WELCOME
Dear Friends welcome to may blog on Science, Religion, Nature.
Dates:
10/4/2020
25/1/2020
.....
9/9/2015
18/9/2007
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10/4/2020
MOTHER NATURE
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25/1/2020
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... How science with a haughty face is trying to distance itself from religions and nature; how religions, with their representative Gods are caught in a bind in resolving their conflicts with other religions and confused whether they owe fealty to science or nature; and how nature is caught in a pincer between science and religions.
Dear Friends welcome to may blog on Science, Religion, Nature.
Dates:
10/4/2020
25/1/2020
.....
9/9/2015
18/9/2007
---------------------
10/4/2020
MOTHER NATURE
Dear Humans,
Sometimes you address me as Mother Nature - despite the growing chasm between us - which brings tears to my eyes. While feeling grief that our relationship is so strained, I do not reject this relationship. Indeed I have nurtured you for millions of years and am proud that you have developed your intelligence to the extent that what you do on Earth rivals what I am capable of doing.
While being proud of your achievements, as a Mother, I do care that your future should be resplendent, that you should become aware of the pitfalls that stand in your way. In this connection, it is important for you to understand the difference between S/T (science and technology) that you are so proud of and the ways in which I function ........
Selvaraj
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25/1/2020
THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND
IS MAN
Know then thyself,
presume not God to scan
The proper study of Mankind is Man.[8]
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.
The proper study of Mankind is Man.[8]
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.
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Dear Friends,
Wishing you all a very
happy and prosperous new year.
In this new year let
me share with you something new that we can all think about. This is not just
idle speculation, this is related to the problem of USE that we are trying to
understand.
The world that we all
share can be divided into two parts, one the Natural World which was there from
long back, and two the world of Science and Technology which came into being
when humans entered the scene:
…………………….I…………………………………
… NATURAL ……I……….WORLD
OF……………
... WORLD……….I…..SCIENCE
AND……………..
……………………I……….TECHNOLOGY……….
……………………I…………………………………..
The question that
comes to mind is where do humans belong in this scheme: which box would
you tick?
1. HUMANS ARE A PART
OF NATURE
2. HUMANS BELONG TO
THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY
3. HUMANS BELONG
TO ????????????????
Regards,
Selvaraj
January 2020
Hello Keith, List,
“Much better to see
how effective it is than to wonder if this path of change can be defined as
natural or not”.
…. Very much agree
with your sentiment; in this context It is worth obtaining a better
understanding of Nature, both, Nature as an independent entity and Nature in
the context of Humans.
…… In 2015 I had
posted a blog where I had tried to establish a connection between Science, Religion and Nature. It was a
mistake, I think, to bring religion into the discussion; better to just compare
Science and Nature, their unique properties and their relative strength and
weaknesses.
If we Google ‘Future
of Mankind’ in U Tube we will come across many discussions, practically
all discussions center around the technological wonders that humans are going
to create in the near future. There is no acknowledgement of the serious
problems we now face as human activities come into conflict with our natural
environment. Is it a good idea for scientists to disengage from a discussion
about the nature of Nature? ……….
Before we take this
discussion further it is important to note that humans are a product of both
Nature and Science and Technology.
Regards,
Selvaraj
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Dear Friends,
My
first posting on the subject of science-religion-nature (made in a discussion group) was on
18/9/2007 under the heading 'Going, going,....' and my last posting on
the subject was on 9/9/2015, which had the heading 'Nature, Religion,
Science I, Science II'. These postings are reproduced below.
I
have been trying to clarify the complex relationship between these
three entities so that we can better resolve the conflicts between them.
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...........RELIGION..*....*...
... How science with a haughty face is trying to distance itself from religions and nature; how religions, with their representative Gods are caught in a bind in resolving their conflicts with other religions and confused whether they owe fealty to science or nature; and how nature is caught in a pincer between science and religions.
In
trying to understand these complex relationships we need to take a
closer look at Science. Science in many ways has been a disappointment.
The promise that was laid out at the beginning of the 20th century that
science would lead us to a golden age of rational thinking has failed to
materialise.
We
also need to take a closer look at Religions. What is a religion? ...
Keeping in mind that both Science and Religion are man made constructs.
To be continued ...
My
thesis is going to be that Science and Technology (in their present
form) are akin to a religion. What we are actually facing is a face off
between the combined forces of Science and Religions against Nature.
Nature against Man.
We can make a good guess as to who is going to win the battle. At the same time this gives us a golden opportunity to calm the tumultuous seas by making common cause with Nature.
