I am told that it is not smart to talk about religion or politics. Well, nobody ever accused me of being a genius, and I will prove it by going against that age-old advice. Specifically, here are a few interesting articles I’ve recently read, with each having a religious component:
- If you struggle with weight control, Jennifer’s article on combatting food addiction with faith may be of interest to you. Like all of her articles, this one is very well-written.
- If you like trying to marry religion and physics, you will probably be interested in this article about an award-winning physicist positing a veiled reality. Bernard d’Espagnat, whose doctoral thesis advisor was the quantum-mechanics legend Louis de Broglie, concludes that quantum mechanics tells us that there is a unknowable reality that is “beyond space and time” (occurs at the Planck Scale). He attaches a religious significance to this.
- The Pew Research Center has an interesting article on the decline of religion in the US (along with a few other topics that have been blogged about recently).
For additional links on a variety of topics, you may want to scan and/or subscribe to my link blog. On that blog, I post links to articles I find of interest. The range of topics covered is diverse. Note that I sometimes link to articles that I disagree with but believe to be well-written and to have some interesting points.
That stuff by Bernard d’Espagnat is quite impressive, if not to say shocking. Strange, that was almost exactly the topic of a pretty hot discussion between me and my colleague last week. He’s got a Ph.D. thesis on gnoseologic analysis of a problem of reality in science, so we clashed upon phenomenological approach in mental health disorders treatment. We’ve been arguing about religion, too, invoking a good bit of I. Kant and M. Heidegger among other things. I didn’t realize that I’d have such a solid backup soon, especially from a quantum physicist. Such a synchrony, Bruce, thank You very much for that link. Skarda’s book on perceptual neuroscience mentioned in comments seems to be an entertaining read, too.
The synchronicity is interesting isn’t it? Also ties into your earlier discussion of Jung, whose discussion of synchronicity with the rare beetle is frequently quoted as being the starting point for the study of the concept.
That’s right, and seems that people like d’Espagnat and Skarda are almost ready to provide some explanation, at least in theory, to Jung’s synchronicity phenomenon among other things. Breathtaking indeed. Like touching the greatest mistery of all. I know it’s just a passing feeling, but sometimes I wonder what if science exists exactly because of and for such moments? Reminds me of “Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum”, from Genesis 3:5 (Vulgate) and, more importantly, “Faust”. Sometimes it’s not quite clear with modern science, whether to behold in silence, or to laugh out loudly. Only time will tell. Or will not. Damn it.
A more scientific explanation for the food addiction issue Jennifer is describing, can be found in the video presentation located here:
http://vsh.voip-info.org/lisle.html
It runs about an hour and describes the natural basis for what is known as the pleasure trap.
Thank you for the link, Terry. Sounds interesting.