It was entertaining to listen to David Quinn, journalist, debate Richard Dawkins on religion. Once again, the religious apologist, here played by David Quinn, failed to provide any convincing argument (this is a trend I've noted in all the recent debates I've seen)
The arrogance of religious apologists is as always stunning, "You won't find an answer to where matter came from" and similar statements were common from David, not an expert in matters of cosmology or anything else scientific but former editor of the Irish Catholic . That he at the same time accuses scientists of being arrogant for their opposing claims (having shown progress in the understanding of the universe for well over 2000 years), is baffling. It's particularly ridiculous when most recent studies are already quickly unravelling what could lie beyond the Big Bang. The border of understanding is already moving beyond what people that possible a few years ago. This doesn't bother David Quinn, who happily takes it upon himself to make sweeping generalist, and completely unfounded statements on the probability of this.
Interestingly, he also (absurdly) claims that the existence of matter in the universe is the a rational proof for the existence of God and claims that Dawkin's mathematical model of infinite regress (proving that a supernatural creator could not exist) is nonsense. The latter is a bold statement given that mathematics have so far proven a profound ability to describe the workings of the universe, but the first statement is the most fallacious.
Science does not currently have a full understanding of what matter or "mass" is, but we do know for certain that its not a rigid immovable force as it was once construed. Instead its "mass-energy" or as Laszlo describes it "standing waves of particles" suspended on a the zero-point energy field in the quantum vacuum that composes the known universe. We do know, however, almost exactly how this came into being, we have a firm understanding of where it came from
The final argument from Quinn that everything needs a cause, just proves the man's limited understanding of modern physics (and another reason we should educate people more thoroughly on physics before they go out spouting outdated claims as facts in defense of the very thing that is threatening the scientific community who created it in the first place). The universe does not appear to be linear in time in the traditional way we understand it. It's likely that our universe was created based on the experiences created in earlier "Bangs" and earlier (currently co-existing) universes. So what lies beyond the very first Bang? We don't know at this stage, but what is the best chance of understanding this: Reading the latest developments on it, or trusting in the belief that a God created it, a theory that has stood unproven for two millenia without showing any promise of delivering any tangible proof.
Can we know the universe eventually. Yes, if the universe is indeed interconnected, it is not impossible that a being (perhaps humans) could reach a level of complexity where we could tap into the full memory of the universe back to the first Bang and perhaps beyond.
I unfortunately don't have time to pick apart his weird claim that morality is caused by free will and that free will cannot exist within the theory of evolution (with the latest models of an interconnected universe, it's doubtful if anything could be termed "free", but I'm sure mr. Quinn is happy to ignore this compounding evidence to safeguard his current worldview).
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, September 07, 2008
DIARY: Rise of the New Atheists
In recent year's my always atheist notions have grown in intensity and the works of great thinkers such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and others, have rooted the desire to take a more active stance for a society free of superstitution where religion is firmly returned to a non-privileged position in human discourse.
I must admit to having had "crises of faith", and certainly went through a period as an agnostic and even (for a brief period) a spiritual agnost. It was my luck that the writings of front-line scientists and philosopher's such as Ervin Laszlo, and Charles Zeife, clearly demonstrated that most spiritual books that seem intuitively and tangible "real", can actually be explained quite readily by the latest scientific understandings.
Mysticisms move into Mainstream Science
The prime example is the much heralded Power of Now (and follow-up book "A New Earth") by Echkhart Tolle (born Ulrich Tolle) which I find endlessly gratifying to read, and very applicable to a spiritually sounder life. Luckily, Eckhart Tolle, while drawing on religious inspirations at times, does not claim his work to be religious, and even better, if you look at the latest theories of the universe (the range of theories that emerged from our developing understanding of Quantum Physics and its generally counter-intuitive statements about our world), its clear that the good mr. Eckhart only stumbled upon various ways to force a stronger engagement with the zero-point holofield in the quantum vacuum (called the "Psi-field" by Laszlo) on which all mass-energy (including us) in the universe floats.
In other words, everything in the universe is indeed connected, but most of these connections are not as yet fully measurable (which is why they have classically been defined as "mystical" or "religious" when they are indeed fully mappable by science).
New Atheism
Given the ills of religion that has been clearly demonstrated in works such as End of Faith, God is Not Great, and The God Delusion, and the rise of a new vision of the universe that will explain away every remaining mystical phenomenon (including, and wait for this: the origin of the universe), I think it's important as an atheist to ensure that our societies become as secular and freed of superstituous beliefs that cause division and delay scientific inquiry, and we must take an active role, as a group, to ensure this happens.
That being said, I eschew the term "New Atheist" as this is a delibirately labelling by religious interest groups used to showcase that Atheism is in fact just another belief (e.g. the "Faith of Science"). This is patently incongruent and a fallacy, and atheism is not an institution no more than, as Sam Harris witfully put it, people who don't believe in Astrologers are called "non-Astrologers".
