Modern scientists seem to have forgotten that quest of science is not to prove materialism true, but to explain the world with a coherent theory. These are two separate things. Materialism is at a bottom a metaphysical position that assumes that ultimate reality consists of lifeless particles and forces with no connection to a mind or intelligence. The world of the materialist is one without direction, purpose or meaning. These mindless particles whiz by, combining, repelling, interacting and disappearing. Somehow, in the early furnace of the Big Bang, the particles decided, against all odds, to form together and rocket toward a world of perfect order, the place we live in now. But in their quest to prove materialism true, there is no assumption too large, no particle too exotic, and no mental gymnastics too great for them to string together a materialistic world picture. Scientists become trapped by the error when...
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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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Scientific materialism — the form of science predicated upon the belief that dead matter is the ultimate reality — is slowly fading away. My current thinking is that we believe in this worldview not because it is right, logical, or even plausible, but because the leading scientists all operate within a system of thought that assumes it is true. Since science is the most authoritative intellectual discipline, we happily go along with the will of our thought leaders. After all, who are we to question all of these professors and Nobel-prize winners? But it turns out that scientists do not believe in materialism because it is correct, but rather because of an assumption (or fear?) that the very practice of science cannot occur unless “there is a real world out there” (to use Lee Smolin’s phrase from The Trouble with Physics.) The very message of quantum physics, however, is that there is not in fact...
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Chasing a failing worldview is like heading down a dead-end street: the signs that the street is coming to an end may be all around you, but bullheadedness keeps your foot firmly on the accelerator; after all, this is where everyone else is going. But then the dead-end comes and, once again, you have this thought that perhaps you should have paid more attention to the warning signs. Social and peer pressure are powerful forces, however, and it is a rare soul who challenges the march of the masses. This brings us to dark matter, which is thought to make up 83 percent of the matter in the universe. But dark matter is not really “matter;” it’s not extended in space; does not resist a force; and cannot be seen. Dark matter (like dark energy) is better thought of as a placeholder concept waiting for a better theory to explain the cosmos. With dark matter, the law of gravity trumps...
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Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic Magazine, the author of many popular science books, and a regular columnist in Scientific American. In his book, The Believing Brain, he tries to explain how the common person comes to believe in strange things, such as God, miracles, Heaven, the survival of the soul after death, and psychic phenomena. According to Shermer, “reality exists independent of human minds, but our understanding of it depends upon the beliefs we hold. ” (Believing Brain, 5). In a tell-tale sign of his materialistic tendencies, he criticizes claims of psychic phenomena by stating that “until psi proponents can explain how thoughts generated by neurons in the sender’s brain can pass through the skull and into the brain of the receiver, skepticism is the appropriate response. ” (Id. 149). (This is materialistic because Shermer assumes that mindless particles are the source of reality and anything that cannot...
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A synchronicity is a rare coincidence that suggests “something is up.” We all have them and it is fun to record them as they happen and then to go back and see if they seem as strange as when they first occurred. For example, I was researching regulations at Lake Carroll, Illinois on whether boat lifts were allowed in docking areas. That evening I received an email from a work colleague entitled, “The Boatlifters: The Story of 9-11.” I was reading the book, His Excellency, by Joseph Ellis and came across the word, “ukase,” which I had never seen before. The next day, the word of the day on the elevator news screen was —– ukase, a Russian word meaning directive. I was on the phone with a contractor and was giving him my wife’s name, “Suzanne” and said it was spelled like Suzanne Sommers. At that moment he expressed...
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If we want to find the source for what ails the human mind — and by that I mean the world at large — it is that our mind, on the most fundamental level, is deeply in conflict. Finding the source for an ailment is the key to curing it, whether the ailment is a sore from a splinter or a world-mind in conflict. The conflict is that we are living precariously balanced between two incompatible worldviews: the world as machine and the world as spirit. And science, the leading architect of our worldview, knows the world-as-machine model is wrong, but it is not quite ready to advertise this fact. By “world-mind,” I mean our modern mindset, also known as the scientific worldview. The reason why this worldview is important is because it is the most fundamental lens through which we see the world; it filters everything else we see, touch,...
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A forewarning: This blog will advance a radical position, by which I mean a position that is a lot different than the one currently in vogue in mainstream science. But as Einstein so famously said, we cannot solve a problem with the same level of consciousness that created it. So this blog approaches the topic of aging from a different level of consciousness. Let’s see what happens. Google is one of the world’s most successful, admired, and richest companies. But its investment in traditional pharmaceutical treatments to slow down the aging process shows that wisdom in technology does not always translate into wisdom in metaphysics. Google is far ahead of the curve technologically, but behind the curve in understanding where human consciousness is heading. (I said this would be a radical blog.) Its investment in pharmaceutical treatments to slow down the aging process assumes the body is a machine...
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A hologram is an illusory three-dimensional image formed by the interference of laser beams. The key feature of a hologram is that it is an illusion; the thing depicted as occupying three-dimensional space is not solid or “real,” but it has the appearance of being real. Scientific American provides a helpful short video of the concept here. As strange as it may sound, the notion that the entire Universe is Really a Hologram seems to be picking up steam in the scientific community. In an August 2003 article in Scientific American, Jacob Bekenstein, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writes “our universe, which we perceive to have three spatial dimensions, might instead be “written” on a two-dimensional surface, like a hologram. Our everyday perceptions of the world as three-dimensional would then be either a profound illusion or merely one of two alternative ways of viewing reality.” Continuing this line...
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The term, “new age,” has come to stand for a hodgepodge of ideas without scientific legitimacy. And at times the criticism seems justified. It is not easy to see how one proves the truth of such things as magical healing crystals, UFOs, or astrology. On the other hand, it might not be wise to dismiss out-of-hand everything labeled “new age.” A prejudice for or against an idea is still a prejudice. On this installment of Conversations Beyond Science and Religion, I interview Dick Larson, a student of the Ageless Wisdom Teachings and the Ascended Masters, about how a real new age — offering hope for personal growth and transformation — is actually beginning to dawn. But as I write in a recent blog (A Metaphysics for the New Age), the new age still has a fatal flaw: it lacks a metaphysics, an over-arching logical framework in which we can explain and legitimize...
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