The Religion of Science
Science is a religion. It explains our origins, it places us in the larger scheme of things, and it seeks communication with other life forms that are more developed than us and that come from far away places. In one aspect, it is definitely humbling to recognize our smallness, another characteristic shared with religion. These are the perceivable positives of this form of scientific inquiry.
However, there are also negatives to it. The flipside of scientific advancement allows us to believe that we are everything, in spite of our smallness. The combination of believing that we are miniscule with the perception that we are everything carries the very imaginable reality of divorcing us from the notion that we are obligated to an absolute notion of right and wrong that must be pragmatically applied in every place that the human adventure takes us. If we are small, then we are here together on our little marble of dirt that we call Earth, responsible to each other, but if we are everything, we are alone, and we can do whatever we want. Some people, such as me, call this a divorce from G-d, while others call it a divorce from conscience; they are the same thing. In that world, values, morality, and objective truths will be pushed aside to make room for the ventures of scientific discovery. It would be unwise to live in a world where absolute morality informed by the reality of G-d and scientific advancement become two civilizations at odds with each other; human history has been a testament to what happens when civilizations clash.
The Light and Dark of Science
This is the dark side of science, whereas the light side of science cures illness, provides nourishment, teaches us how our bodies and the world around us works, etc... The light of science shines only when science reflects on the boundaries of human experimentation and on its practical moral implications. I would even go as far as to say that the best scientist is the one that will consider these realities as a part of his or her scientific discovery and not as an extraneous factor.
The Science of Religion
If science is a form of religion, a belief system, then it can be said that religion is a form of science, a form of understanding. Science studies "how" and religion studies "why?" Religion understands and believes that every question can be answered by asking "how," so similarly, science should embrace the notion that every question can also be answered by asking "why?" Take the Creation account of Genesis for example, which lays down "the West's" fundamental understanding of human nature with such clarity that it would be in the bounds of reason for the intellectual to believe that it really happened. Anyone who has felt a loss of control in the face of temptation can testify to what both Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden when tempted by the snake. Only after their deed were they painfully aware of the consequences of their actions, at which point the effect had already become clear.
Let us consider the verse from Genesis that says, "A man shall leave his father and mother, cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." In the movie "Jerry Maguire," in the infamous Oscar-winning scene, Tom Cruise looks at Rene Zellweger and says, "You complete me." Indeed, we feel that our mate is our half, a common vernacular in society, which of course, however, is trumped by my mom's famous statement that was passed down from her mother, "Every pot has its lid." I also personally like the statement, "The man marries up."
Back to the point, is it any wonder why a relationship between a man and a woman, without other partners, are the best-functioning relationships? Consider this. Human consciousness is divided into "us" and "them." When it comes to human relationships, we see the same thing occur, except in the singular form. We have "you" and "I," there is never a "he" or a "she." That's why they are grammatically titled "first person" and "second person," while "he" and "she" are "third person," and we know that the third person is always the odd man (or woman) out. "You" and "I" is the most intimate pair that can be created. Looking at it from a conceptual standpoint, when one person refers to another as "you," the "you" is the sole individual being addressed, and only by one one other individual, the "I." Adversely, the "I" has her or his sole attention on the "you," and when the you responds, it is only to the "I." What we get is a pair, or bond, or unit that is made up of two conscious individuals; to refer to an additional "he" or "she" would dramatically cut away the level of intimacy that exists between the two individuals. In other words, the interaction between two people is far more intimate than the relationship between three or more people, which is why romances work best in pairs and not three of a kind, four of a kinds, or full houses.
