The present economic crisis has again brought out the Cassandras that predict misery for the future. In a perverted way this sort of pessimism satisfies the human psyche. It's like the effect of horror movies that excite through fear. At times like these few are those who predict and are listened to about a better future for humankind yet progress has been exponential throughout time. The media prefer to frighten us with doom and gloom because that makes better news.
On the whole, people are pessimists by nature. Might this have something to do with the only thing that awaits individuals in the end? The evening news on TV will show us the gory pictures of people burned by fires, buried in rubble from earth quakes, of mutilated bodies from war, and heinous crimes committed by criminals such as abductions and murder of innocents, or children dying of cancer. These are the issues that interest us, issues to do with our safety. Seeing these images we extrapolate them and expect that these are the norm and not the rare exceptions that are of little statistical significance when set against the millions if not billions of people going about their business trying to earn their way. Rarely do we see acts of bravery, of people risking their lives to save a stranger in distress, compassion and love, the common bonds that bind us all together.
Look back 20 years and consider the advances in medicine, in computers and in telecoms, not to mention the internet. We accept all this as we do the end of the Soviet empire that kept millions of people trapped behind an iron curtain.
China, India, Russia, Brazil to mention the giants that are waking up, are all advancing at great speed. The whole world is coming closer together. They will all make considerable progress in the next 20 years and will in turn contribute to our progress. Where was India and China after the Second World War?
Where would most countries in Europe be now if the European Union had not been created? What would have happened to Italy's or France's currencies without the Euro to stabilise them?
We'll find intelligent ways to use energy and produce food for everyone. We'll make better use of mineral resources for the benefit of all the world and not just a few. We will learn to use space both on the earth and beyond and we'll develop new forms of energy. This is less amazing than going back fifty years and being told that we can have a teleconference with people on another continent. A hundred years back and our world would appear as magic. Cars, Planes, Satellites, Computers, Mobile Phones etc.
Just imagine where we'll be in another 50 years with space technology as well as medical and technological advances. There are many things in the pipeline that will make the world a better place for everyone. Nanotechnology will make the inside of our bodies an open book for self diagnostics. Cars will drive themselves, energy and other mineral resources will be recycled. Above all, the world will become multipolar giving a voice to all its citizens and not to the privileged few. Some people may find adjustment difficult but they'll be helped by the spread of knowledge. "Cogito ergo sum" that is the motto for the future; it's our ability to think that will carry us
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Belief in God
Physics theories seem to be getting us closer and closer to God the Unknown the One without a name. This is a good time to reflect on God and Creation, so here are a few ideas which I'm sure will be challenged by any true atheist.
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Some people, believe because they’re afraid. Others believe because they see the order and purpose of nature. A third group believes because modern science has opened up new dimensions. We are now faced with scentific theories that are more difficult to digest than the belief in a supernatural force. New physics has replaced Newton's classic claim of "cause and effect," at least in the microworld. Now we can have something happen without a cause. Something out of thin air as you might say. Would this not challenge evolutionists as well as creationists?
The arguments between evolutionists and creationists have raged for a long time. The first would have us believe that it all happened by chance, while the second, got us here ready made. Either way there had to be an initial seed. The main issue here is not about what form we started off as, but whether there was a Prime Mover an Intelligent Designer. At the limit, this could still leave some room for evolution.
If photons and electrons can change and appear as both particles and waves, depending on whether we are looking or not then why not God taking on whatever form suits the occasion? A particle changing form as it approaches two holes and then becoming a wave interfering with itself could be taken as a sort of miracle. Why not admit that we don’t understand what really goes on? We set up scientific models to explain things we cannot see.
It now seems that scientists have discovered higher dimensions, places or universes parallel to ours. Is such a higher dimension where God might be? Fiction writers or for that matter theologians are finding it difficult to keep up with science these days. With theories of parallel worlds being legitimate, the idea of God is no longer so improbable, and with that the idea of creation becomes a possibility.
Of course some scientists would tell you that this is all sonsense. Some would go so far as to exclude Him from any model. They would say that there’s no physical proof of God's existence and in saying it so persistently they’ll make it more likely. As if theories into multiple higher dimensions and black holes with tunnels to other worlds are less preposterous.
Other scientists have taken up psychology, telling us that nothing is real; that there’s no independent universe. According to them if we were not here the universe wouldn’t exist; Physics is fast becoming the sphere of new prophets. Science has grown up, it’s not embarrassed to speculate with theories that cannot yet be proved.
We seem to be living in a big balloon. It’s being blown up more and more as we advance, with a possibility of it going bust releasing us from the three dimensional spatial straight-jacket.
We often ask how can there be a God with so much suffering and injustice in the world and with religion being responsible for so many wars. We forget that religion is human and that we cannot blame God for human failings. As for the natural injustices - we simply do not know. Theories abound just as they do in science.
We know that there are many invisible forces all around us, and although we can not see them we feel their presence. Why stop at electromagnetism or gravity?
Science observes certain truths and draws conclusions which are evolving as new observations are made. From these facts we can conclude that science is open minded.
I have not had any mystical experience but I have an open mind and accept the magic that others may see. Man was given the faculty of reason and should use it without any bias. To say that miracles are simply things that have a physical future explanation is the very same argument used to explain quantum phenomena. Maybe there are some things which will remain unknowable, at least while we are in our spacial three dimensional bubble.
The use of the word phenomena is very apt I think. In Plato's cave, those who are tied and can only see the images or shadows thrown up by the fires behind them would hardly believe the enlightened one who tells them of the brilliant world outside.
Men much wiser than me have spent their lives studying the question of God and I try to keep an open mind. It's easy with hindsight to ridicule some things, but Christ or Mohammed were endowed with extrordinary wisdom and knowledge relative to their humble education. Greek philosophers who also speculated on the one God were learned men.
Seeing how Paul universalised a Jewish obscure sect and achieved so much within the civilised Greek world with his epistles gives some credence to the concept of a "guiding finger". Maybe there is and always was an easier path to the top of the knowledge mountain as in the Pilgrims Progress.
There are too many fantastic and unexplained phenomena to leave the whole thing to chance. Nature has a high degree of symmetry and for me that implies intelligence. From that point, belief is a question of degrees and sophistication.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some people, believe because they’re afraid. Others believe because they see the order and purpose of nature. A third group believes because modern science has opened up new dimensions. We are now faced with scentific theories that are more difficult to digest than the belief in a supernatural force. New physics has replaced Newton's classic claim of "cause and effect," at least in the microworld. Now we can have something happen without a cause. Something out of thin air as you might say. Would this not challenge evolutionists as well as creationists?
The arguments between evolutionists and creationists have raged for a long time. The first would have us believe that it all happened by chance, while the second, got us here ready made. Either way there had to be an initial seed. The main issue here is not about what form we started off as, but whether there was a Prime Mover an Intelligent Designer. At the limit, this could still leave some room for evolution.
If photons and electrons can change and appear as both particles and waves, depending on whether we are looking or not then why not God taking on whatever form suits the occasion? A particle changing form as it approaches two holes and then becoming a wave interfering with itself could be taken as a sort of miracle. Why not admit that we don’t understand what really goes on? We set up scientific models to explain things we cannot see.
It now seems that scientists have discovered higher dimensions, places or universes parallel to ours. Is such a higher dimension where God might be? Fiction writers or for that matter theologians are finding it difficult to keep up with science these days. With theories of parallel worlds being legitimate, the idea of God is no longer so improbable, and with that the idea of creation becomes a possibility.
Of course some scientists would tell you that this is all sonsense. Some would go so far as to exclude Him from any model. They would say that there’s no physical proof of God's existence and in saying it so persistently they’ll make it more likely. As if theories into multiple higher dimensions and black holes with tunnels to other worlds are less preposterous.
Other scientists have taken up psychology, telling us that nothing is real; that there’s no independent universe. According to them if we were not here the universe wouldn’t exist; Physics is fast becoming the sphere of new prophets. Science has grown up, it’s not embarrassed to speculate with theories that cannot yet be proved.
We seem to be living in a big balloon. It’s being blown up more and more as we advance, with a possibility of it going bust releasing us from the three dimensional spatial straight-jacket.
We often ask how can there be a God with so much suffering and injustice in the world and with religion being responsible for so many wars. We forget that religion is human and that we cannot blame God for human failings. As for the natural injustices - we simply do not know. Theories abound just as they do in science.
We know that there are many invisible forces all around us, and although we can not see them we feel their presence. Why stop at electromagnetism or gravity?
Science observes certain truths and draws conclusions which are evolving as new observations are made. From these facts we can conclude that science is open minded.
I have not had any mystical experience but I have an open mind and accept the magic that others may see. Man was given the faculty of reason and should use it without any bias. To say that miracles are simply things that have a physical future explanation is the very same argument used to explain quantum phenomena. Maybe there are some things which will remain unknowable, at least while we are in our spacial three dimensional bubble.
The use of the word phenomena is very apt I think. In Plato's cave, those who are tied and can only see the images or shadows thrown up by the fires behind them would hardly believe the enlightened one who tells them of the brilliant world outside.
Men much wiser than me have spent their lives studying the question of God and I try to keep an open mind. It's easy with hindsight to ridicule some things, but Christ or Mohammed were endowed with extrordinary wisdom and knowledge relative to their humble education. Greek philosophers who also speculated on the one God were learned men.
Seeing how Paul universalised a Jewish obscure sect and achieved so much within the civilised Greek world with his epistles gives some credence to the concept of a "guiding finger". Maybe there is and always was an easier path to the top of the knowledge mountain as in the Pilgrims Progress.
There are too many fantastic and unexplained phenomena to leave the whole thing to chance. Nature has a high degree of symmetry and for me that implies intelligence. From that point, belief is a question of degrees and sophistication.
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