Contradiction in the philosophy of Buddhism/"A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle?

[Sarah F]

For those of you who have read the new Tolle book, or familiar with Buddhism in general (which is where I read the most resonances of the book even if Tolle is officially affiliated with no religion in particular):

How does this notion of "a new earth" in which everyone's consciousness is deepened and peace reigns etc etc, fit in with the book's implicit critique of "progress" or of living in the future? On what grounds does Tolle predict the future, and why is it even necessary to say that the future will be glorious and beautiful? Isn't his philosophy about embracing the moment and all future moments, whatever their content? Shouldn't everything he preaches still stand even if we face nuclear warfare and mass destruction and the deterioration of the environment and widespread hate and basically all things which humans tend to valence negatively? If so, why the need to preach a particular kind of future?

I think he's pandering to the Western mindset a little.
I use the word Buddhist lightly based on my general understanding of its philosophy. The contradiction, to me, is that there is no ground for saying the future will be better than the present, or that the human soul will continue through reincarnation until it reaches enlightenment. How does Buddhism purport to know what happens after death if there is no conventional "God" to impart the information to the spiritual founder? The contradiction I'm talking about is especially salient in Tolle's book.

[kakjab]

I haven’t read anything from Tolle, but what you describe has not much to do with Buddhism, maybe except the idea that there is rebirth. ) It definitely sounds like New Age and I wouldn't worry much about contradictions since they are normal in this field...
In Buddhism, there is no glorification of the future. The past moment is already gone and a future moment not yet there. Still, the uninterrupted experience of moments of knowledge, the so-called mind-stream (not to be confused with an eternal soul) continue and so the moment we experience right now will be considered as past soon, whereas another moment, that is not yet here, is going to be experienced as present later on = future. Hence, past and future are merely considered to be conceptual labels.
This notion of new earth and improvement towards a better society/mankind is definitely an invention of Mr. Tolle or someone else but has nothing to do with Buddhism. In Buddhism the idea would rather be, that it is an individual development. Beings take rebirth based on karma, causes and conditions. For some beings, the future might be good while it is different for others. No such generalization is possible and in the Buddhist cosmology, there is not only one planet that beings may take rebirth on...
Therefore, I agree with you that the view of Mr.Tolle is maybe contradicting, but the title of your question might be mistaken...

[SkepDoc 2.0]

He's a self taught philosopher who panders to the New Age crowd with vague aphorisms and pseudo-profundities, like Deepak Chopra
He is this months flavour at Oprah.
If Oprah thinks he's "all that", then that is enough for rational people to ignore him completely.

Drivel