Author Offers to Help Groups Celebrate Day of Reason, May 3rd, in NYC Metro Area

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In free presentation and free book Hudson Valley author upholds the importance for reason of consciousness and free will, challenging theories of evolution that imply we're determined.

"Alternative to Darwinism and Creationism" cover

Book given out at the presentation

To put reason on a firm footing, explore the evolution of consciousness.

Humanists advocating reason can leave defense of Darwinism to science, instead figuring out how consciousness and free will evolved and drawing new humanist principles from that, says science writer and novelist Shaun Johnston. In his presentation titled "Alternative to Darwinism and Creationism Based on Free Will" he shows how this can be done and encourages others to follow his example.

His demonstration involves telling a story. "Humanists needn't limit themselves to thinking like scientists," says Johnston. "You can't apply the methods of science to consciousness and creativity. Instead you turn to the humanities, and one of the humanities' methods is storytelling. Evolution isn't a test tube of chemicals with fixed properties, it's something hugely creative taking place over time. Humanists excel at telling stories like that. All the pioneers in evolutionary theory except Lamarck came from the humanities."

In his story Johnston follows how science develops in a world where people really do have free will, and know they have free will. He tells how a new Newton, a new Darwin and a new Einstein build on each other's discoveries to arrive at a new theory of evolution based on how consciousness and free will must have evolved. Then Johnston compares the possibilities opened up by their theory of evolution with what little we've learned about human nature from Darwinism. The presentation runs around an hour. Each audience member receives a copy of a 45-page book containing the text of the presentation plus supporting material.

"I'm no creationist" Johnston insists. "My mission to to relax science's grip on evolution so we can come up with better theories for how we evolved. I believe that has enormous potential for expanding our vision of what we're capable of." At he maintains resources for a humanities' study of evolution.

A print edition of "Alternative to Darwinism and Creationism..." is available from Amazon for $2.99, a free epub edition is available at Smashwords. At there is more information about this book and Johnston's other writings, and a sample video presentation.

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Shaun Johnston
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