War of the Worldviews: Science Vs. Spirituality
According to Physicist Leonard Mlodninow, Science says…
Science can answer the seemingly intractable question of how the universe came into being, and there is reason to believe that science will eventually be able to explain the origins of consciousness, too. Science is an ever-advancing process, and the end is not in sight. If at some future date we are able to explain the mind in terms of the activity of neurons, if all our mental processes do prove to have their source in the flow of charged ions within nerve cells, that would not mean that science denies the worth of “love, trust, faith, beauty, awe, wonder, compassion, truth, the arts, morality, and the mind itself.”
To explain something is not to diminish or deny its worth. It is also important to recognize that even if we consider a scientific explanation of our thought processes (or anything else) aesthetically or spiritually unsatisfying or unpalatable, that does not make it false. Our explanations must be guided by truth; truth cannot be adjusted to conform to what we want to hear.
According to Metaphysics Teacher Deepak Chopra, Spirituality says…
The curious thing is that physics, in proposing a universe where consciousness has no place for 13 billion years, undercuts its own foundation. The most advanced aspects of physics, quantum theory, tells us that a subatomic field holds reality together. But then physicists place this field outside ourselves; in other words, human consciousness knows itself, but the field isn’t permitted to do the same. This exclusion forces science into some tortuous claims.
The weakest link in the current argument from science is randomness. The factory’s assembly line produces beautifully made machines, intricate and efficient, each design displaying invention and creativity. Yet when you go around to the back of the plant and look closely, you find a cloud of iron atoms, silica, and plastic polymers swirling mindlessly as they are sucked into the factory. Is it really credible that this cloud of matter and energy, plus an indeterminate amount of time, was enough to lead to a car, all on its own? That is science’s current story about how the Big Bang led to the human brain. Incredibly, when asked if perhaps the Big Bang contained the potential for creativity and intelligence embedded in it, science’s conventional answer is a resounding no. Chaos can produce those things, we are told, given enough time and trillions of random interactions.
Deepak Chopra (Deepak Chopra website, Wikipedia bio)
born 1947
Deepak Chopra is an Indian-born, American author and public speaker. He combines principles from Ayurveda (Hindu traditional medicine) and mainstream medicine. He believes in the primacy of consciousness over matter – that “consciousness creates reality.” Chopra is an alternative medicine advocate and a promoter of popular forms of spirituality. He is a licensed medical doctor, and specialized in endocrinology for many years.
Leonard Mlodinow (Wikipedia bio)
born 1954
Leonard Mlodinow is an American physicist, author and screenwriter. Apart from his research and books on popular science, he also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2009 film Beyond the Horizon and has been a screenwriter for television series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver. He co-authored a children’s chapter book series entitled The Kids of Einstein Elementary. Between 2008 and 2010, Mlodinow worked on a book with Stephen Hawking, entitled The Grand Design, which explores both the question of the existence of the universe and the issue of why the laws of physics are what they are.
Who Knows Anyhow? 