Two is the Happiest Number that I've Ever Seen - When it Comes to Relationships, That Is
Looking at this biologically, should we not see wisdom of design in that "you" and "I" is the most intimate setting and that humanity comes in two sexes? If polygamous relationships were the way to go, then perhaps humanity would be made up of three or more sexes, of which one individual from each sex would have to be present in order to complete maximum intimacy or procreation. The point is that when we are in a relationship, we only need the other person to make us feel complete and happy. Imagine it the world had three sexes, being around the other person would still make an incomplete unit, and we would need to wait for the third. But with two, all you need is the other person. It is interesting to consider that while monogamy means to be with only one other person, that when two people are monogamous, they become one. This is the way the Hashem says it should be in Genesis when He says, "A man shall leave his father and mother, cleave unto his. wife, and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).." Polygamy does not yield the same conceptual nor pragmatic integrity; "poly" means "many," and when many people come together (in a romantic or sexual sense), they do not become one. In fact, many studies on polygamy show that there is almost always a person in the polygamous relationship that feels left out or misused. Even most animal species function monogamously.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Talk Deity to Me
*I run the risk of writing something that has been written before, but I plead innocent because I have not seen it with my own eyes.
Science is useful, important, and necessary, like religion. Like religion, it explains our origins and pinpoints our place in the the universe and in the larger scheme of things - evidence of behavior that seeks self-definition. It believes that communication with an intelligent life-form residing somewhere far from here is possible. Some scientifically-oriented minds even believe that these beings possess a wisdom that has exceeded ours, and that they can bring us to a new plain of human understanding; if it walks like a deity and talks like deity, then it must be a deity, even if they are called "aliens." According to Merriam-Webster's Online, the definition of the word "alien" is:
"1 a : belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing : STRANGE,"
"b : relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government : FOREIGN," or
"2 : differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility."
News to Earth, these types of ideas are typical of religion, and if you were to compare them to religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the "Western religions," have to say about our understanding of Hashem, you would find that they were very similar.
For example, G-d is not of this world, meaning that He does not reside in it in the sense that we do; the world that He has created is a place that cannot contain Him in His purest form. The reason for this is because He is not physical but spiritual, or how philosophy renders it, metaphysical. Jewish teaching, however, has always said that people can make this world a vessel for G-d to reside in, allowing Him to make His Presence felt, by acting in proper moral ways. Definition 1b makes sense only when applying to other humans because of the arrangement, agreement, and bond of love that G-d has with humanity. Definition two is only true to a degree because even though the character and nature of G-d are essentially different than that of humans, we are compatible with Him. These are the parallels between belief in the existence of aliens and the belief in the existence of G-d.
Alienism
However, there is a fundamental difference; those who believe in aliens believe that they are a race, i.e., several, while people who believe in G-d believe that He is One, meaning both in the singular sense and in the sense that He is an inseparable being, and that any level of understanding what He is can only be done through the scope of complete unity. In light of this, we uncover that the belief in aliens actually begins to share more in common with polytheism, belief in many gods, than with monotheism, i.e., belief in G-d. So while it seems accurate at first glance to compare belief in aliens to belief in G-d, it seems more accurate to compare belief in aliens to belief in gods. Recall the post titled, "We Love Tom Cruise - Veneration of Culture," we saw that the images and beliefs in humanity's oldest deities get passed on from generation to generation in different forms; is it possible that aliens are scientific imagination's cutting edge gods? Furthermore, were the "ancients" yesterday finding in various deities what the "contemporaries" are finding in aliens today?
Let us take a little look at the Hebrew language's expression of such concepts. In Hebrew, the word "zar" means "strange" or "foreign," the exact same words in the definition for alien
, meaning that "zar" also means "alien." In the Tanakh, the deities of the other nations were described by the adjective "zar," strange or foreign. In modern Hebrew, if something is "muzar," it is a strange or wierd thing, and a "zar" is a stranger. Also in the Torah is the phrase "avodah zarah," which means "strange" or "foreign worship," or in other words, "idolatry" or "polytheism." The word "chai" means life (Le-chayim! To life, or cheers!). A "chay zar" would then be a "strange life form," but in the modern Hebrew it refers to an alien in the sense of a green guy with bug-eyes. In the Hebrew language, and therefore in the Jewish mindset, there is a conceptual corellation between the worship of foreign gods and the belief in aliens. It therefore makes sense that the corellation is unintended because there is no way that three thousand years ago anybody would know that the people of the 21st century would believe in aliens, but rather it is a product of Judaism's similar response to both polytheism and to the preoccupation with aliens.
