Category Archives: Science and Religion Topics
Wisdom or Folly?
Subjecting of every facet of poetry, imagination, and spiritual experience to the microscope of rationality, empiricism, and scientific argumentation may not be the best application of scientific methodology.. No one can deny the enormous expansion of knowledge and enhancement in perspectives, let alone the plethora of creature comforts and ease of action and communication that …
Thoughts on the May 21 Doomsday Prophesy
Among the sad ironies that rattle our world is the mindless prediction by some religious extremists that the world would come to an end of May 21, 2011. This was to happen, not by natural disasters, not by unrest in the Middle East, not by explosions of weapons of mass destruction, but by the intervention …
How might the discovery of alien life affect religion?
In this context it is also important to distinguish between aliens as conceived by modern extra-terrestrial astronomy and the aliens of mythic lore. In modern astronomical thought, aliens refer to entities which have evolved biologically in distant planetary systems quite independently of terrestrial life, and are believed to have attained sufficient technological and other intellectual …
Manifestation of the Divine as an Evolutionary Metaphor
One of the most ancient expressions of the notion of evolution in the sense of a gradual development towards a more sophisticated state may be found in a Hindu mythic vision. In this framework, the cosmic principle that sustains the universe is referred to as Vishnu. Vishnu, the divine, incarnated periodically in ages past, often …
On the Anti-intellectualism and Theocracy of Nations
I was asked to comment on a statement made in a debate that the U.S. is a theocratic and anti-intellectual nation because a vast majority there don’t accept Darwinian evolution, and many still subscribe to creationism. In my view, it may not be quite right to say on the basis of the attitudes of the …
Purpose of Life and the Universe
Someone asked me whether I thought there was any purpose to life and to the universe. I think it is important here to distinguish between short range and long-range purpose. Short range purpose relates to matters of temporal significance: My purpose in writing this note, the purpose of a bird catching a fish and taking …
Does a fine-tuned universe prove the existence of God?
God has existed in the hearts and minds of human beings in a variety of forms and modes since time immemorial. His/Her existence has also be rejected as fantasy and concoction by many minds, ancient and modern. To a handful of people the existence of God has been/has to be “proved,” preferably through the results …
On miracles
A friend asked, “What about the miracle of birth?” I would say: And growth and death? And the wings of butterflies and the trunks of elephants? My friend, I am sure you will agree that if we use the word miracle to describe the birth of a baby – which, for sure is a wondrous …
IS and OUGHT
“A question I have had while the discussion of is and ought was going on was – who says there is an ought? ” Jerald someone asked This is a very important aspect of the “is-ought” issue. The reason “ought” cannot be derived from <is> is that they belong to quite different realms. IS relates …
On the End-of-Time Conjecture
Of late there have been many discussions on the the Biblical prophesy of the End of Time. It is important in this context to differentiate between the three kinds of time I mentioned in a previous post: the physical, the conceptual, and the perceived time. Per physics, physical time had a point de départ: x-billion …
