Amit Goswami, Ph.D. » possibilities

Can Science and Religion be Integrated?

ri — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:15:10 +0000

Can science and religion be integrated? What comes to mind immediately is that religions themselves cannot agree with one another whereas science is basically monolithic. How can there even be trade between the two, let alone integration?

First, it is only a perception that religions are pluralistic and science is not. Science is monolithic only so far as science of matter--physics and chemistry--is concerned. Psychology, the science of the psyche, has three different paradigms--behavioral-cognitive consisting of hard science orientation, depth psychology consisting of Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian analytical psychology and their derivatives with psychotherapy orientation, and humanistic-transpersonal-yoga psychology with positive mental health orientation. Both the later paradigms of psychology acknowledge downward causation and subtle bodies in some form or other. Medicine has the conventional allopathic medicine and also alternative medicine practices that complement it. A prominent part of alternative medicine is Eastern medicine that emphasizes subtle energies called variously as prana, chi, and ki. And biology is in transition right now. The materialist biology is highly developed but with some unsolved (maybe unsolvable) problems. Alternative biology is biology that sees life as the handiwork of a purposive designer with the power of downward causation; but at present it is so poorly developed that hardly anyone can call it a genuine alternative biology.

Who killed Schrödinger’s Cat?

Amit — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:04:34 +0000

Can we do science of the primacy of consciousness? That is, can science be based on the idea that consciousness is the ground of all being and that all things of experience are chosen from quantum possibilities of consciousness? Where is the necessary objectivity? Now the quintessential proof: I’ll show you why the choosing consciousness [...]

An Invitation to Quantum Activism

Amit — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:12:07 +0000

Quantum physics in the form of its famous observer effect (how an observation transforms quantum possibilities into actual experiences in the observer’s consciousness) is forcing us into a paradigm shift from the primacy-of-matter to a new paradigm: the Primacy Of Consciousness (read my book The Self-Aware Universe for details). Quantum Activism is the idea of [...]

The Issue of Secularism

Amit — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:58:22 +0000

Secularism is the separation of church and state. In the past this has worked for democracy. State carries out the democratic ideal of bring meaning to everyone in society. The church gives us the ethical canopy under which everyone pursues meaning. Unfortunately, the evolution of scientific materialism puts a monkey wrench in this equilibrium. In [...]

The Signatures of the Divine

ri — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:21:34 +0000

Jesus lamented, The kingdom of God is everywhere, but people don’t see it. Well, the evidence is subtle; it is easy for ordinary people to miss it. But scientists are special people; they are experts in deciphering subtleties of evidence. Why have they been missing the signatures of the divine? The Nobel laureate physicist Richard [...]

Toward a Spiritual Economics

Amit — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:27:12 +0000

Many people think that capitalism and market economics grew out of materialist philosophy that classical physics has given us. But this is myopic thinking of people who have missed the evolution of consciousness in the affairs of the manifest world. First notice that during the period that capitalism developed in the hands of such luminaries [...]

It’s the Worldview, Mr. President

Amit — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:05:07 +0000

An Open Letter to President Obama Dear President Obama, During president Clinton’s election campaign, the very effective slogan, ”It’s the Economy, Stupid” was coined. Your slogan, “Change that you can believe in”, although perhaps not as provocative as Clinton’s, was not so entirely bad either. It worked, didn’t it? Even so, I think the [...]

The Wisdom Festival – San Francisco

ri — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:56:26 +0000

Evolution, Consciousness & Wisdom Herbst Pavilion Lofty topics and discussions abound at the two-day Wisdom Festival scheduled for October 18 in Fort Mason Center’s Herbst Pavilion. If you enjoy stimulating conversation and exploring the outer reaches of human endeavor, you don’t want to miss this compelling and affordable event. In addition to 85 speakers, the [...]

Consciousness and Quantum Physics

Amit — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:02:26 +0000

There was a revolution in physics at the beginning of the last century, consisting of the discovery of quantum physics. The message of quantum physics is this: the world is not made of matter neither is it determined entirely by material causation that we sometimes call upward causation because it rises upward from the building [...]

New Dimensions Interview – December 31st

ri — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:56:23 +0000

For over 300 years, science and religion have been in a heated debate. And here in the early years of the 21st century, the battle only seems to be intensifying. With a barrage of new atheistic books with titles like The God Delusion flooding the bookstore shelves, it might appear there is little hope that [...]