The Paradox of the Human Brain
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy, science
If the human brain is highly evolved and that the survival of our species critically hinges on a sufficient objective understanding of the natural world, then why is it so susceptible to imaginative and inaccurate models of thinking? Think about how some credulous religious fanatics can kill thousands of people for an anticipation of heaven promised by their god – concepts/beliefs that never resulted from objective and rational understanding…purely imaginary. Less extreme examples of the credulity of the human brain are everywhere so that we can almost say that it really has a tendency to be uncritical, subjective, and even anti-realistic.
From the evolutionary point of view, perhaps a completely objective view of the world is not critical to our survival in the short term. A crude and partially realistic view of the world is probably enough to manage the survival of our species for a few thousands of years. We cannot prolong our survival though with these kinds of models of understanding the natural world. In the long run, we need to be more realistic in assessing the workings of nature. Without the efforts of science to fight plagues and diseases, for instance, through serious study of their causes and cures, our species might have already been wiped out from the face of the earth. If we are to continue to survive as a species for the next thousand or million years, we should evolve to a more rational and objective species. This has been happening throughout human history. The challenge now is on how to accelerate this transformation so we can attain peaceful coexisting rational “ideologies” before we destroy each other in a series of offensive and vindictive attacks resulting from ancient unrealistic and anti-progressive ideas. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: evolution, human brain, religion
A few good shots of Ghent center
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Photography
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Tags: ghent
Traditional Religion, Science, and the Search for Meaning
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy, science
It seems that humans are hardwired to make some sense of life or to have some meaning. Science and religion both agree on this goal, which is to come up with meaningful models to understand everything. These two spheres of human exploration fulfill our deepest longing to make sense of the world. The only difference is that science is more realistic and objective while religion is more imaginative and subjective.
While I am critical of traditional religions, it cannot be denied that these institutions have done a lot of good to humanity in providing meaning to countless souls throughout generations. It has assisted humanity’s search for a greater view of life and to provide moral directions. However, as societies develop and mature, there is a general trend to become less and less dependent on traditional religious notions and practices. Over time, human beings realized that although we somehow get a coherent and meaningful view of the universe through the lens of myth-based religions, true progress and survival of the human species cannot simply hinge on these dogmatic and closed-ended explanations. What we need is an objective yet dynamic understanding of the world around us.
While it is helpful to simply conjure that various phenomena are results of the activities of the gods, some wise men of old stood and dared to question these mythical and simplistic explanations. They dared to know nature objectively and break the shroud of mystery that surrounds them. Objective mechanistic explanations of common phenomena were made and their accuracy tested. Over the course of time, men of able minds learned that objective knowledge of the world is most beneficial to humanity, which should now be clear to the man in the street. We learned that we need to leave myths and imaginative explanations behind to sustain mental, material and even spiritual progress of mankind. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: empiricism, knowledge, religion, science, spirituality
ISI data shows lethargic progress of science in the Philippines
Posted by Joemar | Filed under science
Until the mid-seventies, the scientific productivity of the Philippines was comparable to that of Thailand and Malaysia and a little better over Indonesia. More than 40 years later, the overall productivity of Filipino scientists (i.e. those working in the Philippines) has gone far below the remarkable outputs of Thailand and Malaysia. As of the last three years, even Indonesia has outperformed the Philippines.
This is based on the data from the Science Citation Index (SCI). As their website describes, every journal included in the Thomson Scientific’s ISI Science Citation Index ExpandedTM has met the high standards of an objective evaluation process that eliminates clutter and excess and delivers data that is accurate, meaningful and timely. The SCI has been accepted worldwide as the standard index of peer-reviewed and valid scientific reports. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: philippines, science
M. Scott Peck’s Four Stages of Spiritual Development
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
I just came to read about M. Scott Peck when I was reading articles about demonic possessions and exorcisms. He is an American psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote about his insights into various subjects including characterization and diagnosis of evil, nature of love, existence of Satan, and about spiritual development. Many of his ideas do make sense but others are vehemently criticized as unscientific.
What I found to be a helpful insight from M. Scott Peck is his four stages of spiritual development. I am quoting here a summarized description of the four stages from the Wikipedia article on M. Scott Peck:
Stage I is chaotic, disordered, and reckless. Very young children are in Stage I. They tend to defy and disobey, and are unwilling to accept a will greater than their own. Many criminals are people who have never grown out of Stage I.
Stage II is the stage at which a person has blind faith. Once children learn to obey their parents, they reach Stage II. Many so-called religious people are essentially Stage II people, in the sense that they have blind faith in God, and do not question His existence. With blind faith comes humility and a willingness to obey and serve. The majority of good law-abiding citizens never move out of Stage II.
Stage III is the stage of scientific skepticism and inquisitivity. A Stage III person does not accept things on faith but only accepts them if convinced logically. Many people working in scientific and technological research are in Stage III.
Stage IV is the stage where an individual starts enjoying the mystery and beauty of nature. While retaining skepticism, he starts perceiving grand patterns in nature. His religiousness and spirituality differ significantly from that of a Stage II person, in the sense that he does not accept things through blind faith but does so because of genuine belief. Stage IV people are labeled as Mystics.
I find this interesting because I am aware about my spiritual evolution from hard liner fundamentalist Christianity (Stage II) to rational religion characterized by skepticism on ancient revealed religions (Stage III). I used to think that mystics are much like fundamentalists who emphasize revelation and dogma, so belonging to Stage II. Much to my surprise, M. Scott Peck considered mysticism as the highest stage of spiritual development. This illustrates my lack of knowledge about what mysticism really is.
In the past few months I have been contemplating about the limits of human knowledge and how our mental abilities are incapable of directly grasping the existence and presence of the divine. I am sort of inclined to believe that rational religion is powerless in bringing us into a union with the ultimate reality, with the divine..with God. This development from a purely rational to a mystical approach to spirituality is quite apparent from my previous post entitled “Reflections on truth, knowledge, the philosophy of science, God and religion” on my answer to the last question that I myself posed:
If you are not absolutely certain about the existence of God, then what does it mean to be religious?
For me, to be religious does not necessarily involve absolute certainty that a Divine Being exists. It is more of the feeling that there must be a Super Intellectual power that sustain the beauty and complexity of the universe. To be religious is to be amazed at the magnificence of nature and to come to a humble realization that there is a greater intelligence and power behind all these. As with Albert Einstein, I say “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe….”
I used to read about mysticism in its various forms (e.g. Western and Eastern mysticism) before but it only starts to make sense now. Perhaps there really is no shortcut from Stage II to Stage IV. I needed to go through Stage III for me to realize that mystery pervades all of human experience and that the more we think deeper, the more we realize that we really don’t know anything at all.
Tags: mysticism, religion, spirituality