We can make a good guess as to who is going to win the battle. At the same time this gives us a golden opportunity to calm the tumultuous seas by making common cause with Nature.
Selvaraj
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POSTING OF 18/9/2007
Going…going…
What was feared has now happened. There are only about 1500 tigers left in
the wild in India. (According to environmentalists only around 1200). Till
now the nation had hoped against hope that the number would be closer to
4000, the figure earlier claimed by the caretakers of our forests. It seems
unlikely that with the growing human population, and intense pressure on
resources, the Indian tiger will survive the next 10 years.
We will have to shift gear to emergency mode, to preserve at least some
nucleus of all endangered animals and plants and ecosystems, so that
hopefully, future generations, saner in their attitudes can once again bring
them back to their full glory.
This of course begs the question, what precisely is wrong with humans? Why
are we failing so miserably in protecting our natural environment?
SCIENCE / RELIGIONS
First there was Nature. Then came religions. Religions declared Nature is
wonderful, so there is God. Let us worship God (forget about Nature).
Then came Scientists. They said there is no God. They climbed over Nature,
climbed over Religions and sat on top.
SCIENCE
RELIGION
NATURE
I am afraid as long as we continue with this order of priority we are fated
to wade through slush as we try to advance; it is even possible we may fall
into a big pit and cut off our oxygen supply.
The order ought to be
NATURE
RELIGION
SCIENCE
How do we go about convincing people about this? Had our priorities been
correct there would be no need to wonder whether the Indian tiger will
survive. And whether humans will survive the next 200 or 300 years (as many
seem to be wondering).
Selvaraj
What was feared has now happened. There are only about 1500 tigers left in
the wild in India. (According to environmentalists only around 1200). Till
now the nation had hoped against hope that the number would be closer to
4000, the figure earlier claimed by the caretakers of our forests. It seems
unlikely that with the growing human population, and intense pressure on
resources, the Indian tiger will survive the next 10 years.
We will have to shift gear to emergency mode, to preserve at least some
nucleus of all endangered animals and plants and ecosystems, so that
hopefully, future generations, saner in their attitudes can once again bring
them back to their full glory.
This of course begs the question, what precisely is wrong with humans? Why
are we failing so miserably in protecting our natural environment?
SCIENCE / RELIGIONS
First there was Nature. Then came religions. Religions declared Nature is
wonderful, so there is God. Let us worship God (forget about Nature).
Then came Scientists. They said there is no God. They climbed over Nature,
climbed over Religions and sat on top.
SCIENCE
RELIGION
NATURE
I am afraid as long as we continue with this order of priority we are fated
to wade through slush as we try to advance; it is even possible we may fall
into a big pit and cut off our oxygen supply.
The order ought to be
NATURE
RELIGION
SCIENCE
How do we go about convincing people about this? Had our priorities been
correct there would be no need to wonder whether the Indian tiger will
survive. And whether humans will survive the next 200 or 300 years (as many
seem to be wondering).
Selvaraj
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POSTING OF 9/9/2015
Nature, Religion,
Science I, Science II
Dear Friends,
The
relationship between Nature, Religions and Science, is intriguing and
we could be heading for 'A Perfect Storm' as the forces that drive them
converge. Historically these three have been separated by space and
time. Now for the first time all three are being made to converge, and
in doing so are likely to explode with the power of an atomic weapon.
From
the time of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago and more particularly
the beginning of life on planet Earth 3.5 billion years ago, Nature has
ruled supreme. There was no entity trying to understand the workings of
Nature or trying to debate whether Nature was intelligent or not
intelligent.
With the development of the human mind, which can be pegged to the development of human speech - which must have matured
50,000 years ago - religions entered the arena to challenge the wisdom
of Nature, with a more powerful entity called God. (which curiously
enough looked very much like him/her).
And
then came Science and Technology which in its present form is barely
200 years old, challenging both Nature and Religions. Indeed the new
political economy, driven by Science and Technology is so powerful that
many nation states run on the principle of separation of science and
religion.
Why
was this separation made necessary? Was there a gulf in the perceptions
of these two entities which could not be bridged? If we cannot debate
differences do we adopt the stratagem of separation? (Nature being mute
could not take part in this quarrel)
If
so, should we also debate a separation between Science I (which seems
to have led the world into many problems) and Science II, which
hopefully will better meet our human aspirations?
To continue this debate we need to get a better understanding of Nature, Religions, Science I and Science II. To be continued ...
Regards,
Selvaraj
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