Will Durant on The Nature of God and John Dewey on Australopithecine

 By Dennis Siluk Dr.h.c.

 ohn Dewey, on: Australopithecine
(A Poem for John Dewey) (Philosopher: 1859-1952)

John Dewey, likes Darwin, his philosophy of Evolution, so I shall use that for my example, within his theory of: intelligence.
He compares Darwin to Galileo, he says in a manner of speaking: things are to be explained, by: place, function, environment, not supernatural causation. Divinity is within us.

"Intelligence has descended from its lonely isolation at the remote edge of things... " thus, he no longer elaborates, 'things' is what we are left with: things on the 'edge' of something, left: -that is the point: we are left with nothing.
How it operates he doesn't claim to know, but there it started, he calls it the "unmoved mover". I don't want to be snobbish, so many scholars are, but it looks to me like intelligence was just waiting there for Australopithecus to come along and grab it before the vultures get it.

Thus, I cannot move on with this, I am somehow still at the edge of that cliff scrutinizing the observation he made, that intellect was lonely as if a pillar, just waiting for someone, or something to grab it.
Then he goes on to say: the first thing we must do is: "Facing the facts." But he left no facts to face. This is to me a haphazard way of creating knowledge, values, and industry, all emerging from a Godless cliff; if he had said: "From a burning bush," I might have accepted that, it makes more sense.

#3927 (5-20-2013)
Note: John Dewey taught at the University of Minnesota, along with other universities, but it just happens to be one of the many I attended, and thought what a coincidence, when I was working out this poem for him. He was quite intelligent like Will Durant, and both from my time, a time I fear that brought in more narrow-mindedness, harness, more argumentation than need be in the philosophical world, for:

kerugma (religious truths), not sure why, but to my dismay that is the impression that arouses in me, they're afraid if they don't slaughter kerugma, they will lose integrity of their faith, and most philosophies are based on theory, concept, taken by faith, as we see with John Dewey, seeking out the origin of knowledge, and finds it laying there at the edge of a cliff.

Will Durant, on: The Nature of God
(A Poem for Will Durant) (Historian, Philosopher: "The Story of Civilization") (1885-1981))
Should not God be pleased with our definition of Him, 'omnificent and Omnipotent,' says Will Durant.
Are we not simply puppets to God, since we are subject to his will and command? So he implies, and then infers we do not have the way to change our destiny.

And wise and intelligent as he is, I must think on this, think and think on this (and what I come up with is: if we eliminate God, and there is no devil involved with man's evilness, then we are the most evil and ferocious creatures on this planet earth, and this is bleak at best-and if there are any aliens around, they better stop us before we end it all in a World Wide: Atomic, atrocious, atrophic Nightmare)...

Dr. Durant also concludes: man does not seek 'Objective truth" he seeks what is best for his interests: hence, he quotes Whitman from "Leaves of Grass" -like to like, I think. Perhaps there is much truth to that quote, "Objective truth," that is why I would think, God created Hell.

#3927 (5-20-2013)
Note 1: I first started reading Will Durant's Historical and Philosophical works, in particular his nine volume set in the mid to late 1960s (although he has written other books I have also read his book:

"The Story of Philosophy" and his last book: his life's story), in Minnesota, and had to sell the set, then bought another one in the early 1970s, when in Erie, and then I had to sell them, and bought another set, it now was an 11-total volume set. While stationed in Germany, 1974-77 I bought another one, and had to sell it when I left, and then bought another set, in the 1990s, while back in Minnesota again.

And again had to sell them when I moved to Peru (very heavy books), and now I own an original set-first editions, it looks like hell, but unedited from the newer sets and what I wanted, although the dust jackets are lacking on most.

Well, this last set was purchased it 2008, let hope this is it. So Mr. Durant and his wife Arial, who was his collaborator during those years of writing those thick books, we have a long unknown history together, and so here is a Poem for Will. Note 2: A word or two on Whitman: atheist, homosexual, and poet:

He says in one of his poems he will bring forth a son for death when it comes for him, he also describes his afterlife as "lost in... (a) floating (in a) ocean of thee... " There are poetic visions of non-reality here.
He indicates his song to death will flow over tree tops, how is this going to happen without God? He is either on some drug or dreaming. The poet to be made, as much as he does not believe in a God, he indicates somehow, somewhere, someone will take care of his floating soul, another philosopher would've called this "Animal faith".