SPIRITUALITY Q

WHAT do you call something that is conscious but does not consist of matter?

A more relevant way of putting your question would be to say: What do you call something that is matter but does not consist of consciousness? Rocks do not think, obviously, but one can make a case for the evolution of consciousness just as one can make a case for the evolution of the complexity of the universe that culminates in a consciousness that can ask the question: What is consciousness???

Three things that suggest consciousness, on some level, is co-continuous with that which is not consciousness:

1) “The classical notions of space, time, causality--objective reality, break down at the quantum level. According to most physicists, the wave function is not quite a thing, it is more like an idea that occupies a strange middle ground between idea and reality, where all things are possible but none are actual. An electron is not a particle either, it is more like a process, always forming, always dissolving. It can’t be detected until it interacts with a measuring device and even if it does interact we don’t know if it interacts with the device per se, or if it interacts with the last link in the chain of events that define the experiment—the consciousness of the human observer, e.g. Schrodinger's cat thought experiment.

2) The mathematical proof (von Neumann) rejecting the notion of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. At the atomic level, it is not possible to visualize or describe waves because they are not there—they are purely mathematical constructs. Where things are not things, the quantifiers of inside, outside, before, after, between, and connected are not applicable, either. Where language and logic do not apply, nothing more can be said.

3) Quantum mechanics fundamentally concerns the way in which we observers connect to the universe we observe. According to new experiments, the separation between consciousness, information, and the physical event is at best tenuous: "It could very well be that the distinction we make between information and reality is wrong. This is not saying that everything is just information. But it is saying that we need a new concept that encompasses or includes both."
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06...


We we're born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone?

Yes, I believe the glory of God ought to be manifested by every human being. Making the world a better place one small step at a time (less violence/more care) is what I try to give to this very important project.


What is your favorite kind of paradox?

In The Beginning was the paradox: How does unity coexist with multiplicity? How does oneness make room for otherness? The answer to this paradox, I believe, will neutralize a list of other paradoxes. If, for instance:

1) If you move the source of paradox into the speaker speaking the paradox, you eliminate many logical paradoxes , paradoxes involving self-reference (koans to); to avoid contradictions such as occur in the Liar and other paradoxes, C.I. Lewis developed what he called pragmatic contradiction. It, pragmatic contradiction, treats together the speech and the act of speaking. “All statements are false” cannot be true because it implies, not a restriction against self-reference as Russell said, but because it implies the necessary truth of the contradictory opposite, “there exists at least one true statement.” Starting with a contradiction-free affirmation, the structures of knowledge can then be made to follow in a necessary and systematic fashion. In this way, the closed system problems that arise in mathematics are avoided.

2) The self/other paradox then becomes extremely important to solve because it's solution will lead directly to the neutralization of the “in the beginning paradox”. The omnipotence paradox and time paradox can also be neutralized with the answer of the self/other paradox I believe. Thanks for the question.

Freedom Q

Are free will and life actually the same thing?

I believe that a full appreciation of life goes beyond what we typically think when we think of free will; that said, however, free will, in its broadest sense, does, I believe, encompass much (if not all) of the values entailed in "living a full life." Let me explain.

We first encounter freedom as the freedom to act. Satisfying our biological needs frames this freedom. Free will and all it entails, is not just a response to biological stimulus, however. The freedom to avoid the unpleasant and pursue the pleasant has the indirect effect of creating the environment out of which all other freedoms are expressed.

On another level, a higher level, phenomenological freedom allows us to ask questions (pursue inquiry) while theoretical freedom allows us to determine the logical consistency and reasonableness of our answers (analysis). Scientifically speaking, our answers are verified through reliable predictions as they relate to aesthetic experience (the freedom to appreciate the significance of our sensations--witnessed events, beauty, love interests, etc.), and, also, sociologically speaking, these answers hopefully motivate the behavioral changes that result in emotional growth, culminating in psychological maturity.

