Scientific Revolution



Einstein’s Moon

Albert Einstein famously said that, “belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science.”  This statement has become the governing principle of modern science and, in fact, the very definition of reality. It is echoed by leading modern scientists such as Lee Smolin, who writes in the The Trouble with Physics (p. 6-7), that “Physicists have traditionally expected that science should give an account of reality as it would be in our absence. . . . It cannot be that reality depends on our existence. . . . Philosophers call this view realism. It can be summarized by saying that the real world out there . . . must exist independently of us.”  Similarly, the late Stephen Hawking writes in The Grand Design (p. 43)(with Leonard Mlodinow) , that “[c]lassical science is based on the belief that there exists a real external world...

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The Realization That Together We Dream the World

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines the term “radical” as “marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional.”  In our modern world, the “usual or traditional” takes many forms, including “what most people think,” “what you grew up believing,” “what your religious teachers say,” or, on a grander scale, the governing scientific worldview.   It is my premise that the governing scientific worldview underlies and propells all other beliefs.  It is the foundation from which the other fields flow, from politics and economics to medicine and cosmology.  So if we want to truly change the world, we must change it at the root, we must shake the foundation, and then see how the other fields change to align with this new way of thinking. So what is the “governing scientific worldview?”   It is simply the belief that a massive world of matter, composed of tiny little particles, exists independently of human consciousness.  This...

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Give Peace a Real Chance

    Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18, King James Version   At this moment in history, there are 10 wars in progress, 1 billion people have no job, 3 billion people live in poverty, 800 million don’t have enough to eat, 100 million don’t have a home, 93 people per day are killed by guns in the U.S., and the world’s supply of nuclear weapons exceeds 15,000. Peace remains an elusive and quixotic goal, something for religious and political leaders to now and then mention, but a concept with no real place in the world agenda. But we are too limited in our vision.  Too scared to reach higher.  Too intimated by tough-talkers to even consider something that points toward peace instead of confrontation. This blog goes out on a limb and presents an option that remains faint over the horizon, but offers hope of a...

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The New Natural Science

The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that “For all men begin .  .  .  by wondering that things are as they are.” A central problem in achieving scientific respectability for the field of spirituality is the words we use to describe what we are talking about.  Science uses terms that describe hard, physical objects and forces; things we can touch, see, and measure: subatomic particles, cosmic rays, the electromagnetic force, gravity, neurons, and genes.  The field of spirituality or consciousness, however, has not yet come up with a word to describe itself that sounds scientific.  The word “spirituality” sounds religious, which is out-of-bounds for science.  “Consciousness” is better, but this term itself eludes a clear definition and is likely beyond measurement. A little history, though, helps advance the discussion.  What we know as “science” began as natural philosophy, or the study of nature using the mind rather than technology and experiment.  As natural philosophy developed, it soon gave...

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Reversing the Copernican Principle

In his book, Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics has Betrayed the Search of Scientific Truth, Jim Baggott sets out six principles that he believes should serve as criteria to judge a credible scientific theory.  One of these is the Copernican Principle, which he describes as follows: ” The universe is not organized for our benefit and we are not uniquely privileged observers.  Science strives to remove “us” from the centre of the picture  making our  existence a natural consequence of reality rather than the reason for it. ” In my interview with Jim Baggott on October 21, 2013 (Conversations Beyond Science and Religion) we talked a little bit about the validity of this principle and I want here to expand on a few points I did not have time to make during the show. As an initial matter, Copernicus did not invent the Copernican Principle.  Rather, he is credited for...

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Response to Lawrence Krauss and His Materialistic Vision

In a recent article on Scientific American’s website, entitled Consolation of Philosophy, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-consolation-of-philos&page=2, Professor Lawrence Krauss expounds on some of the themes in his book, A Universe from Nothing, and concludes that philosophy has nothing of importance to tell us about the real world, and that only physics can lead us to truth. Professor Krauss, in rejecting philosophy, fails to acknowledge that he is promoting his own brand of philosophy known as scientific materialism.  So what he really seems to be saying is that scientific materialism is the final truth, and we should not bother considering any other alternative. But scientific materialism – the view that a real world of matter exists independently of consciousness – has a number of fatal flaws.  Two of them are (1) several great thinkers, such as Bishop George Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, showed that we can never prove that such a real world of matter...

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Materialism’s Straw Man — and a New Opponent Rising

In books such as The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins), Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Lisa Randall), and The Grand Design (Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow), our modern science writers set up an easy straw man when promoting materialistic orthodoxy.  Modern scientists believe that their only opponent to control the debate over the origin and evolution of the cosmos is organized religion.  They are wrong.  Another opponent is rising, and they will soon have to deal with it. Materialism is the view that the entire physical universe can be reduced to mindless particles in motion.  It holds to the belief that there is an objective world, independent of perception and independent of mind. The great mystery of materialism is how this material world sprang from the void and evolved itself into a picture-perfect universe. Material scientists have the mathematical laws of nature, the scientific method, and a lock on all of the...

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Is God in the Particle, the Heavens, or Both?

            At the same time cosmologists are looking for God in a particle, quantum theory concludes the ultimate substance of the universe is not a particle, but a wave equation.  As Heisenberg famously said, “atoms are not things.” Stephen Hawking, in The Grand Design, questions whether an objective world of particles even exists independently of theory.  Rather, he says that our view of reality depends upon the governing model.  Today that governing model is materialism, the view that at the core of existence is not spirit or God but tiny things and the elusive God particle.  But what we need is not a new particle (there are already 26-odd fundamental particles in the Standard Model of particle physics), but a new model of reality.  I would guess that when science finally brings consciousness fully into the next worldview, they will no longer be looking for God in a particle, but...

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Not a War But a Revolution: Materialism is Wrong

            In War of the Worldviews, Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow (perhaps best known for co-authoring The Grand Design with Stephen Hawking) debate, through dueling essays, the question of whether a spiritual consciousness should play a part in our current scientific worldview.  Mr. Mlodinow adopts the staunch materialistic standpoint, constantly arguing that only what can tested, weighed and measured is real.   According to him, this invisible spiritual element, advanced by Mr. Chopra, is simply an illusion; a nice thought without scientific credibility.  Taking out his ruler and compass, Mr. Mlodinow finds he cannot measure “consciousness” and therefore concludes it does not exist.              One of Mr. Mlodinow’s often repeated attacks in his essays is that metaphysics and philosophy are worthless, too malleable, and of no use for science.  What is real is what we see, and what we see is a world independent of our brains.  Who needs metaphysics?              He...

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Big Bang or Dream of God? Two Stories of the Universe Compared

One way to judge the two stories is think them both through with an open mind. And, like a scientist conducting an experiment in a laboratory, we must remove our own beliefs and prejudices from the outcome of the experiment. The reader must try to look at the world purely, like a child. Strive for extreme objectivity; be the perfect neutral judge and make no decisions until the evidence comes in and the arguments weighed against each other. ...



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