Choosing not to believe something is not a belief in itself, it's a non-belief. For this reason I have joined up with the Irish Atheists, and joined the online communities of Richard Dawkin's Foundation for Reason and Science, and Sam Harris' Project Reason, as well as the emerging political Atheist group, "The Brights". (a name I happen to take issue with, as being an Atheist in no means insulates you from holding irrational and unreasonable beliefs, prime examples is Stalin who replaced religious beliefs by semi-religious dogmatic state-religion as well as belief in very spurious science). The goal of the group is noble, however, and I try to see beyond the naming.
It's worth mentioning that the board of Project Reason include not only the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitches, but also other eminent thinkers and critics such as Ibn Warraq (Koran critic), Salman Rushdie, Peter Atkins and Stephen Weinberg.
With such people at the helm, I dare believe for a future where nothing is beyond, or protected, from rational discourse and every opinion is examined and indeed criticised based on the same set of parametres.
So for the religious that surely makes me a New Atheist, but I'm really just a non-believer. Holding irrational beliefs for the sake of it, is an unacceptable, and dangerous thing for any society to tolerate, and you do not need to look many year's back to see just how dangerous.
The Claim of the Chosen
The human brain, like everything else in existence, is connected to everything else in the universe through this quantum-based holofield that science now proposes (in the form of Psi-Field, Akashic Field, Zero-Point Energy Field and many other theoretical incarnations).
Recent studies show that we can indeed perceive things beyond our own brain (past lives, extrasensory perception, racial memory, emotions of others) just as most animals are tuned into the field through the Earth's magnetic field (fish using the field to navigate the ocean, birds using it to navigate through their migrations etc.).
Most are not conscious of this, however, and indeed cannot fully utilise it, but this doesn't mean the connection isn't there. What studies also showed is that certain states of consciousness such as trance, prayer, meditation, sleep etc. heightens the degree of connectedness we have to this field.
No doubt, all genuine "religious" experiences are results of people interacting with the all-connecting field at a higher level than they have previously been able to, making this a profound experience. It's therefore ironic, that is has, throughout history, been used as an argument for claiming that these same people discovered the "best path to God" (religion being defined as a "Path to God") thus causing the divisions and schisms we see today, when in fact they stumbled upon the very physical truth that we are all equally interconnected.
Again, the danger of not reasonably trying to deal with experiences and perceptions and analyzing it through rational discourse, shows, as this misbegotten conclusion in relation to the actual composition of the universe clearly shows. If only the first religious had drawn the lessons of contemporary scientists from their experience!
I must admit to having had "crises of faith", and certainly went through a period as an agnostic and even (for a brief period) a spiritual agnost. It was my luck that the writings of front-line scientists and philosopher's such as Ervin Laszlo, and Charles Zeife, clearly demonstrated that most spiritual books that seem intuitively and tangible "real", can actually be explained quite readily by the latest scientific understandings.
Mysticisms move into Mainstream Science
The prime example is the much heralded Power of Now (and follow-up book "A New Earth") by Echkhart Tolle (born Ulrich Tolle) which I find endlessly gratifying to read, and very applicable to a spiritually sounder life. Luckily, Eckhart Tolle, while drawing on religious inspirations at times, does not claim his work to be religious, and even better, if you look at the latest theories of the universe (the range of theories that emerged from our developing understanding of Quantum Physics and its generally counter-intuitive statements about our world), its clear that the good mr. Eckhart only stumbled upon various ways to force a stronger engagement with the zero-point holofield in the quantum vacuum (called the "Psi-field" by Laszlo) on which all mass-energy (including us) in the universe floats.
In other words, everything in the universe is indeed connected, but most of these connections are not as yet fully measurable (which is why they have classically been defined as "mystical" or "religious" when they are indeed fully mappable by science).
New Atheism
Given the ills of religion that has been clearly demonstrated in works such as End of Faith, God is Not Great, and The God Delusion, and the rise of a new vision of the universe that will explain away every remaining mystical phenomenon (including, and wait for this: the origin of the universe), I think it's important as an atheist to ensure that our societies become as secular and freed of superstituous beliefs that cause division and delay scientific inquiry, and we must take an active role, as a group, to ensure this happens.
That being said, I eschew the term "New Atheist" as this is a delibirately labelling by religious interest groups used to showcase that Atheism is in fact just another belief (e.g. the "Faith of Science"). This is patently incongruent and a fallacy, and atheism is not an institution no more than, as Sam Harris witfully put it, people who don't believe in Astrologers are called "non-Astrologers".
