Has Science Debunked Spirituality?

Where did we come from? What are we? What is reality? Is there a God? What is our fate after death?

Spirituality focuses on these big questions. Does science debunk spiritual teachings? We must remind ourselves that opinions from some scientists may not be a theory. Scientists hold opinions, dogma, and prejudices like the rest of us. When I ask has science debunked spirituality, I refer to scientific theories generally accepted by the vast majority of those in that field. However, even a scientific theory is a belief and might later be proved wrong or needed to be modified (as illustrated below).

Where did we come from?

The 20th-century begun with the scientific community believing that the universe was always its current size. Astronomers were not aware of other galaxies in the universe. Later, it was discovered that the universe was expanding—even Einstein was surprised. This resulted in what is called the “Big Bang Theory” contending that our universe begun from a dot in space.

No one knows what came before this dot. Cosmologists suggested that our universe will stop expanding someday and contract to a singularity starting a new cycle. Others believe that our universe is just part of a much larger universe perhaps infinite in size. Some physicists believe in parallel universes. So where did we come from? The only general agreement is that all the stuff of our world was stuffed into this dot; however, faith is required that someday there will be agreement as to what preceded it.

I don’t think that the Big Bang Theory qualifies as debunking material.

What are we?

Scientists are in agreement: we and our world are made up of energy. What they don’t agree on is what to call the basic stuff of the universe or how to describe it. One popular explanation is called String Theory describing the basic ingredients as vibrating strings of energy. However, many physicists question whether this is even a theory because it might be not testable. No debunking material here (except debunking materialists’ assertions that materials like atoms explain our world). In fact, it confirms ancient religious and spiritual teachings that everything is energy.

What is reality? Is there a God?

Since I have articles on each of these questions, I will give the bottom line: science has definitely not debunked spirituality. With 96% of the universe missing, the scientific picture of reality is inscrutable. Biology professor Richard Dawkins holds his own opinions pronouncing God is a delusion. I believe that I exposed Dawkins’ delusion in my article.

What is our fate after death?

Now we come to the end—death. But is it the end? Science holds no theory which debunks an afterlife. Wait a minute you might say: what about the materialists who allege that since we are but atoms and molecules, when we die nothing survives? Materialism has been debunked although many people and scientists still cling to it. Recently two 21st-century studies revealed tantalizing evidence for an afterlife. No debunking here; but stay tuned, scientists are attempting more experiments which might shed light on the afterlife.

Healing the rift: bridging the gap between science & spirituality

In the 20th- and 21st-century several physicists have proclaimed the universe as mental and spiritual. The multibillion dollar experiments of physicists in the next few years may provide more ammunition for science to debunk the dogma which shrouds the spiritual.

Authors : Leo Kim

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=321626&ca=Religion

Does God Exist? Exposing the Dawkins Delusion

Spiritual teachings

Spirituality and religion address the ultimate mystery—our existence. Are we the only creature that can ponder these questions: Where did we come from? What are we? What is reality? How can mind and consciousness emerge from body and brain? What survives death? The explanations have led to the recurrent wars between deduction and faith, science and religion, and materialism verses spirituality propagating corpses of dogma littering countless battlefields. The conflict between science and spirituality can be bridged by understanding the deeper meaning of 21st-century scientific discoveries, which reveal that our world is a blending of mind and spirit.

Our world was explained by religions and spiritual teachings millennia before science described atoms and molecules. Spiritual and religious teachings generally agree that we humans cannot comprehend reality, which usually includes God. In general, religions teach that God and mystical reality are different from what we experience in ordinary consciousness. What do scientists say?

Science and dogma

We live in a scientific age, and many people find their spiritual and religious beliefs beaten down by scientists. Generally, scientists avoid proclaiming absolutes. Such dogma usually ends as additional corpses on battlefields. Historians recorded numerous examples of famous scientists’ dogma. One example was in the 1600s when Galileo Galilei attacked Johannes Kepler for asserting that the moon affects the tides—calling the notion paranormal and childish nonsense.

Professor Richard Dawkins is a highly respected British biologist who has made numerous scientific contributions. I fully respect him and these contributions. The dogma Dawkins asserts is that God does not exist—that it is a delusion. Dawkins criticizes those who use the word “God” in a non-theist manner—including numerous renowned scientists such as Einstein. Let’s examine Dawkins’ delusion. Interestingly, his book devotes only one chapter of ten to “why there almost certainly is no God” amounting to only 12% of the pages. I find that most of that chapter does not deal with the chapter’s title.

Dawkins expounds “cranes” which he defines as “explanatory devices that actually do explain.” He seems to rest his case on the crane of Darwin’s explanation of evolution. Dawkins admits there is no equivalent crane in physics. He does have faith, however, stating: We should not give up hope of a better crane arising in physics…” What might this hope be based on? In the above mentioned chapter, Dawkins devotes three pages to the “multiverse theory.” This is a hypothesis scientists use to explicate some of the stickier problems in explaining our world where numerous or even an infinite number of other universes exist “out there.” He does not convince me that this is less outrageous then spiritual or religious teachings.

The Dawkins delusion

Dawkins bristled when he was condemned as “nineteenth-century.” He points out that Darwin’s explanation of evolution is from this period and that he is proud to be associated with it. However, materialism is also of this era. Dawkins claims science utilizes reductionism based upon fundamental particles: “it is a beautifully simple idea that all things are made of fundamental particles…” This illustrates that he, like many people, clench the delusion of materialism, a dogma which needs to be recognized as just another corpse on the battlefield because our world cannot be explained with mere matter. What physicists call “fundamental particles” actually have smaller components which scientists cannot agree on as to their make up, names, or character. String theory is one such explanation for the fundamental components of the universe—everything is made up of strings of energy a billion trillion times smaller than fundamental particles.