Another corellation between deities and aliens is the fact that they are so dang appealing, specifically to look at. Aliens look "cool," which is why kids draw them and why people hang their posters up. The deities also look cool, which is undeniably the reason that people were so drawn to them - it is our physical nature as human beings that drew us to gaze our eyes upon them. They are romantic and exotic, and sometimes appeal to our anger, fear, or lust (or all three). The
belief in aliens also comes with fear; people believe that aliens want to probe us, to take us away from our homes in the middle night when nobody else can help us. If the aliens are gods, then they are demonic gods, gods that want to harm us - they are "devils." Apparentally, devils can come both from the center of the earth and from the expanse of the sky - but G-d has no physical point of origin, no location, and no destination, He simply is. The ancients believed in deities and the "contemporaries" believe in aliens, time evolving the gods into vastly different beings - but the G-d is not subject to time; what was once true is always true. G-d is appealing, but not appealing in the same way as the deities or the aliens. He cannot be looked at, and therefore His beauty cannot be appreciated by the eyes. He cannot be touched, and therefore He cannot be appreciated by the body. He is not limited to the human imagination, and experiencing G-d, communicating with Him, is felt through living and is both a deeply personal, communal, and ultimately, a universal experience.
If the Jews rejected polytheism, and certain forms of polytheism recycle themselves throughout the ages in different forms, then it only makes sense that Jews would also perpetually reject their contemporary manifestations as they popped up. Suffice it to say that "zar" is never a word that is associated with the belief in Hashem anywhere throughout the Tanakh, Talmu
d, nor in any rabbinical or philosophical Jewish works; rather, belief in G-d is the norm of human existence. The word "strange" or "foreign" usually comes with connotations of unwantedness, and in some cases negativity. If the same word is used both for deities and for aliens, and if we have already established a philosophical parallel between them, then it would make sense to say that both concepts, polytheism and belief in aliens, are different ways of looking for the same thing - expressions of subjective philosophy.
"What does a philosophy of subjectivism have to do with both dieties and with aliens," you may ask? The answer is that each society believed in dieties that emphasized (and venerated) certain values, whatever values that they deemed important, values that were related to the physical world around them. In doing so, their philosophies and theologies were necessarily as subjective as their particular physical environment. Similarly, the belief in aliens venerates beings that come from other worlds, other solar systems even, and if those beings have civilizations more advanced than ours and teach us their values, then our values are placed into the realm of subjectivity, which leads to relativism. The fact is that aliens have not arrived here yet, but those people who anticipate them await a sort of "Messianic Age" if you will, not that one that establishes a belief in G-d that unites all humanity, but rather, an age that seeks to liberate people from absolute truth. Human liberation from absolute truth, which brings chaos, is the reason why Judaism has always rejected the subjectivity of the gods, and it is the same reason why Judaism today rejects other modes of relativist thought. The transformation of science into a religion, with aliens being cast as gods, is an example of this other-world-oriented attempt to liberate humanity from absolute truth.
The word "chai" means life (Le-chayim! To life, or cheers!). A "chay zar" would then be a "strange life form," but in the modern Hebrew it refers to an alien in the sense of a green guy with bug-eyes. In the Hebrew language, and therefore in the Jewish mindset, there is a conceptual corellation between the worship of foreign gods and the belief in aliens. It is strange to note that the corellation is unintended because there is no way that three thousand years ago anybody w
ould know that the people of the 21st century would believe in aliens, but rather it is a product of Judaism's similar response to both polytheism and to the preoccupation with aliens. If the Jews rejected polytheism, and certain forms of polytheism recycle themselves throughout the ages in different forms, then it only makes sense that Jews would also perpetually reject their contemporary manifestations as they popped up. Suffice it to say that "zar" is never a word that is associated with the belief in Hashem anywhere throughout the Tanakh, Talmud, nor in any rabbinical or philosophical Jewish works; rather, belief in G-d is the norm of human existence.
Throughout all human history, deities have come and deities have gone, but G-d has remained a constant; not exotic but captivating, not exacting but expecting, invisible but imaginable, incomparable to anything that we know of, yet we were made in His likeness.
