Townes gets the Templeton award
Dr Townes has made that statement here that there are assumptions made both in religion and science. I couldn't agree more.
In science they are called postulates or axioms, in religion they are called faith. In one case there are professors wearing a suit and speaking in english and quoting mathematics. In the other, spiritualists, wearing a religious label, and speaking in a local dialect and quoting in Latin, Hebrew or Sanskrit. The power that media has really may be clouding fair judgement.
Here is one of my favourites:
The universe appeared out of nowhere (aka the Big Bang Theory). Science does not say that we came out of an infinitesmally small, infinitesmally dense ball. (Because then there would be a question of where did that ball come from?) According to the Big Bang Theorists.. we came out of literally nothing! A mathematical singularity. Now that is what I call fantastic!
Is that more fantastic or is the statement that our universe has always been there. Or was created in 7 days. That is the postulate from the relegious camp.
To me it seems they are both equally fantastic!
Here is where the diference lies, in my opinion: When Science hits a road block in its theory, it can be easily classified under the heading of "We are working on it". Or "Given the rate of progress, we are sure to find and answer in future".The other way to dull the blow of fantastic scientific claims is to use the esoteric world of Mathematics.
In religion, the basic postulate is that we cannot figure it out because the universe is unlimited and we are limited in time and space. So we HAVE to rely on an external source to tell us. What that external source (the scriptrure) tells us is so fantastic that we cannot accept it in our present conditioning of dimensionality, time and space.
Mathematics:
Now that is an area where science can explain away any theory without being lynched for heresy! Math falls in an area where concepts can be created at will and so long as there are counter concepts to balance out, it all ties up neatly. However, at it's very fringes, there is little corellation between Math (real world in the head) and Physics (real world under our feet). Take imaginary time, for instance. What a concept! Einstien has used it in his General Theory of Relativity. The String Theory(http://superstringtheory.com) makes statments using imaginary time: In the future I will meet myself as I was when I was a child! How is this different from spiritualists saying that we will be born again in the cycle of birth and death!
More later...
In science they are called postulates or axioms, in religion they are called faith. In one case there are professors wearing a suit and speaking in english and quoting mathematics. In the other, spiritualists, wearing a religious label, and speaking in a local dialect and quoting in Latin, Hebrew or Sanskrit. The power that media has really may be clouding fair judgement.
Here is one of my favourites:
The universe appeared out of nowhere (aka the Big Bang Theory). Science does not say that we came out of an infinitesmally small, infinitesmally dense ball. (Because then there would be a question of where did that ball come from?) According to the Big Bang Theorists.. we came out of literally nothing! A mathematical singularity. Now that is what I call fantastic!
Is that more fantastic or is the statement that our universe has always been there. Or was created in 7 days. That is the postulate from the relegious camp.
To me it seems they are both equally fantastic!
Here is where the diference lies, in my opinion: When Science hits a road block in its theory, it can be easily classified under the heading of "We are working on it". Or "Given the rate of progress, we are sure to find and answer in future".The other way to dull the blow of fantastic scientific claims is to use the esoteric world of Mathematics.
In religion, the basic postulate is that we cannot figure it out because the universe is unlimited and we are limited in time and space. So we HAVE to rely on an external source to tell us. What that external source (the scriptrure) tells us is so fantastic that we cannot accept it in our present conditioning of dimensionality, time and space.
Mathematics:
Now that is an area where science can explain away any theory without being lynched for heresy! Math falls in an area where concepts can be created at will and so long as there are counter concepts to balance out, it all ties up neatly. However, at it's very fringes, there is little corellation between Math (real world in the head) and Physics (real world under our feet). Take imaginary time, for instance. What a concept! Einstien has used it in his General Theory of Relativity. The String Theory(http://superstringtheory.com) makes statments using imaginary time: In the future I will meet myself as I was when I was a child! How is this different from spiritualists saying that we will be born again in the cycle of birth and death!
More later...
posted by Pankaj at
11:51 AM
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