Choosing not to believe something is not a belief in itself, it's a non-belief. For this reason I have joined up with the Irish Atheists, and joined the online communities of Richard Dawkin's Foundation for Reason and Science, and Sam Harris' Project Reason, as well as the emerging political Atheist group, "The Brights". (a name I happen to take issue with, as being an Atheist in no means insulates you from holding irrational and unreasonable beliefs, prime examples is Stalin who replaced religious beliefs by semi-religious dogmatic state-religion as well as belief in very spurious science). The goal of the group is noble, however, and I try to see beyond the naming.
It's worth mentioning that the board of Project Reason include not only the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitches, but also other eminent thinkers and critics such as Ibn Warraq (Koran critic), Salman Rushdie, Peter Atkins and Stephen Weinberg.
With such people at the helm, I dare believe for a future where nothing is beyond, or protected, from rational discourse and every opinion is examined and indeed criticised based on the same set of parametres.
So for the religious that surely makes me a New Atheist, but I'm really just a non-believer. Holding irrational beliefs for the sake of it, is an unacceptable, and dangerous thing for any society to tolerate, and you do not need to look many year's back to see just how dangerous.
The Claim of the Chosen
The human brain, like everything else in existence, is connected to everything else in the universe through this quantum-based holofield that science now proposes (in the form of Psi-Field, Akashic Field, Zero-Point Energy Field and many other theoretical incarnations).
Recent studies show that we can indeed perceive things beyond our own brain (past lives, extrasensory perception, racial memory, emotions of others) just as most animals are tuned into the field through the Earth's magnetic field (fish using the field to navigate the ocean, birds using it to navigate through their migrations etc.).
Most are not conscious of this, however, and indeed cannot fully utilise it, but this doesn't mean the connection isn't there. What studies also showed is that certain states of consciousness such as trance, prayer, meditation, sleep etc. heightens the degree of connectedness we have to this field.
No doubt, all genuine "religious" experiences are results of people interacting with the all-connecting field at a higher level than they have previously been able to, making this a profound experience. It's therefore ironic, that is has, throughout history, been used as an argument for claiming that these same people discovered the "best path to God" (religion being defined as a "Path to God") thus causing the divisions and schisms we see today, when in fact they stumbled upon the very physical truth that we are all equally interconnected.
Again, the danger of not reasonably trying to deal with experiences and perceptions and analyzing it through rational discourse, shows, as this misbegotten conclusion in relation to the actual composition of the universe clearly shows. If only the first religious had drawn the lessons of contemporary scientists from their experience!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
DIARY: Lots of new
I don't get to write much on this blog, but quite a few things have happened since Christmas.
I've had some great success on the running scene, participating in the World Long Distance Trophy in Hill Running (finishing respectable midpack after suffering a puncture wound to my knee after 12 of 38km), finishing 5th in a local 22k hill race, and generally improving. I've also been struck down by my plantar fasciitis injury, meaning I won't compete again for quite some time.
My nice car broke down and had to be scrapped, so I replaced it with a Toyota Avensis 1.8, which is a good solid car with a good kick and a good size car (everyone knows I'd rather own a bike than a small car!).
My mother celebrated her 50th, where I got the chance to sing 6 folk tunes with the band, something that rekindled my interest in the music, and perhaps I'll take up the guitar again to do something with that.
Otherwise, I've been of loads of trips with the hill runners and with Aoife, visiting great locations in the Mournes, the West, Kerry, and in Wales.
Lately, I was back at the Tonder Festival and it was great to see everyone again and relax with a few drinks.
On the professional front things are well too, I've had a good first 8 months as supervisor, and am now responsible for 4 teams, having had the Quality team assigned to me. So I guess I can't really complain now can I?
Well, I'll find something sure enough....
I've had some great success on the running scene, participating in the World Long Distance Trophy in Hill Running (finishing respectable midpack after suffering a puncture wound to my knee after 12 of 38km), finishing 5th in a local 22k hill race, and generally improving. I've also been struck down by my plantar fasciitis injury, meaning I won't compete again for quite some time.
My nice car broke down and had to be scrapped, so I replaced it with a Toyota Avensis 1.8, which is a good solid car with a good kick and a good size car (everyone knows I'd rather own a bike than a small car!).
My mother celebrated her 50th, where I got the chance to sing 6 folk tunes with the band, something that rekindled my interest in the music, and perhaps I'll take up the guitar again to do something with that.
Otherwise, I've been of loads of trips with the hill runners and with Aoife, visiting great locations in the Mournes, the West, Kerry, and in Wales.
Lately, I was back at the Tonder Festival and it was great to see everyone again and relax with a few drinks.
On the professional front things are well too, I've had a good first 8 months as supervisor, and am now responsible for 4 teams, having had the Quality team assigned to me. So I guess I can't really complain now can I?
Well, I'll find something sure enough....
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