The spirituality of science

by Coded Logic 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Coded Logic

  Things are often more than the sum of their parts.  The letters typed onto this page, for example, are more than just letters.  They've become a series of ideas and concepts.  Or - water molecules, suspended in the air, aren't always just water molecules.  Sometimes they're a powerful thunderstorm - with emergent properties of rain, wind, lightning, and hail.  And sometimes neurons in the brain become more than just neurons.  They become consciousness.

  We are all more than the sum of our parts.  But even our parts have a high pedigree.  Take, for example, the carbon atoms of which you and I are composed.  They were forged in the heart of an ancient star that died long ago.  We are all, literally, the remnants of a stellar core.  The children of a supernova.  Because, it is not just we who are inside the universe - but it is also the universe that is inside of us.  WE ARE THE UNIVERSE . . . seeking to understand itself.

  When we look up at the night sky saturated with stars - there can be a certain sadness felt.  Because we will never be able to reach those stars within our lifetime.  But that sadness often turns to joy because those stars have reached out and touched us.  Their light has traveled untold ages and eons across an empty void so that we might be able to study them.  And learn from them.  And the more we learn about those distant stars - the more we know about our universe.  And the more we understand our universe - the more we understand ourselves.

  This is our heritage - 4.6 billion years in the making.  And it wasn't revealed to us through divine interpretation or personal revelation or by some ancient "holy" book.  But, rather, by that noble enterprise we call science.  Because it's not just empirical - it's also deeply spiritual.  
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  Very nicely written, CL. Pondering the grandeur of it all is certainly humbling, and to consider the building material that constitutes what is "us" is awesome indeed.

   

  Carl Sagan expressed his thoughts, which mirror yours very closely:

   

   

  "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both."
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  prologos

  add to those high frequencies we see from afar, the Music that moves us, as we listen to a live performance, and

  the deep satisfaction that comes from creating, and the goose-pimple feeling in our Eureka- moments, so much higher than the Ersatz substitute of ten hours "service" and watching the ORG. 

  
  

  
  

   
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  TerryWalstrom

  Things are often more than the sum of their parts.

  
  

  ___________________________

  Arguably, we impose this.

  A thing IS what it is. Just because we can fit contexts to it like various picture frames on a painting, does

  nothing more than change our selective view. The 'painting' itself remains what it is.
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  JamesThomas

  “And sometimes neurons in the brain become more than just neurons. They become consciousness.”

  I guess that makes sense if we completely ignore what is happening within a neuron and all matter (for that matter). Within every molecule, every atom there is immeasurable amounts of information and data transfer that must be sent and captured, unraveled and understood, and actualized before anything can function or exist. What is it that must be here for communication, discernment and implementation of precise and complex operations to occur? And not just within our silly coconut heads, but within every atom?

  It would seem that the neurons are not the cause, but rather the result or effect of.

  But what do I know?
  
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  Coded Logic

  TerryWalstrom, I agree that "a" thing (singular) is what it is.  But that's not what the OP is talking about..  Rather, it's drawing attention to the fact that when you put many things together new properties can emerge.  Properties can be present within the whole that do not exist within the individual parts.

  A thunderstorm is made up of suspended water molecules.  But suspended water molecules by themselves do not have the properties of a thunderstorm.  
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  breakfast of champions

  My wife has told me that I'm the most "spiritual" person she knows, but I don't even believe in god (or spirits or anything supernatural).

  I think the "spiritual" she is talking about is being able to see past the surface and appreciating  (although not fully understanding) what's going on behind it all.

  CODED - I think this is part of what you're talking about in the OP. 
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  coalize

  Very interresting posting.

  You should read some books of the french philosopher Edgar Morin about "the complex thinking".

  If I try to resume the part relative at your post (it's a little difficult for me to explain that in a language I don't really masterize, as you all noticed for my english) it will be : 

  1) As you notice very well :  "The whole is more than the sum of his parts" for the reason you said. Morin define that exactly : "it exists emerging features, i.e. features appearing from the organisation of the whole, and who are able to retroact on his parts"

  2) But he add : "The whole is too less than the sum of his parts" for the reason that "the parts can have features who are inhibited by the organization of the whole"

  I let it in french here, if never I made a big mistake of translation and if a best english-speaking french-speaker is around : 
  

  1.« le tout est plus que la somme des parties » : « il existe des qualités émergentes, c'est-à-dire qui naissent de l'organisation d'un tout, et qui peuvent rétroagir sur les parties »

  2. « le tout est également moins que la somme des parties » :  « les parties peuvent avoir des qualités qui sont inhibées par l'organisation de l'ensemble »

  The cover of the first part of the book "La méthode" where you can read the explanation of this concepts, really more great that what I can explain:

  
  

  

  
  

  I don't know if it exists in english! I will check!
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  prologos

  coalize  I like your no. 2,  applied to the wt arrangement. within that body are yet unrealized potentials, suppressed by the stifling wt environment, ready to be liberated, and

  On the level of thought: out of that greater whole can yet emerge the seed for a further blossoming.

  bien dit dans "La methode".   
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  coalize

  I don't find, even on amazon, translation of the work og Edgar Morin in english.

  But I find an interessant article on arxiv. It's a very fast résumé of the thinking, but It's already a very good introduction :

  Restricted complexity, General complexity