Is God All In Your Head?
The battle between science and religion is heating up. Will science succeed in its quest to do away with God, the soul, and all things spiritual? There is an excellent article in this month’s What is Enlightenment? on this topic.
From the intro: “Like a lot of people interested in matters of the spirit, I’ve always had a somewhat conflicted relationship to science. On the one hand, for anyone interested in humanity’s further evolution, it’s hard not to be excited by the latest findings of a discipline that, in a single century, has managed to cure polio, crack the genetic code, send a probe to Saturn’s largest moon, and invent the internet. But on the other, there is something about science’s tendency to reduce even life’s greatest mysteries to the movements of matter alone that has always left me a little chilled.” (more…)
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Hey, Matthew.
Just got turHey, Matthew.
Just got turned on to your blog from Brooke. Interesting stuff.
Back on topic…Like the author of the linked article, I’ve had a number of experiences that I am at a loss to explain, at least by scientific measures. Let me explain that my education and beliefs have been built around a scientific approach of observe & test. Really, I’ve lived a life centered around science–so much so that I was for decades a devout Atheist. These experiences I’ve had, though…are beyond my explanation.
There has been a common theme to my experiences. I’ve developed a growing sense of experience as reality (sort of Matrix-esque). Well, through my explorations into the spiritual, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that all religions, or, at the very least, *most* religions, are valid and accurate. There is no conflict between the religions, as they are all absolute truths within the experiences and observations of those that follow each religion. There is no conflict between religion and science, either. In the same way that Einstein merely refined, not redefined, Newtonian physics, both religion and science do not redefine but rather refine our concepts of each other. I could go on, but enough for now. I’m sure there will be other times.
As for you, Matthew, I see many references to philosophies such as Baudrillard. Were you interested in these things prior to the Matrix?
Well, for now…
–Be human
Baudrillard? I hadn’t encountBaudrillard? I hadn’t encountered that much insanity in philosophy since reading Hegel. The post-modernists and deconstructionists have made some interesting contributions but for the most part it’s rhetorical nonsense. It’s much easier to destroy than to create.
I’m more of a scientist or clinician than a philosopher. Most of my thinking has been on the German Idealist (Goethe to Jung) and find their thinking the most fascinating. I find the Brits boring (other than Spencer) and the French too abstract (except for Bergson). However, the Germans philosophers can be a rather dull bunch, too, and I think that future truths are waiting to be uncovered by reading some of the Italians (like Ficino). I’m pretty out of touch with modern philosophy and only picked up Simulacra and Simulations because of the Matrix. Actually, there’s not much to tell. I’m not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at reading philosophy. Well, not at making it interesting, anyways.
Funny, I read this comment from simpleton at a loss. I see many references made to different philosophers and idealists and lacking the knowledge to comment on any one of them I see a common strain. Religion and science differ in faith does it not? Through Scientific Method, proof and theorems we speculate and prove that which we know to exist but cannot explain. We have pieces to the puzzle and try and derive an answer. Ignorance is bliss. I definitely suffer from the former but as an Atheist, however educated you may be, I think some semblance of ignorance must be present as well. Just a thought to ponder.
I apologize. I read through it to fast the first time and have come to see my error. So sorry…