1. The World in Which You Will Live
June 15, 2023
The world of the future will be different for each of the 8 billion people who live on this planet today. Each of us will experience, to a significant degree, the world we create: Our personal reality will be based on the beliefs we hold and the way we understand and interpret past, present, and future. And the choices we make in response to those things.
We will, of course, be continually influenced by the people we encounter and the unexpected events that come into our lives from “over the horizon” (to use Martin Heidegger’s imagery). We seldom know exactly which events will be coming or what form they will take. We often have little influence over which ones will appear, and we cannot control this. We can, however, dramatically influence how we understand and respond to the actions of others, and to each event when it happens.
2. How I Chose My World
July 12, 2023
This is the second Essay in the series entitled Two Worldviews. It focuses on how I made my choice between the two worldviews, and some of the experiences that have confirmed that choice for me over and over.
Skeptico: As I understand what you are saying, the wisdom traditions of the world share the view that values and meanings have a reality grounded in a dimension beyond the individual, that these exist independent of any one person’s wish or whim.
How this came to be is not agreed upon, but the conviction that there is an underlying Source for values and meanings is universal to all. Further, all agree that each of us has the capacity to harmonize our lives with this Unseen Order. Last, each tradition has its own name for this Source, this deep Order, but I like how Plato described it as the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Continue reading
3. Is This a Moral World?
August 24, 2023
The third Essay in the Two Worldviews series considers the evidence for the worldview of the wisdom traditions.
Either you believe that the wisdom traditions are grounded in a Source to which we can all turn to establish justice, truth, fairness, and other principles we share concerning how we will interact with each other, or you believe that everything came about through random interactions of material things. The latter perspective is the worldview of Materialism, which denies the existence of any underlying values or meanings.
If you choose the latter, then each individual is finally alone, as the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre maintained. You might join a group for protection, to fight for group power, or for social interaction, but each person in the group will ultimately be in it for themselves. There will be no shared recognition of justice or truth or the common good. Rather, each person will see the group as a place to get what they personally want, will use it to serve their self-interest. Continue reading
4. If the World Doesn’t Seem Good
September 24, 2023
The fourth Essay in the Two Worldviews series tackles the questions of why bad things happen, and if the world can really be a good place when there are so many problems.
Does the world seem like a good place to you?
In the United States especially, but other countries as well, polls show that the prevailing attitude about the nature of the world has fallen dramatically in the last few decades. This has led to a sharp rise in loneliness, alienation, drug use, and suicide — even among young people. Albert Einstein defined, in his view, the most important question facing humanity: “Is the universe a friendly place?” And Einstein concluded that he believed that it is, a similar conclusion to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “The arc of the moral universe is long,” but it bends toward what is right and good. Continue reading
5. Compassion, Love, Wisdom, Service
February 3, 2024
Our country, and our world, are in a time of great turmoil — including wars, intense political conflict within many countries, and mounting climate problems all over the globe. These in turn are causing vast migrations of people seeking safety and a better life — but there is nowhere for all these people to go without causing disruption, division, and sometimes outright hostility.
Added to this array of problems is the impact of living in an age of instant communication, which is too often used to spread fear, anger, resentment, and blame. One result is an increasing level of polarization, causing communities to break apart and increasing numbers of individuals to feel alone, adrift on a turbulent sea. Loneliness, frustration, and despair are rising rapidly, and it is hard to envision what the future will bring. Continue reading
6. Science and a Moral World
March 3, 2024
Continuing the series of Essays dealing with the choice between worldviews we each must make, it is important to consider how science might impact this choice.
Science is central to the modern world, so it is critical to examine how, or if, it might help us decide if we live in a moral world, and whether we should choose to live by the worldview of Materialism or that of the wisdom traditions.
The fascinating answer is that science does not have a position on either of these questions, and does not even provide much guidance on them. Since the dawn of modern science over 400 years ago, however, most scientists have overwhelmingly chosen for their own lives the belief that we live in a moral world, and that the worldview of the wisdom traditions is more likely to be true than that of Materialism. Continue reading
7. Math, Consciousness, Reality
May 22, 2024
This Essay considers the relation of math to science, the reliance of both on consciousness, and what this means for understanding the true reality within which we live.
Many people think of math as the way we use numbers every day from an early age — adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. At a more advanced level, however, mathematics is a highly sophisticated discipline.
One great mystery — which has perplexed illustrious mathematicians for centuries — is why anyone has an interest in higher math at all. Human beings could get along just fine fulfilling their basic physical needs — finding food, shelter, and sex — without higher math.
Why Did Advanced Mathematics Happen?
Why is it that some people feel a powerful urge to understand and create complex mathematical formulas, sometimes even sacrificing material pleasures and practical opportunities to wrestle with a complex equation. Math can be as compelling for some as music, creating art, or playing a sport.
An equally perplexing mystery is why abstract mathematical formulas can precisely describe the material world. Higher math functions through complex formulas that are ideas, images, understandings that arise solely in consciousness, in the imagination of a gifted individual. These ideas are shared from one mind to another by symbols — markings on a piece of paper or a screen that often do not represent physical things, but ideas in consciousness.
So why do these abstract ideas that arise from a stroke of insight in consciousness, like E=mc2, correspond to the material world? This simple formula came to Einstein in a flash of insight, yet it precisely described a previously hidden dimension of the material world. And there are many, many other examples, some of which have arisen in dreams and in other altered states of consciousness.
These immaterial ideas often do not start from a desire to build a shelter, cook food, or win a mate. Much of early science began as a process for studying the material world — trying to understand it in order to solve practical problems and improve daily life. Simple math was one of its helpers. But higher mathematics usually does not start from trying to solve any practical problem in the material world. It often involves an attempt to resolve a highly sophisticated mathematical question that has little or no practical application.