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| August 13, 2001 01:40PM |
<HTML>On his MB (a href="[www.grahamhancock.com]
, Graham Hancock muses that a "spiritual goal" for civilization means that materialist archaeology can't be expected find traces of said spiritual goal/basis for culture. Thus, he asks, "if a lost civilisation was a "culture of the spirit" in Frawley's sense, then what sort of traces would such a civilisation leave behind for the archaeologists to dig up?" He goes on to answer his own question with an effecive "none."
I make two observations, for discussion.
(a) Hancock's aim is clearly to insulate his LC propositions from any conceivable method of testing by archaeology, history, or any other verifiable method. A "culture of the spirit" that leaves no traces exists only in the minds of its proponents. It's a perfectly sealed claim, self-immunized from criticism and assessment. It is, thus, a religious claim, not an historical or scientific one.
(b) In answer to Hancock's initial question (and ignoring his speculative answer), I rather think that the multitudes of temples, churches, shrines, monasteries, tombs, cemeteries, religious statuary and art, etc etc left behind by a multitude of human cultures constitutes material evidence for a "culture of the spirit" in hundreds upon hundreds of cases. Even medieval monks or modern Buddhist ones, who certainly live (using Hancock's exact words) "a extremely simple technical and material life" leave behind plenty of material evidence of their existence, as well as of their devotion.
Therefore, my answer to Hancock's question of what evidence we can expect from a "spiritual culture" is: "Plenty."
Hancock's attempted insulation of his unattested historical claims fails on that count alone.
Garrett</HTML>
, Graham Hancock muses that a "spiritual goal" for civilization means that materialist archaeology can't be expected find traces of said spiritual goal/basis for culture. Thus, he asks, "if a lost civilisation was a "culture of the spirit" in Frawley's sense, then what sort of traces would such a civilisation leave behind for the archaeologists to dig up?" He goes on to answer his own question with an effecive "none."I make two observations, for discussion.
(a) Hancock's aim is clearly to insulate his LC propositions from any conceivable method of testing by archaeology, history, or any other verifiable method. A "culture of the spirit" that leaves no traces exists only in the minds of its proponents. It's a perfectly sealed claim, self-immunized from criticism and assessment. It is, thus, a religious claim, not an historical or scientific one.
(b) In answer to Hancock's initial question (and ignoring his speculative answer), I rather think that the multitudes of temples, churches, shrines, monasteries, tombs, cemeteries, religious statuary and art, etc etc left behind by a multitude of human cultures constitutes material evidence for a "culture of the spirit" in hundreds upon hundreds of cases. Even medieval monks or modern Buddhist ones, who certainly live (using Hancock's exact words) "a extremely simple technical and material life" leave behind plenty of material evidence of their existence, as well as of their devotion.
Therefore, my answer to Hancock's question of what evidence we can expect from a "spiritual culture" is: "Plenty."
Hancock's attempted insulation of his unattested historical claims fails on that count alone.
Garrett</HTML>
| Subject | Author | Posted |
|---|---|---|
|
Garrett Fagan | August 13, 2001 01:40PM |
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Garrett Fagan | August 13, 2001 01:52PM |
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Garrett Fagan | August 13, 2001 01:55PM |
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Garrett Fagan | August 13, 2001 01:56PM |
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Katherine Reece | August 13, 2001 01:59PM |
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jameske | August 13, 2001 02:35PM |
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Alex Bourdeau | August 13, 2001 05:28PM |
|
John Wall | August 13, 2001 05:38PM |
|
barry | August 13, 2001 08:46PM |
|
Garrett Fagan | August 14, 2001 08:56AM |
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