog posts about people that I consider to be Big Integrity leaders, or significant evolutionaries. A couple of months ago I introduced Billy Grassie. Today I'm writing about a dear friend and Great Story colleague, Craig Hamilton, founder of Integral Enlightenment.

I've known Craig for 6 years, since he was Senior Editor of What is Enlightenment? (now EnlightenNext) magazine. As I began writing Thank God for Evolution in the fall of 2006, I was led to start a men's STAR cluster, or deep integrity group (as I discuss in Chapter 10 of TGFE). I invited ten of the most amazing male evolutionary leaders I knew onto a conference call and to my amazement almost all of them expressed a strong interest. Given everyone's schedules, it was rare that we were all on the phone at the same time. But Craig was one of the 6-8 guys who met via conference call once a month for a year.

In addition to being a gifted writer and spiritual teacher, Craig is also a fabulous coach. One of the greatest blessings as I was working on my book, given the fact that I only had two months on Prouts Neck (the coast of Maine) in order to write the bulk of it, was Craig volunteering to coach me through the process. His assistance in keeping me on-track and productive was invaluable.

Over the course of the next two weeks (October 2009) Craig is launching an online "Academy for Evolutionaries" and beginning a 9-week teleclass on Awakening to an Evolutionary Relationship to Life. Knowing him as a man of deepest integrity and passion for life and evolutionary emergence, I highly recommend Craig's teleseminar. I also suggest browsing his website. You'll find lots of good stuff there.

The Big Integrity Movement

The Big Integrity movement is about to burst onto the scene. A google search for "Big Integrity" today (October 2009) produced 515 results. I predict that by January 2011, googling "Big Integrity" will result in tens of thousands of references. Within five years, the results will be in the millions.

How can I be so sure? Because what I'm calling "the Big Integrity movement" includes everyone who is either working toward a better understanding of the nature of reality or helping humanity come into right relationship with reality. The movement encompasses the countless individuals and organizations around the world committed to ushering our species into greater alignment with objective and subjective truth—with the way things really are. Currently, of course, most of us don't see ourselves as part of a unified whole or worldwide movement. This will change...soon, I predict. In fact, the shift has already begun. 

Paul Hawken points to what I'm calling "the Big Integrity movement" in his book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World. His WiserEarth website is designed to help people within this movement learn about and connect with one another. Sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson refer to the more than 50 million Americans who identify with Big Integrity values as "Cultural Creatives".

Big Integrity is the art and science of coming into right relationship with Reality and supporting others in doing the same. It can be spoken of as "getting right with God," but religious language is not necessary and may in some circles be counterproductive, given the fact that so many people still have trivial, unnatural views of the divine. (Indeed, as I suggest here, atheist scientists such as PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins are playing traditionally prophetic roles in this process when they speak on behalf of reality.) Thus, I prefer thinking of Big Integrity simply as "being in right relationship with Reality"—both objective reality: the actual, physical Universe that dozens of scientific disciplines help us understand, and subjective reality: the inner realm of meaning, values, inspiration, and interpretation that has historically been the focus of religion, psychology, and spirituality.

Cancer Update: Grateful for the Gift of Life

At the end of August, just 6 weeks after Connie and I emerged from rafting through the Grand Canyon, I was diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma, with a large tumor in my spleen. Three weeks ago I began R-CHOP chemotherapy in Seattle. I'm to have six chemotherapy infusions over three months: every two weeks through the end of November. Then, if necessary, I'll undergo radiation or possibly surgery in December. Between now and the end of the year we're staying with dear friends on Whidbey Island who have an organic garden and orchard, lots of raspberries, and a great open view of the sky and the Olympic Mountains.

All things considered, Connie and I could not be doing better... Even though, statistically speaking (given the kind and size of cancer I have), I'll be fortunate to be alive in three years, we are living an extraordinarily peaceful pace of life and Connie is getting lots of creative work done. I'm getting some creative writing and organizing done too, but mostly I'm just taking time to read, sit in the garden, walk with Connie, watch David Christian's amazing Big History course again, and otherwise nourish body and soul. I'm also starting to learn how to do webinars and Maestro-confereces, and planning a couple of online courses I'll soon be offering (more on these later). I began losing my hair last week so Connie shaved me bald. All in all, we're having entirely too much fun (read on for juicy details)...