jn_en_2020_01_24
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- | Friday, Jan 24, 2020. | + | Friday, Jan 24, 2020. As modern scientists we are trained to be very careful about reality. |
+ | The basic point of science is to try to find the truth about facts. We try to understand. We | ||
+ | try to find the rules and laws which govern some phenomenon. We try to understand what | ||
+ | happens and why it happens. We try to gain insight. And we try to find ways to influence and | ||
+ | use the phenomena and facts we find. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Science has these two main target points: insight and know-how. Insight tries to understand. | ||
+ | Know-How tries to find methods to use and employ the knowledge. | ||
+ | Where do we see spiritual questions in this framework? How to deal with faith, with ethics | ||
+ | and with the reality of God? Let us think deeper ... | ||
{{2020: | {{2020: | ||
- | ** | + | ** Physical and Spiritual Investigation |
+ | Clearly our brain is part of this world. Our eyes, our ears, our hands, ... the whole body | ||
+ | with its senses. We try to explore the world as a part of the world. It is fascinating that | ||
+ | we find laws within this world. Laws tell us how things usually happen. Today we describe | ||
+ | the physical or chemical world by mathematical laws, by differential equations and | ||
+ | variational principles. These equations model how things evolve, they give us the laws | ||
+ | of behavior. Most parts of this world seem to follow differential equations - from macroscopic | ||
+ | phenomena such as the climate of the planet to the microscopic world with atoms and photons | ||
+ | and nuclear particles. | ||
+ | We first remark that our ethics is outside of our physical investigations. The laws of | ||
+ | this world do not tell us how we should act. They give us a framework of the type "if you want | ||
+ | to reach this goal, than that action can lead to the desired result" | ||
+ | an answer to the question what goals to choose. | ||
+ | Further, the physical world does not tell us anything about values. Values are set by humans. | ||
+ | We give a value to something or someone. Value is a concept which needs an active mind with | ||
+ | thoughts and emotions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Third, our natural sciences try to investigate nature and its inhabitants. It does not investigate | ||
+ | the spiritual dimension. The humanities investigate the human mind, culture, language and | ||
+ | ethical questions. They describe the concept. Beyond that, religious studies tries to investigate | ||
+ | the way humans deal with the spiritual world. They investigate the belief in spirits, in | ||
+ | gods and in the one God of the monotheistic religions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is difficult to investigate spirits directly. Usually, we can only investigate them by | ||
+ | the response and actions of humans, which we observe. If you go to a Japanese temple, you can | ||
+ | discuss and observe the behavior of the people. But it is difficult to judge whether there | ||
+ | is a spiritual being involved in the processes of the temple. We cannot see it. We cannot touch | ||
+ | it. We cannot hear it. Is it there? Does it exist? What we can definitely say is that people | ||
+ | act as if it exists. It is part of their life, their actions, their life perspective. | ||
{{ 2020: | {{ 2020: | ||
- | ** ... ** | + | ** Biblical Position |
+ | |||
+ | There are very basic difficulties in dealing with the spiritual world. Humans seem to be a part | ||
+ | of it, in the sense that humans are spiritual beings. There seem to be people gifted to sense | ||
+ | spiritual phenomena, some more than others, as it is with all human talent, which is widely and | ||
+ | diversely distributed. But beyond the human mind it seems to be difficult to pin down the | ||
+ | direct effect of the spiritual world. | ||
+ | What is the cause of it? Is it impossible that the spiritual world and the physical world as | ||
+ | we know it interact? No, I do not say that. But I say that we have difficulties of proving | ||
+ | the concept in the same way as we prove other scientific concepts. What can be the reason? | ||
+ | To some extent this seems to be the effect of living beings. If you would not be able to observe, | ||
+ | touch or hear some being, you would only be able to investigate it if it causes effects | ||
+ | in a repeatedly observable way. If it changes its behavior, if it even hides itself from you, | ||
+ | you will not be able to do much. | ||
+ | There are further points which complicate the relationship between the spiritual world and | ||
+ | the human world. Let us have a look into the words of the prophet Isaiah, talking about the | ||
+ | separation of God and mankind: | ||
< | < | ||
- | </ | + | 1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; |
+ | 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | Even if God is able to do what he wants, if he is the Lord, the most influential power of | ||
+ | the universe, if he hides himself, you will not be able to find him. You will not be able | ||
+ | to detect him. All your observations will go vain. He can play the cat-and-mouse game with us, | ||
+ | but we have no chance of ever catching him. | ||
+ | Does that mean we should give up, as many scientists have given up today? No, we should not give | ||
+ | up. We should play the game in a reasonable way. The only reasonable step here is to address God in a | ||
+ | proper way, to get him to answer us. And he has promised to be open to that. When we come to him | ||
+ | in an appropriate way. It is a personal way. It is a way which starts to realize who he is and | ||
+ | what he is. His holiness and his justice are a constitutive part of this process. There is much | ||
+ | to learn and to explore here, for scientists, and everyone else as well. | ||
(Roland Potthast) | (Roland Potthast) | ||
jn_en_2020_01_24.1579828876.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/01/24 02:21 by potthast