Processing Week 1

I’m a week into my program and already I have some thoughts that I need to work through. Let me again remind you that I’m a week into my program, with a lot of growing to do as I begin to process all the new information coming my way. 

Excitement? 

There are things in life that you can share with a kind of exuberance, the excitement of new, interesting knowledge, like new astronomical discoveries or a new album by a favorite musician, and there are things that are complete sloughs, piles of information you feel you need to wade through because underneath it all, you’re sure there’s a truth hidden somewhere. Studying Science and Religion offers both of those things. 

Like, did you know that more Britons believe in angels than believe in God? 

And, have you ever heard of the idea of emergence? Basically, from what I can tell, it implies that everything “emerges” from physics, that the basic laws of the universe are set and everything that exists just follows from them. You are a product of the random distribution of matter at the beginning of the universe. That’s a reductionist naturalist view, of course. I’ve had to put a lot of time into sussing that information out of papers and introductions and scholarly essays and it’s just a chunk of ice on the iceberg that is the systematic study of science and religion and I’m not sure I’ve even got that right. I feel like I’m playing Hide and Go Seek with the fundamental truths of the universe. And they’re winning.

Through all this, though, I’m convinced that there’s a way forward. In my mind, there’s too much human time spent hating other people and this debate, this concept that science and religion can’t work together, is a solvable problem. It’s the bold statement of someone new to the field, but it’s something I believe in. For now.

Initial Problems

Say you’re having a discussion with a friend of yours over what color headband Donatello wears. You’re convinced it’s purple, because it is, and he swears it’s red, which is dumb because everyone knows Raphael wears red. It’s alliteration, man. It’s, like, the easiest one to remember. You’re both sure you’re right and there’s no real easy way to walk away from this with any kind of agreement. It’s a fact that Donatello wears purple. That’s all there is to it.

gif source

Of course, this fact, this truth, is only slightly complicated by the fact that all the ninja turtles wore red in the original comics. So you’re both right, in a way, though one of your answers applies to the current incarnation, and if both of you can accept that complication, the discussion can move on, probably to which version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the definitive version. 

It probably won't be this one. gif source

You see the problem here? 

From what I’ve read so far, the biggest problem in reconciling science and religion is fundamentalism on either side. When you know that you’re the one with absolute truth on your side, you’re not going to be the one to budge. You’re right. And if the other person happens to disagree with you about that absolute truth, they’re not going to listen to you either. Then insults get through and dirty secrets get pulled to the surface and everyone else gets drawn into your fight and that’s what’s happened with science and religion, in my opinion. We’ve all been drawn into their fight. 

So how do you convince anyone to think that maybe they’re not exactly the rightest person in the room? In my opinion, we could all use a little humility around here, but that’s like telling the person about to start the barroom brawl that they need to calm down. To them, they are calm, dammit. And anyway, who are you to tell them what to do?

Existential Crises 

You know me. I’m big on sitting back and letting the panic of existential doubt wash over me like so many ocean waves at high tide. If I wasn’t occasionally lapsing into periods of wondering if anything is even real and what it all means, I wouldn’t be me. And boy howdy, am I in the right place for someone like me.

There’s this idea in philosophy of time that time is like a block- all moments in time exist simultaneously and we just happen to be experiencing this particular series of time. While I like that as a basis for time travel, it kinda sucks if you’re in favor of free will- your choices are basically already made. Thinking about time in general makes you wonder if you ever had any choice at all.

Then there’s the solipsistic view of the universe, where no one can tell you if anything is real besides you. 

But then, what exactly are “you”? Where does consciousness come from? