Brian Swimme - Philosophy

Philosophy

Thomas Berry introduced Swimme to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Swimme's passion for understanding were deeply influenced by Teilhard's ideas. Swimme describes his discovery of Teilhard in his foreword to Sarah Appleton - Weber's new translation of The Human Phenomenon: He adopted Teilhard’s thinking that everything in existence has a physical as well as a spiritual dimension. He believes the universe is a deep transfiguration process. Love, truth, compassion and zest—all of these qualities regarded as divine become powerfully embodied in the universe. In this way, the universe becomes divine.

Suzanne Taylor, founder of Mighty Companions, says Swimme is a charismatic person who seeks to place scientific technology in its context of the infancy of the earth community as it struggles for reconnection to its sacred source. She believes that he sweeps us into the grand picture of human beings as the current culmination of the still-evolving universe. Swimme tells the story of the evolution of the universe and attempts to pull us into a universe of meaning, where there is not only connectivity, but directionality as well.

In Canticle to the Cosmos he says If you look at the disasters happening on our planet, it's because the cosmos is not understood as sacred...a way out of our difficulty is a journey into the universe as sacred. Eric Chaisson writes that Swimme, a mathematician by training, seeks a larger, warmer, more noble science story. Our story is not merely a collection of facts; science should be a student’s guide to a grand world view, including, if possible, meaning, purpose and value. He sees the cosmological perspective as one to which all modern scientists can subscribe, yet the meaning and purpose of its being a subjective outgrowth of an individual’s reflections upon that cosmology remains. In a 2007 interview with Robert Wright, Swimme says

..if you take Buddhism and Christianity and so forth there's a kind of battle — a subtle sort of struggle taking place because they're not standing in a common ground but ... take the Earth or ecology then suddenly they can begin to explore what they have to offer. So I do think I do think absolutely that ... there will be a flourishing of religions, not a withering away. And they will flourish to the degree that they will move into the context of planet and universe.."

Pacific Sun magazine reports that Swimme is at the forefront of a new movement that integrates science and spirituality. Swimme believes there is a new story, the Epic of Evolution, a cosmological narrative that begins with the Big Bang, which started the whole process, and proceeds to the evolution of the universe and life on earth. This manner of study, which engages heart and mind together, seems to teeter on the brink of religion. He believes that science, holistically, has a soul-shaking impact on people. Big history science is filled with little mysterious coincidences, upon which our entire existence rests. Swimme notes that this inspires awe and humility, and that this cosmology puts people in their proper place. He thinks that the popular view is that the earth is like a gravel pit or a hardware store, that the earth is just stuff to be used. He believes that consumerism has become the dominant world faith, exploiting the riches of the earth. His fundamental aim is to present a new cosmology—one grounded in a contemporary understanding of the universe but nourished by ancient spiritual convictions that help give it meaning.

This is the greatest discovery of the scientific enterprise: You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone, and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes, and humans. This statement by Swimme has been widely quoted. For him the universe is a radiant, numinous revelation, and contemplating the wonders of the unfolding creativity of the cosmos is a mystical, ecstatic, awe-inspiring event. Swimme says the universe is attempting to be felt, which makes him a pantheist: someone who believes the cosmos in its entirety can be called "God."