Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Gem
The sciences don't set about proving or disproving God because science is not a spiritual school of thought, which is a consequence of Religious institutions persecuting natural philosophers in the 16th and 17th centuries. One really has to understand the historical context to see how the divide between spiritual and scientific schools came into contention. Nowdays we have neo-athiests like Dawkins, Krauss and Harris who make a lot of noise, and on the other side of that rabble are the extremists, creationists of religious persuasion. Harris is actually a long term meditator of the Vipassana tradition, so even at the extreme end of views we find spiritual inclinations.
The divide isn't actually like 'scientists are athiests', in fact, the most profound advances in science proir to imperial European colonial domination were made by Islamic scholars... who traveled widely and aquired knowledge from India to Greece... So, we must see that the Christian Church's antipathy toward natural philosophy created the division in relatively recent times, which ultimately disempowered the Christian institution.
Now that the Church has very little sway over scientists, we see a trend where spiritualism and the sciences are reconverging, because one of these schools of thought doesn't actually preclude the other - If the pursuit of the truth is genuine.
|
Many of your posts really resonate with me particularly within this thread. I get the feeling that we are seeing things the same way but I do not know that for sure. There are probably things I say that you would disagree with.
I have made reference in here a number of times to denote such things as God are outside of science. I am a scientist but I also have a spiritual perspective of existence. Some people will say they are NOT mutually exclusive - I would tend to agree. On the other hand - much of the physical science is very narrow in scope. I am not saying that is necessarily a bad thing - I am simply inferring that it is often
unrelated to spiritual issues.
I often say that God is "irrelevant" to modern physical science. I am not saying that this means that God is insignificant or even unnecessary to people. I am simply implying that it is outside the scope of the physical sciences. Problems seem to occur because certain people, for some reason, seem to imply that certain scientific studies automatically preclude that "science disproves God!" NO, it means that the person in question has failed to understand what the physical sciences are
for!
Like I always say, one can examine things and experiment with things as much as one wants. It does not imply that one has "understood" the process - it means that one has observed it, found a way to predict aspects of it and named it. If technology (or possibly further study) can be produced from that
scientific methodology then the objective of
science has been achieved. No Gods were proved or disproved in this process.
I have noted that Sam Harris has shown an interest in meditation. I still find his books kind of disturbing to read, particularly because of his materialistic approach and its relationship to pharmaceuticals.