No debate without reading the book, The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo

[a secular age from Indistinct Union by cjsmith
The title of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s new book.
I’m only two chapters in and for my money it is one of the best books I have ever read. Within the category of (Western) philosophy it’s right up there with Being and Time, Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality, and The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere...

Rummaging around the “internets” I found this fascinating article by Jurgen Habermas, written just after the US invasion of Iraq. While not wanting to endorse (necessarily) his defense of the UN over against the “coalition of the willing”, there is a great deal of truth in what he says. Habermas on World Order from Indistinct Union by cjsmith]

[I want to turn to Jürgen Habermas, Europe’s leading social philosopher, for help, looking particularly at his remarkable essay of 1998, “The Postnational Constellation and the Future of Democracy.” ...The most fundamental question that Habermas is raising is whether a global civil society and some forms of global governance are possible...

For millennia these deep commitments have been held but never effectively institutionalized. Can the world’s religions now mobilize their commitments so that they can at last have genuine institutional force? Religions and the postnational constellation posted by Robert Bellah SSRC Home SSRC Blogs Blog Home]

[Looking back to my previous criticisms of the New Atheists, I admit that I was too quick on the draw. My bad. I've made a cardinal mistake of treating them as a leviathan with three heads [Dawkins, Dennett, Harris]. However, the more I learn about each of them, the more I realize that their ideas are as diverse as the believers they criticize. Instead of a leviathan, they are more akin to horsemen with different personalities and philosophy fighting under the banner of rationality. By actually reading their books and articles, watching their interviews, and following their video debates, I've come to appreciate and understand where they're coming from...

I expect Integralists (i.e. authors, thinkers at IntegralWorld, philosophers like Wilber, Spiral Dynamic gurus) to treat the New Atheists with respect, acknowledge their importance, and take the time to join them (e.g. debate with them, dialogue with them, critique them) in this "important national conversation" [Wilber's words]... Should Integralists Storm the Religious Battlefield? from ~C4Chaos by ~C4Chaos]

Heartily endorsing the above suggestions, may we add that no debate can reach any reasonable destination without reading the book, The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo. The Modern-Western-Christian as well as the Liberal-Rational-Integral dialogue has to reckon with this hard truth and sever resistance. [TNM] 7:30 AM