***********************************
* Note: Deities, aliens, demons, vampires, dragons, morbid creatures, and other mythical creatures are all different expressions of these human tendencies. If you pay attention, you will see that sexuality and/or violence is something that they all have in common.
*I run the risk of writing something that has been written before, but I plead innocent because I have not seen it with my own eyes.
Science is useful, important, and necessary, like religion. Like religion, it explains our origins and pinpoints our place in the the universe and in the larger scheme of things - evidence of behavior that seeks self-definition. It believes that communication with an intelligent life-form residing somewhere far from here is possible. Some scientifically-oriented minds even believe that these beings possess a wisdom that has exceeded ours, and that they can bring us to a new plain of human understanding; if it walks like a deity and talks like deity, then it must be a deity, even if they are called "aliens." According to Merriam-Webster's Online, the definition of the word "alien" is:
"1 a : belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing : STRANGE,"
"b : relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government : FOREIGN," or
"2 : differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility."
News to Earth, these types of ideas are typical of religion, and if you were to compare them to religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the "Western religions," have to say about our understanding of Hashem, you would find that they were very similar.
For example, G-d is not of this world, meaning that He does not reside in it in the sense that we do; the world that He has created is a place that cannot contain Him in His purest form. The reason for this is because He is not physical but spiritual, or how philosophy renders it, metaphysical. Jewish teaching, however, has always said that people can make this world a vessel for G-d to reside in, allowing Him to make His Presence felt, by acting in proper moral ways. Definition 1b makes sense only when applying to other humans because of the arrangement, agreement, and bond of love that G-d has with humanity. Definition two is only true to a degree because even though the character and nature of G-d are essentially different than that of humans, we are compatible with Him. These are the parallels between belief in the existence of aliens and the belief in the existence of G-d.
Alienism
However, there is a fundamental difference; those who believe in aliens believe that they are a race, i.e., several, while people who believe in G-d believe that He is One, meaning both in the singular sense and in the sense that He is an inseparable being, and that any level of understanding what He is can only be done through the scope of complete unity. In light of this, we uncover that the belief in aliens actually begins to share more in common with polytheism, belief in many gods, than with monotheism, i.e., belief in G-d. So while it seems accurate at first glance to compare belief in aliens to belief in G-d, it seems more accurate to compare belief in aliens to belief in gods. Recall the post titled, "We Love Tom Cruise - Veneration of Culture," we saw that the images and beliefs in humanity's oldest deities get passed on from generation to generation in different forms; is it possible that aliens are scientific imagination's cutting edge gods? Furthermore, were the "ancients" yesterday finding in various deities what the "contemporaries" are finding in aliens today?
Let us take a little look at the Hebrew language's expression of such concepts. In Hebrew, the word "zar" means "strange" or "foreign," the exact same words in the definition for alien
, meaning that "zar" also means "alien." In the Tanakh, the deities of the other nations were described by the adjective "zar," strange or foreign. In modern Hebrew, if something is "muzar," it is a strange or wierd thing, and a "zar" is a stranger. Also in the Torah is the phrase "avodah zarah," which means "strange" or "foreign worship," or in other words, "idolatry" or "polytheism." The word "chai" means life (Le-chayim! To life, or cheers!). A "chay zar" would then be a "strange life form," but in the modern Hebrew it refers to an alien in the sense of a green guy with bug-eyes. In the Hebrew language, and therefore in the Jewish mindset, there is a conceptual corellation between the worship of foreign gods and the belief in aliens. It therefore makes sense that the corellation is unintended because there is no way that three thousand years ago anybody would know that the people of the 21st century would believe in aliens, but rather it is a product of Judaism's similar response to both polytheism and to the preoccupation with aliens.Another corellation between deities and aliens is the fact that they are so dang appealing, specifically to look at. Aliens look "cool," which is why kids draw them and why people hang their posters up. The deities also look cool, which is undeniably the reason that people were so drawn to them - it is our physical nature as human beings that drew us to gaze our eyes upon them. They are romantic and exotic, and sometimes appeal to our anger, fear, or lust (or all three). The
