From my point of view it's not a good idea to take anything too seriously. I'm very serious about this. Consider these facts. All physical matter in the universe is made up of atoms. Atoms are 99.99% empty space. If you condense all the real matter of, say, an average kitchen table by removing all the empty space, it would be invisible to the naked eye. I read once that all the matter on the planet earth could be condensed into a basketball.
What gives objects the illusion of solidity is that the atoms that compose them are traveling very fast. They appear to be everywhere at once, like the rotors of a fan. When the rotors of a fan spin very fast they create the illusion of a solid sphere. Our entire world is an illusion created by our five senses to enable us to survive and communicate. In reality, we are living in a world of infinitesimally small objects traveling at incredible speeds. The world in which we live is in reality a creation of our minds, a construct of our consciousness.
Those that believe in a supreme being feel that our purpose is connected to whatever it is that this supreme being had in mind for us, his creation. Those that take a more scientific point of view do not attribute any grand purpose to mankind. They are not sure whether or not there is any reason for our existence other than survival and growth. Neither of these points of view is very convincing. The meaning and purpose of life (MAPOL) remains a mystery to me.
What does make sense, although it is very hard to understand the mechanism through which it operates, is that we create our own reality. Thoughts are things. Thoughts, through some unknown process, cause the reality of our world to exist. It is only because of our processing of electrical impulses and transforming them into images that matter and substance take the forms that are so familiar to us.
When you think about this, if you care to waste your time on such matters, you begin to see the world and your life a little differently. It is very encouraging to believe that you can create the life you want through transforming your thoughts into physical reality. In order to do this you need to be able to focus and visualize. You need to be able to be present in the moment and not be daydreaming about the past or future. This is why the root of all "real" spiritual traditions is meditation or prayer. These are not ways to connect to God. They are exercises that train your mind to be capable of proactively impacting your reality.
What is concerning, though, is that the world that we live in is a result of the collective thoughts or consciousness of everything that produces thought and consciousness. It might be that there are influences greater than man in this process. It may be that we have more control or less control than we imagine. We don't really know how much impact we have. We continue, though, to live our lives as if we are in soap operas taking everything that happens personally and seriously. I don't think that's such a good idea. There are much more enjoyable ways to live our lives.
Showing posts with label theoretical physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theoretical physics. Show all posts
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Baseball, Theoretical Physics, and MAPOL
I was walking on the beach with a friend this weekend discussing theoretical physics and string theory. He had just completed reading a book on parallel universes and was trying to explain this to me. He told me a story about three umpires who were discussing their approach to balls and strikes.
The first umpire said, "I call them based on what they are. If they are strikes I call them strikes. If they are balls I call them balls.
The second umpire said, "I call them the way I see them."
The third umpire said, "Whatever I call them, that's what they are."
This pretty much summarizes the different views of reality. View number one is that there is a reality independent of our existence that we can identify, classify and know. This reality is the same for everyone and it is up to us to learn to see it clearly. This reality is based on Newtonian physics. Newton saw the universe as a machine which acted according to very specific laws that could be calculated and understood mathematically. If we understood these laws and the mathematics behind them we could accurately predict the movements of bodies in the universe and ultimately all reality was knowable and predictable. The theories of Newton helped create a scientific revolution that resulted in the world moving into an age where man began to believe that he could control and influence the forces of nature.
View number two is that reality is different for each of us depending on our point of view and overall peceptive skills. This reality is the one espoused by Einstein in his theory of relativity. According to Einstein there was not a fixed reality that was based on mathematical laws. Reality was relative to the speed and position of the observer. He developed this theory by noticing that the orbit of Mercury did not correspond exactly to what Newton predicted it should. Einstein's thinking enabled us to unleash the power of the atom but also created a level of humility regarding our ability to see the world accurately.
View number three is that we create our own reality and then we name it and act as if it is the truth. This view is embodied in the theories of quantum physics, and especially Heisenberg's "theory of uncertainty' Quantum physics has caused scientists to question whether or not reality exists independently of our consciousness. It seems from a mathematical viewpoint and from the experiments of quantum physicists that there is no fixed realtiy, that there is no solid matter and that reality is created primarily by our observation and perceptions of that observation.
String theory is the latest advancement in our thinking. Although it has not yet gained universal acceptance in the scientific community it is pointing to the existence of a multidimensional reality that intersect and curve in ways that make our conventional definitions of space and time meaningless. The technological possibilities that may come from this level of thinking include space and time travel as well as understanding mathematically the nature of creation itself.
We have continued to progress scientifically since Newton's discovered the basic laws of physics. There is no reason to think that we will not continue to progress and there is high probability that our progress will accelerate. We are getting to the time when spiritual thinking and scientific thinking are merging. Any serious student of the MAPOL must take the discoveries and theories of science and theoretical physics into account in formulating their own belief systems. This is a very exciting time. We must keep our minds open to all possibilities.
The first umpire said, "I call them based on what they are. If they are strikes I call them strikes. If they are balls I call them balls.
The second umpire said, "I call them the way I see them."
The third umpire said, "Whatever I call them, that's what they are."
This pretty much summarizes the different views of reality. View number one is that there is a reality independent of our existence that we can identify, classify and know. This reality is the same for everyone and it is up to us to learn to see it clearly. This reality is based on Newtonian physics. Newton saw the universe as a machine which acted according to very specific laws that could be calculated and understood mathematically. If we understood these laws and the mathematics behind them we could accurately predict the movements of bodies in the universe and ultimately all reality was knowable and predictable. The theories of Newton helped create a scientific revolution that resulted in the world moving into an age where man began to believe that he could control and influence the forces of nature.
View number two is that reality is different for each of us depending on our point of view and overall peceptive skills. This reality is the one espoused by Einstein in his theory of relativity. According to Einstein there was not a fixed reality that was based on mathematical laws. Reality was relative to the speed and position of the observer. He developed this theory by noticing that the orbit of Mercury did not correspond exactly to what Newton predicted it should. Einstein's thinking enabled us to unleash the power of the atom but also created a level of humility regarding our ability to see the world accurately.
View number three is that we create our own reality and then we name it and act as if it is the truth. This view is embodied in the theories of quantum physics, and especially Heisenberg's "theory of uncertainty' Quantum physics has caused scientists to question whether or not reality exists independently of our consciousness. It seems from a mathematical viewpoint and from the experiments of quantum physicists that there is no fixed realtiy, that there is no solid matter and that reality is created primarily by our observation and perceptions of that observation.
String theory is the latest advancement in our thinking. Although it has not yet gained universal acceptance in the scientific community it is pointing to the existence of a multidimensional reality that intersect and curve in ways that make our conventional definitions of space and time meaningless. The technological possibilities that may come from this level of thinking include space and time travel as well as understanding mathematically the nature of creation itself.
We have continued to progress scientifically since Newton's discovered the basic laws of physics. There is no reason to think that we will not continue to progress and there is high probability that our progress will accelerate. We are getting to the time when spiritual thinking and scientific thinking are merging. Any serious student of the MAPOL must take the discoveries and theories of science and theoretical physics into account in formulating their own belief systems. This is a very exciting time. We must keep our minds open to all possibilities.
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