Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00142)

brianmuehlbach wrote:
> 
> The Secret Doctrine borrowed from "The Great Chain" (and outdated
> Renaisance theory see for example:
> 
> http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/ren.html

We now know what the "Great Chain" theory is, with zero evidence that
connects it to Theosophy.

> We now know that cultural learning among animals is widespread,
> including birdsong, the use of tools by chimpanzees, and the hunting
> techniques of whales.

For the purposes of these examples, how are you defining "cultural
learning?"

> Along with the ridiculous Great Chain borrowings in The Secret
> Doctrine, its whole peopling of the earth human evolution theory is
> wrong.

Which Great Chain borrowings?

> For the best book on the above see:"The Emperor's New Clothes" by
> Joseph L. Graves, Rutgers University Press, 2001.
> 
> Appart from refuting the content of The Secret Doctrine as noncence,

Does he even refer to The Secret Doctrine, or is it your own
interpretation of the Secret Doctrine that differs from Graves' book? I
have looked a numerous reviews of the book, and, if anything, it seems
to confirm The Secret Doctrine's then radical notion that all humans
were members of the same race.

Bart Lidofsky