belief in aliens also comes with fear; people believe that aliens want to probe us, to take us away from our homes in the middle night when nobody else can help us. If the aliens are gods, then they are demonic gods, gods that want to harm us - they are "devils." Apparentally, devils can come both from the center of the earth and from the expanse of the sky - but G-d has no physical point of origin, no location, and no destination, He simply is. The ancients believed in deities and the "contemporaries" believe in aliens, time evolving the gods into vastly different beings - but the G-d is not subject to time; what was once true is always true. G-d is appealing, but not appealing in the same way as the deities or the aliens. He cannot be looked at, and therefore His beauty cannot be appreciated by the eyes. He cannot be touched, and therefore He cannot be appreciated by the body. He is not limited to the human imagination, and experiencing G-d, communicating with Him, is felt through living and is both a deeply personal, communal, and ultimately, a universal experience.If the Jews rejected polytheism, and certain forms of polytheism recycle themselves throughout the ages in different forms, then it only makes sense that Jews would also perpetually reject their contemporary manifestations as they popped up. Suffice it to say that "zar" is never a word that is associated with the belief in Hashem anywhere throughout the Tanakh, Talmu
d, nor in any rabbinical or philosophical Jewish works; rather, belief in G-d is the norm of human existence. The word "strange" or "foreign" usually comes with connotations of unwantedness, and in some cases negativity. If the same word is used both for deities and for aliens, and if we have already established a philosophical parallel between them, then it would make sense to say that both concepts, polytheism and belief in aliens, are different ways of looking for the same thing - expressions of subjective philosophy."What does a philosophy of subjectivism have to do with both dieties and with aliens," you may ask? The answer is that each society believed in dieties that emphasized (and venerated) certain values, whatever values that they deemed important, values that were related to the physical world around them. In doing so, their philosophies and theologies were necessarily as subjective as their particular physical environment. Similarly, the belief in aliens venerates beings that come from other worlds, other solar systems even, and if those beings have civilizations more advanced than ours and teach us their values, then our values are placed into the realm of subjectivity, which leads to relativism. The fact is that aliens have not arrived here yet, but those people who anticipate them await a sort of "Messianic Age" if you will, not that one that establishes a belief in G-d that unites all humanity, but rather, an age that seeks to liberate people from absolute truth. Human liberation from absolute truth, which brings chaos, is the reason why Judaism has always rejected the subjectivity of the gods, and it is the same reason why Judaism today rejects other modes of relativist thought. The transformation of science into a religion, with aliens being cast as gods, is an example of this other-world-oriented attempt to liberate humanity from absolute truth.
The word "chai" means life (Le-chayim! To life, or cheers!). A "chay zar" would then be a "strange life form," but in the modern Hebrew it refers to an alien in the sense of a green guy with bug-eyes. In the Hebrew language, and therefore in the Jewish mindset, there is a conceptual corellation between the worship of foreign gods and the belief in aliens. It is strange to note that the corellation is unintended because there is no way that three thousand years ago anybody w
ould know that the people of the 21st century would believe in aliens, but rather it is a product of Judaism's similar response to both polytheism and to the preoccupation with aliens. If the Jews rejected polytheism, and certain forms of polytheism recycle themselves throughout the ages in different forms, then it only makes sense that Jews would also perpetually reject their contemporary manifestations as they popped up. Suffice it to say that "zar" is never a word that is associated with the belief in Hashem anywhere throughout the Tanakh, Talmud, nor in any rabbinical or philosophical Jewish works; rather, belief in G-d is the norm of human existence.Throughout all human history, deities have come and deities have gone, but G-d has remained a constant; not exotic but captivating, not exacting but expecting, invisible but imaginable, incomparable to anything that we know of, yet we were made in His likeness.
***********************************
* Note: Deities, aliens, demons, vampires, dragons, morbid creatures, and other mythical creatures are all different expressions of these human tendencies. If you pay attention, you will see that sexuality and/or violence is something that they all have in common.
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