A new truth emerging

Scientists’ materialism rationalized chastising religions and spirituality for teaching outlandish concepts. Now the tables are turned. A decade ago, scientists realized that 96% of our world is missing. It isn’t that they misplaced it; it is that despite an arsenal of sophisticated scientific instruments they can’t find the mysterious dark energy and dark matter which are needed to explain their latest theories on the universe.

Early in the twentieth-century scientific discoveries and conjectures turned science on it head with the findings of an expanding universe and a quantum theory that is still not understood. The revelations of the 21st-century are again forcing scientists to discard prized theories and beliefs. The new mysteries include dark energy, dark matter, the multiverse, and the “stuff” in a vacuum. Scientists agree that energy is an apt metaphor for what is out there—just as religions and ancient spirituality taught. A growing number of scientists venture further and exhort the universe is mental and spiritual. This is part of the bridge between science and spirituality.

Authors : Leo Kim

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=321624&ca=Religion

Why Money Can't Buy Happiness

When you were growing up, do you remember your parents complaining about money? It seems like there’s never enough of it to go around, spawning the phrase, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure helps.” It’s true that a lack of money can lead to a dissatisfaction with your daily life, but that dissatisfaction is the result of a lack of happiness. It’s a result, not a reason.

What does it mean to be happy? Most people will describe happiness as something they have and unhappiness as what they feel when something is missing. It’s the perfect definition, but the way the world today interprets that definition takes away the much deeper meaning behind it. They look at the fact that they are missing something and think, “I have to obtain it.” Then they work hard for the money they need to build their bank accounts and buy that yacht they’ve been dreaming of, that house they’ve been looking at or take that vacation they’ve been planning.

They don’t truly believe that money can’t buy happiness.

The thing is, happiness isn’t something you can buy. Money truly can’t buy happiness, because true, soul deep happiness can be yours for the low, low price of-nothing. True happiness is free! How is that possible? Because Jesus Christ made it available to us at no cost to ourselves the minute he died on that cross.

We as people were never meant for this earth, an earth filled with violence, greed and hate. We were intended for paradise, a paradise spent sitting at the right hand of God and having everything we ever dreamed of at our fingertips. Most importantly, we were meant for peace-the peace that comes from knowing that Jesus Christ is lighting up the dark corners of our soul.

Christ said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the light.” Money can’t buy happiness. It can only buy a fleeting moment of satisfaction that fades when the novelty is gone. Jesus Christ is the way to true happiness. He is the truth in the lies that society teaches us about happiness, and he is the light in our angry, hurting hearts that takes away all of our pain and offers us the respite of a true, soul deep peace that can’t be disturbed-regardless of whether we’re millionaires or living on Ramen and water.

Money can’t buy happiness. Unhappiness is a result of something we’re missing, but it’s not something that can be found in any store, on the back of any warehouse truck or even in the pews. It’s something we find when we close our eyes, open our hearts and ask the God of Jacob to reach down and touch our lives, blessing us with eternal happiness and the opportunity to spend the rest of our lives in paradise.

Money can’t buy happiness, because it’s never cost us a thing. In fact, it wants to give us something rather than take it away-the happiness, peace and joy that we’ve spent our whole lives searching for.

Authors : Ray Subs

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=336246&ca=Religion

God Already Gave Us the Secret to Finding Happiness

“For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Anyone who knows what it’s like to love a child knows the soul deep agony losing that child causes, because it lingers on the edges of their consciousness as their deepest fear. Can you imagine loving someone so much, even though they’ve been petty, and selfish, and cruel, and rejected you at every turn, that you would offer up your only child, subject him to an agonizing death, just so they would know the secret to finding happiness?

Most of us could never conceive of such a thing, willingly offering ourselves up as a sacrifice for the ones we love but protecting our children fiercely. We would never willingly subject them to an experience that was going to cause them harm just to guide someone else on the path to finding happiness. Yet that’s exactly what God did when he sent his son to earth to die on the cross. He sent his child, whom he loved dearly, for the sole purpose of allowing him to suffer persecution and prejudice, torture and rejection and eventually a horrible death on the cross just so a world full of sinners would have the chance to find true happiness in their lives and spend an eternity in paradise after their death.

Most of us spend our entire lives in the pursuit of our constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We go out on the weekends with our friends, spend quality time with our family, choose our jobs with care and work hard to achieve our career goals and believe that we’re living. We think we’re happy. Then the demons that lurk deep in our soul that tell us we’re not good enough, we’re not strong enough, we’re not pretty enough or thin enough, we’re not enough, not enough, can never be enough, start whispering in our ear, and all of that happiness we thought we had just floats away on the breeze.

We don’t know the secret to finding happiness, and so we never do.

In his book “The Big Lie” Stan Sanderson, from the Spiritual Coach Program, tells his readers that the world is full of lies about finding happiness. We spend our whole lives working ourselves to the bone to find the happiness we think we’ve been looking for only to discover that at the end we’re just as unhappy as we were when we started. We’ve made our career, our jobs, our family our idols and spent our time pursuing them in the pursuit of happiness when we should have been pursuing a deeper, closer relationship with Christ.

We can never earn happiness. None of us are so selfless, so giving, so pure of heart, that we deserve happiness. We all have our secrets, our flaws, our dark spots. The difference is, people who have discovered the truth about finding happiness have opened their hearts to God and allowed the blood of Christ, spilled so many years ago, to wash that darkness clean. To take advantage of the pure happiness he so selflessly gave us when he sent Christ to die for our sins so that we could be washed clean of sins we couldn’t begin to atone for and therefore deserve the paradise that he has waiting for us.

God’s already given us the secret to finding happiness, through the son he sent to die. All we have to do is open our arms and accept it.

Authors : Ray Subs

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=336245&ca=Religion