I find it amusing these days to see discussions among scholars of science and spirituality mostly ending with the scientists mocking at the unscientific use of science by the spiritualists to prove the existence of God. To quote Michael Shermer .. 'You say Quantum mechanics is weird and spooky, the world of the spirit is weird and spooky and so quantum mechanics is Spiritual' .. or something to that end. I think Shermer here has a point.
Quantum mechanics for instance is such a very hard subject to grasp from an intuitive manner, perhaps there are just a handful of scientists who really really understand it, and if anything its abstract and perhaps no intuitive interpretation is possible. It is a theory that is fit onto scientific observations. Much like by observing the ratio of circumference to the diameter our ancient scientists figured out that it always seem to be the same.
An observation, or a series of observations are made, a theory is created. The theory is tested meticulously, objectively, over and over again. the theory is corrected as needed, more observations, more corrections, more new theories .. this is the broad outline of science. chipping away carefully one at a time. This simple yet completely objective study of phenomenon has taken us through various stages of evolution , we have incrementally been knowing more, controlling more, creating more,improving more. Every century has a quantum leap if you will, putting to unimaginable obscurity what the mighty of the past might have to call in terms of knowledge and comforts compared to that of a common man today.
Science has been, is and will ever be the greatest tool of man to investigate, improve and innovate. As a layman it is best to stop there. Just because I have read about the double slit experiment a dozen times in various books and magazines doesn't qualify me as a quantum physicist. Even a PhD in the subject doesn't warrant a complete understanding of it.
Now, to really stop being embarrassed by scientists particularly physicists, spiritualists who truly know what they are talking about, should use the simplest of reasoning to reach to the spirit. There is nothing New-Age about the spirit. The spirit is timeless,but science has its time. there was old archaic science, medieval science, modern science, futuristic science and so on. that is because we keep learning about a constantly changing world. The spirit is timeless.
While using contemporary language and situations are useful to set a context, to claim that modern scientific knowledge implies the spirit is childish. scientists are very sharp people. mathematics and logic are their tongue. If there were to be a connect between the two, then both must speak the same language, and with complete understanding of their respective subjects. the scientist is a seeker. he questions the understanding of man, wants to arrive at an explanation. only thing is he is very clear that his subjects are those that can be objectively observable. they must be observed,measured, detected using an unbiased instrument of sorts and the observation must be repeatable with predictable results.
Every single such thing that the scientist is interested in, be it a subatomic particle, or sub-sub particle, or a burst of energy, or the force of gravity, or the waves on the beach, the depths of the oceans, the vast distances in space, thoughts in a person, what ever that maybe, has observable attributes. something that an instrument can detect. a single feeble blip is good, but there ought to be one. Even the dark matter for that matter is observable due to its influences, just like Neptune's influences resulted in its discovery. every single thing is owing its existence due to the fact that it can be observed. that in turn owes it to at least one single attribute.
An attribute is anything that can describe something. a length, a weight, a color, a shape, a temperature, a speed, a location.. it can be anything that can be observable. Not necessarily through the eyes, but by any instrument of any kind. If you look around and think about it, every thing that you ever know about will have an attribute..perhaps more than one most of the time.
Can you think of anything that you know of that has no attributes?
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