Monday, December 27, 2010

Mind blockers

I have been reading Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds. Dr. Kaku is a well known theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, and the co-founder of string field theory. The man is amazing in so many ways, but for me, he is the guy that can take something like string theory and describe it in such away that even I can understand it—at least as much as I care to understand it.

In Parallel Worlds, he spends a little time reviewing the history and the personalities behind the great cosmological theories throughout time. Of course, the great turning point in that history came with Sir Isaac Newton, who was able to stand up against accepted “science” of the time and propose a whole new theory on how gravity kept the cosmos in order. And of course, later, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, more radical theories came into focus, including Edwin Hubble's theories that the universe was expanding and that there were more than just one galaxy in the universe.

And then, along came Albert Einstein with his general theory of relativity which completely uprooted Newtonian science and opened the door to the modern quantum physics and eventually, string theory.

Here's what impressed me the most about the history and the modern scientific notions concerning the universe, or multi-verse as it is becoming more widely understood. So called “science” while in past centuries purported to give absolute answers to the nature of our existence, has been time and again found to be absolutely wrong. But this is not all. The very institutions that set themselves up as the authority on all science, strongly resisted every theory or finding that proved their contemporary thought to be wrong. In fact, it was not just “resistance.” At times, they used brutal economic force coupled with vicious personal attacks to attempt to discredit any theories that contradicted the accepted explanations.

Modern theorists cannot reproduce the cosmos in the lab. It is known that Albert Einstein employed intense day-dreaming, or what many call visualization, to arrive at his general theory of relativity. He proved it out by observation and mathematical calculations. This is common practice for theoretical physicists. Some have even based their theories on accepted “scientific facts” ultimately ending in error that is corrected later by someone that opened the mind to alternative understanding of the universe and physics. Some have been corrected by others that have found error as they try to expand or build on the theories of others.

Is it any wonder why many of the atheists that claim to be solidly founded in “science” immediately remind me of those very wrong patriarchs and authoritarians that so sanctimoniously dismissed the theories that have now come to be known as truth. And just like these blind believers of the mainstream sciences, atheists can't seem to get beyond the current catechism of the scientific institutions. Talk about a group of people that blindly cling on to doctrines that are as vulnerable as any other religion, the atheists fit that description to a tee. They simply dismiss any thought that does not conform to their current doctrines. They engage in vicious ad hominem arguments against any notion of spirituality.


I cannot tell you absolutely, that I do exist as spirit. I cannot tell you absolutely that God exists. I can tell you that I have experienced events in my life that cause me to believe that is true. “Science” in no way precludes the existence of spirit or God in my mind. Even so, atheists employ the same strict legalistic interpretations of science every bit as much as do the text based authoritarian religious leaders. I do believe it is sad that some people choose to deny any possibility, even in the face of growing evidence in quantum physics that spiritual existence is possible.

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