In other words, as a dynamic process, freedom (free will) is continually being discovered in the “universal limiting space that defines it.” As knowledge accumulates, for instance, life’s expectations and goals may change. The value and meaning of relationships may change. What at one time was sought for pleasure and comfort may, with increased understanding, become unpleasant, and so on and so forth. It seems then, at least from this point of view, that free will and life actually are the same thing.

What is your personal definition of freedom?

Embedded within limiting conditions, freedom seeks to liberate itself from these conditions. Biologically, one adapts to environmental conditions or dies. Sociologically, one works to do no harm, unseat evil with good, and injustice with justice. Psychologically, one wrestles with oppressive demons or surrenders.

If God has given us free will to live our life then .....?

Destiny is living life on a leash--chasing the dreams of others, conforming to expectations, taking the well trodden path. When present and future behavior conforms to past behavior there is determinism, but, when self-aim modifies its response to its environment through the passionate elements of feeling and reason then we experience the freedom to alter destiny.

What do you think freedom is?

In my philosophy freedom is everything, but it comes with a caveat. All freedom is embedded in its own negative space, thus liberation means liberating oneself from freedom's negative space. This process then, comes with the qualification: more freedom is good but not good enough. Success here is always circumscribed by negative space--so the process continues. It's a bit like becoming well educated; the more educated you are, the more you appreciate education. Maybe an even better analogy is found in what some people believe; that is, that freedom is all about climbing a spiritual latter, the more liberation, the more significant liberation becomes, the more significant liberation becomes, the more significant it becomes to share this freedom with others--either by teaching, or by doing the "right thing."

Biographical Q

What's the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to seek after that which is extremely important to you--- and then spend the rest of your life searching for the reason why most of the rest of the world disagrees with you.

What is your philosophy of writing?

I write because I can, it’s my way of being free. For me, freedom is about creativity and production, and it’s also about producing quality (it's true, writing is an art learned through writing and writing and writing and—it gets better over time, but it helps if, within your chosen context, your writing makes sense.

Describe how it FEELS to have GOD in your life?

Never alone—Purposeful—Guided—Secure--Content Beyond Circumstances

I was not expecting it to happen--that day when God entered my life. My life changed after that. The small "me" opened into an expanse I have yet to fully grasp. Here' a description of that very special day when I experienced God (while riding my bicycle down from a Big Horn Mountain pass into Ten Sleep Canyon and the valley below) some 35 years ago. Thanks for the question.

On wings of light, sailing down the mountain, I lost all feelings of attachment and weight. The farther down into the canyon I went the more I was filled with the overwhelming beauty of the place. I felt transparent to my surroundings. It was at that time, in the beauty of it all, when suddenly, as if a chair had been pulled out from under me, I felt the contours of my body (my exteriors) collapse. What was left of me after that was/is impossible to describe, but it felt like this: “It was Wow! Amazing! I was upside down and inside out.”

A feeling of “grasping,” of “being engaged” substituted for what used to be my body; but even that connection, that subject-object connection, was extraordinarily strange because I felt it from the outside – in, not from the inside – out. I did not fight it. I just let it happen. In that joyous trembling, throbbing, moment, zooming down the mountain, with a warm wind in my face and unbelievable beauty everywhere, I metamorphosed into an infinite array of connection with my environment. I had no idea as to what had just happened to me, but it was a fantastically passionate experience. There was no anxiety, fear, or negatives of any kind in it. I had never felt that way before (nor probably will again).

As I reached the valley below, I knew that if I died right then and there, it would be okay. From the vantage point of being inside my outside environment death had no meaning. It was an illusion. Once I had gotten outside of myself, once I became entwined within the environment, the Truth that death was an illusion was everywhere apparent. When I started peddling again it was as if I was peddling in a dream. It took a while to come down, to come down some, but never all the way.

Science Questions

Consciousness controls the universe?
Thanks for the youtube and question. You should not feel bad about being confused. The video is confusing, it draws from many disparate sources (theories of information, chaos, string, holographic, standard QM model, etc.) and lumps them together in an attempt to proselytize for the "consciousness is all" program. For the most part, these theories are science based; but remember, if they are science based then they must be open to falsification. The video makes no mention of that side of science. It may be that on some level, in order to derive a scientific explanation of the physical universe, science will eventually include some measure of consciousness/information in the explanation. I include myself in the group which believes consciousness is/will be a necessary factor that must be included before any coherent explanation of the physical universe becomes possible. Understanding consciousness on that level, however, will not collapse science into the "consciousness is all" receptacle,-- on the contrary, it will expand and inform the science that we count on to explain how our world functions.

What is your definition of science?
Science has produced and continues to produce huge benefits for humankind (but technology has its downside--end of world downside, global warming, nuclear annihilation, gene pool uncertainties etc.) so I believe it is extremely important to evaluate science with a critical eye--an eye to where science came from and how it fits into the overall scheme of what benefits humankind; that said I offer the following:

In his book, The Nature of Physical Reality, Margenau elaborates on what the theoretic component of our experience entails when he says, “…that we come to knowledge of our experience in two ways—through the mental states of prepositional attitudes and sensation.” He then lumps these attitudes and sensation together in what he calls our P-plane experience—a combination of immediate experience with its significance (science is only part of what this significance entails). In this way we come to "know" the same thing in two different ways, through sensed qualia and through the significance that we attach to this sensed qualia. For Margenau, there are four levels of P-plane significance. Language, with its lexical, syntactical, and contextual designations represents the first level. The second level, science, raises P-plane significance by connecting P-plane experience with the propositional aspects of our cognitive experience via what Margenau calls rules of correspondence—the sensed aspect of what may be inferred or deduced from theoretical postulates. On the third and fourth level of P-plane experience, significance deals with ethical behavior and existential meaning. Here the cognitive connection to P-plane experience does not entail the rigor of analysis that describes the scientific method. But, according to Margenau, this lack of rigor does not impose a lesser degree of significance.


Can the String Theory detect God?
Thanks for the video. I have read The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. It is a very good introduction to string theory. Just to let you know though, the theory deals with spaces to small to detect even with our most powerful accelerators (some of the consequences of the theory, however, may be detected indirectly). To my knowledge nobody has ever detected a graviton let alone detected its absence. I only point this out because even Greene suggests in his book that we may never be able to discover a "theory of everything." We take that expectation on faith, but faith, unlike nature, is not quantifiable. The mind will never stop explaining things, and mathematics (present and not yet invented) will explore all imagined possibilities for as long as there is a consciousness alive to do the arithmetic (in this way God has made sure we stay interested).

I, like you, am committed to the spiritual aspect of "why we are here." In that respect, however, I have invested my time more in the interpretations of non theistic religion. With that thought in mind I offer this quote from Greens book. "Already, through studies in M-theory, we have seen glimpses of a strange new domain of the universe lurking beneath the Planck length, possibly one in which there is no notion of time or space." Where there is no notion of time or space there is only "emptiness." (p.387)The Buddhist notion of "form/emptiness, emptiness/form" applies in this region of unknowablity. Thanks again for the video.

God, Freedom, And Opposites

What is your definition of God in twenty words or less?

God penetrates the whole of the phenomenal world, but transcends that world with unconditional love for all.

What makes God God, and what makes man man, and whatever happened to justice?

God is free in Love and opposites, and man (humanity) is free in love and opposites. Love binds, opposites separate. Love transcends opposites. Until one transcends opposites through love, injustice will prevail. Being free to judge opposites (justice is the opposite of injustice), man (humanity) is free to respond to injustice by working toward justice. Man/Woman is free also to become one with the divine through love. The gospel of Jesus tells us as much, “Love God with all your heart and do on to others as you would have others do on to you.” Practice these words and justice will be done. But, for those unwilling or unable to practice these words, love still offers salvation.

Love, propelled by the beauty it creates burns through the senses in music, poetry, literature, painting, dance—all artistic forms of expression follow from it. Without it, there would be no work ethic, no survival. Look beyond yourself, look to that world where creativity and love burns the brightest, and there you will find God’s image made whole in man/woman. Lover and beloved become as one in love. All opposites come together in love. Love is where liberation (and justice) takes place. Separation does not exist there. Freedom, beauty, and completeness are embedded there; life and death are embedded there.