View Posts by Author
The ongoing rise of radical Islamism in the twenty-first century is a difficult and dire problem, for which cultural evolution is really the only viable permanent solution. But to overcome this growing threat to world peace and security, not only will Muslims themselves need to evolve, the developed world as a whole will need to grow and mature into a more moral form of civilization.
Recognizing how the challenges of militant Islamism can serve as a powerful stimulus for the further evolution of all the forms of culture that are contributing to the problem—pre-modernity, modernity, and postmodernity—is the focus of this paper by ICE President Steve McIntosh.
Building on the work of moderate Muslim intellectuals, McIntosh argues that the Islamic cultural reform needed to overcome radical Islamism depends on the underlying reform of the religion of Islam itself.
Yet in order to persuade moderate Muslims to reform their religion, the necessary vision of a reformed Islam must retain the deeply spiritual convictions upon which Islam is founded.
Muslims are arguably the most religiously devout people in the world. And their stalwart faith prevents them from settling for a secular, watered-down version of Islam as the future course of their religion’s development. In order for a reformed version of Islam to be sufficiently attractive to Muslims so as to persuade them to transfer their loyalties to a more modernist-friendly form of their faith, a post-secular cultural perspective will be necessary. In response to this challenge, the evolutionary worldview advocated by ICE can provide just the kind of post-secular understanding of the evolution of human faith that is needed to foster the reform of this venerable religion.
Below is a 35 minute audio interview on the paper. Please leave comments at the bottom of this page.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Institute for Cultural Evolution
743 Pine Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302 USA
The Institute for Cultural Evolution is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
Facebook Nonprofit Page
Twitter
Steve McIntosh & Jeff Salzman visit with two young leaders, Gary Sheng & Zoë Jenkins, who are activating higher consciousness in Generation Z through their organization Civics Unplugged.#CivicsUnplugged #GarySheng #ZoëJenkins #JeffSalzman #SteveMcIntosh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q0gFqJ6vFY
I’m excited to announce my new 9-week online course on post-progressive politics. It’s being produced in partnership with The Aligned Center: https://thealignedcenter.com/institute/becoming-part-of-the-solution/
At last we turn the page on an ugly chapter in our history. While Biden faces difficult challenges, and while his presidency will inevitably have shortcomings, I’m rooting for his success. Biden is poised to take the first steps toward the higher cultural ground our nation needs.
https://www.dailyevolver.com/2021/01/leading-leaders-to-higher-ground/ If you are interested in executive leader development or leadership in general, here's a great episode just for that! Enjoy!
My article just published in Integral Leadership Review: "Why Centrism Fails and How to Overcome Hyperpolarization"
http://integralleadershipreview.com/17747-12-21-why-centrism-fails-and-how-to-overcome-hyperpolarization/?fbclid=IwAR03NT_o57_1aK71EhK7OPy0q0rMv_-C4GtpbCmZeC9eMxHqPZujO58PzaY
Our Privacy Promise to you
Since our inception in 2013, ICE has invited our stakeholders to join our email list to receive updates and announcements on our progress as a think tank. Email addresses are securely held by Mail Chimp email service, which ensures the ability to quickly and permanently unsubscribe from our email list at any time. Character Development Exercise results and Worldview Questionnaire results are stored on our secure server.
We respect your confidentiality
ICE ensures that your email address, as well as the data you enter on our website, is held in strict confidence. We will only use your information for its intended nonprofit purpose. We do not sell or trade your information to other organizations or individuals.
We protect your information
ICE takes every reasonable measure to insure that your information is not compromised in any way. Our privacy promise extends online to our Internet website. Online information is transmitted via a secure server using encryption technology. If you choose to send us email, we may retain the contents of your email message, our reply and your email address as part of our ongoing customer service efforts. We reserve the right to contact you after you have contacted us and may send future email to you about ICE. You may unsubscribe to discontinue electronic communication from us at any time.
We keep accurate records
Upon request in writing we will remove your personal information from our databases, except where legislation or regulation requires our retention of it (for example, charitable giving history tied to income tax receipts.)
If you have any questions about our website or our Privacy Promise, please contact the ICE office by email at info@culturalevolution.org.
What Does “Transcendence” Mean?
“Transcendence” or “the transcendent” generally refers to the people and things that are ultimately more important than yourself or your perceived self-interest. For example, that which is transcendent for you could include: Your family, humanity, your deepest convictions, the environment, God, Oneness, your country, animals, freedom, adventure, art, science, a better world, or anything you consider authentically “higher.” Your personal ideals of transcendence are grounded in the people and things that you’re dedicated to, and might even lay down your life for, if it became necessary. Your ideals of transcendence therefore help define your life’s higher purposes.
The word transcendence is used in this exercise as an umbrella term that is friendly to both spiritual and secular notions of transcendent higher purposes. In other words, you don’t have to be religious to recognize the significance of transcendent ideals. Our attraction to a greater good that lies beyond ourselves—our ceaseless striving to serve something higher and create something better—is a fundamental part of what makes us human.
The connection between your ideals of transcendence, your virtues, and your basic moral obligations—to self, to others, and to the transcendent—is illustrated by the graphic below. The specific virtues shown in this graphic are the 7 fundamental virtues, but the specific 7 virtues you choose in this exercise may differ from these classical 7.
For more on virtues and their relationship with transcendence, see the book Developmental Politics, by this exercise’s author, Steve McIntosh.
Steve,
I appreciate the depth and breadth of your looking in your white paper and the possibilities it opens for a wider embrace – by all of us – of Islam as a ‘necessary line of spiritual development within human evolution’.
I wanted to introduce you to a relatively recent and beautiful transmission in the mystical tradition of Islam. You referenced the 99 names as you have seen them in wikipedia. Physicians of the Heart: A Sufi View of the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah is the collaboration over 10 years among 4 sufi teachers – Wali Ali Meyer, Bilal Hyde, Faisal Muqaddam and Shabda Kahn. The book treats the 99 names as vehicles – divine medicines – of both spiritual opening and psychological healing. Each of the names in my experience evoke their own unique and subtle somatic and energetic imprint. The effect of the practice is quite similar to what I am now experiencing in the teachings and practices of Thomas Hubl.
I can’t possibility fit this into the theoretical framework you are offering, but it is definitely an example of how mystical Islam continues to further an evolutionary spirituality.
Blessings on your endeavors,
Julia
Steve,
Great topic for discussion. I recently wrote a book on a related topic; Islam and our current financial system. One of the myths I would like to dispel is that Islam and modernism do not go together when in fact Islam support modernism. The title of my book is Islamic Finance and the New Financial System. In it I discuss how Islamic finance principles offer solutions to our current financial system, which is plagued by financial crises and income inequality.
I hope that you find this topic interesting as well and maybe we can have a discussion on it.