Prince of Wales, King of Woo

Ladies and gentlemen, our future king (NSFW: may be sleep-inducing or cause severe brain numbing):

 

 

In order to spare you a wasted 51 minutes, here's the complete transcript, and here are some choice excerpts: 

This imbalance, where mechanistic thinking is so predominant, goes back at least to Galileo's assertion that there is nothing in Nature but quantity and motion. This is the view that continues to frame the general perception of the way the world works and how we fit within the scheme of things. As a result, Nature has been completely objectified – “She” has become an “it” – and we are persuaded to concentrate on the material aspect of reality that fits within Galileo’s scheme

 

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Our spiritual perspective has been flattened and made earthbound and we are persuaded to channel all of our natural, never-ending desire for what Islamic poets called “the Beloved” towards nothing but more and more material commodities. Unfortunately we forget that our spiritual desire can never be completely satisfied. It is rightly a never-ending desire. But when that desire is focussed only on the earthly, it becomes potentially disastrous.

 

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The utter dominance of the mechanistic approach of science over everything else, including religion, has “de-souled” the dominant world view, and that includes our perception of Nature. As soul is elbowed out of the picture, our deeper link with the natural world is severed. Our sense of the spiritual relationship between humanity, the Earth and her great diversity of life has become dim.

 

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The task is surely to reconnect ourselves with the wisdom found in Nature which is stressed by each of the sacred traditions in their own way

 

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How else can we heal the divide between East and West unless we reconcile the East and West within ourselves? Everything in Nature is a paradox and seems to carry within itself the paradox of opposites. Curiously, this maintains the essential balance.

 

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All of the mounting evidence is telling us that we are, indeed, on the wrong road, so you might think it would be wise to draw on the timeless guidance that comes from our intuitive sense of the origin of all things to which we are rooted. Nature's rhythms, her cycles and her processes, are our guides to this uncreated, originating voice. They are our greatest teachers because they are expressions of Divine Unity.

Um, with all due respect, Your Royal Highess - just what the hell are you talking about? Is this just a bizarre comglomeration of pandering to his audience and his own environmental views? Or does he really subscribe to this strange beliefs?

 

As Times of London columnist Oliver Kamm aptly puts it: 

...When the Prince argues for homeopathy you can at least understand the case he’s making and respond that there’s nothing in it. His call for the recovery of the soul to the mainstream of scientific thinking is, by contrast, pure mumbo-jumbo.

 

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The Prince’s invocation of “sacred traditions” is utterly opposed to scientific inquiry — for if truth is already known through revelation and sacred texts, why bother with fallible human reason and inquiry?

 

The Prince’s prescriptions are not a call for humility but a recipe for the suppression of knowledge.

Further thoughts from PZ Myers.

 

UPDATE: More on the Prince's fondness for pseudoscience here, here, here, here, here, and here.

 

UPDATE #2   : A brilliant, must-read column from Christopher Hitchens.