Burning man? Or the burning out of man?

The Burning Man festival in 2009 featured the theme of evolution. What were these lovable goofs up to this time? Let's take a look.

Quotes and comments;

A. 'One would think respectable scientists would distance themselves from this theater of the absurd. This year, however, four Darwinists welcomed it and joined in, and Nature gave them good press, calling it “a creative celebration of evolution.” As a matter of fact, “Evolution” was the theme of this year’s Burning Man Festival. [1.]

- A creative celebration of a process that doesn't exist? I guess burning a gigantic image of a man makes sense in that case.

This ritual burning of a man is interesting. Since Materialism involves the death of man (as traditionally known) I guess this is appropriate. [2.]

B. 'But what does the Burning Man rite have to do with evolutionary theory? Using a slew of evolutionary buzzwords, they tried to explain:
"This year, the 12-metre human shape hovered over a thorny forest – a tangled bank – atop a giant double helix. The DNA molecule provided a powerful artistic meme, representing both life’s capacity to evolve through genetics, and perhaps something that needs to be overcome through non-genetic evolutionary paths.''

- There is no such thing as life; when used this way the word is just an abstraction. Life has no capacity to evolve as 'life' is a mere abstraction. What we have in the world are living organisms; we do not have some entity called life floating around. (This kind of abstractionism is a relic of ancient Greek philosophy; where abstract qualities were thought to have actual existence. On a the popular level these abstractions of the philosophers were reified and turned into gods.)
Abstractions aren't alive, and they aren't intelligent; therefore they have no ability to create complex, specified information.

- To talk of DNA as an 'artistic' meme is to use the language of ID. (i.e. the creator as an artist)
- I thought everything was genetic when seen in a Darwinian light.
- How can something that's not genetic have an evolutionary path? (i.e. Evolution doesn't mean anything if it doesn't refer to genetics)

C. "Viewed from a different angle, the man seemed to float above a field of sea lilies, placing this celebration of human consciousness in an ancient evolutionary context.
The most striking image at this year’s Burning Man, expressed in various ways across the city, was the famous “ascent of man” progression from great ape through to modern human, with the Burning Man icon representing the next step."

- The burning out of man as a symbol for Darwinism; it's appropriate and powerful. What we see in Darwinism is the burning out of the old materialist world view. Recent discoveries about the cell have left the 'theory' too intelligently deficient to survive in the modern world.

People who imagine man 'evolved' from a great ape have been 'burning' too many funny cigarettes. This theory (bit of materialist speculation) was born in the days before information. [BI] It's a theory that cannot survive the recent (ongoing) discoveries in cell based information. (The burning man of darwinism doesn't have a leg to stand on... it's tottering and will soon fall.) The ape to man theory (painted picture) was created when people had no idea of the requirements for new and complex information... in a day when people didn't realize there was such a thing as the genetic code. Darwin's theory is as dead as the ashes from a fire.

D. "At a symposium entitled ‘Evolution and Society’, we asked how society has interpreted evolution and whether, despite its shadowy past, its principles can guide us to a much-needed behavioural shift towards sustainability.''

- Does this person know anything about evolutionary theory? Isn't he aware that 'evolution' has no principles? (Only persons have principles.)

What we see here is a synthetic mix of new age paganism and darwinism; a mix that has no coherence or meaning.

We see here how a word that once had some scientific meaning has now devolved into a word as meaningless as change. ["We need evolution, and we need it now."] It's suffered death at the hands of pop culture. We might look at the burning man as the going up in flames of a once useful word.

Having looked at a lot of photographs from the festival I have the impression evolution means not wearing a bra. (I guess this produces evolutionary change.) It apparently also has something to do with dressing up as an alien. (This must be the famous dress up gene at work I guess.)

E. "In the rampant transfer of culture at Burning Man, on a par with endosymbiotic events, we see hope."

- Hope? I thought all was merely matter in motion. Where did this ghost you call hope come from? (But I guess any otherworldly freak at all is allowed into the festival.) Hope can only be a delusion if materialism is the true worldview.

Endosymbiotic;
- 'An endosymbiont is any organism that lives within the body or cells of another organism, i.e. forming an endosymbiosis (Greek: ἔνδον endon "within", σύν syn "together" and βίωσις biosis "living"). Examples are nitrogen-fixing bacteria (called rhizobia) which live in root nodules on legume roots, single-celled algae inside reef-building corals, and bacterial endosymbionts that provide essential nutrients to about 10%–15% of insects."
- I guess they're calling themselves parasites; I don't know.

F. "Evolution is evoked here on many levels: the adaptation and thriving of the individual in this extreme environment, the various camps as interactive and artistic spaces, the city as it alters over the seven days and from year to year, exhibiting emergent properties of altruism, shared community and free expression.

- I can only laugh at hearing members of our pampered class call this sandbox for adults an extreme environment.

G. ‘Burners’ become extremophiles. With resources scarce in the desert, intense sharing is the most efficient practice, suggesting that humans may yet realize a sustainable evolutionary trajectory.''

- Apparently 'sustainability' means going to the supermarket and loading up the van with food and drink and taking it out to the desert.

- M. Johnson [frfarer at gmail.com]

Notes;
1. Darwinists Celebrate Raunchy Pagan Festival Creation/Evolution Headlines 10/10/2009
2. The book of Romans refers to the burning out of man; to homosexuality as the burnt out embers of man; of man in the final stages of his apostasy.
3. Burning man photos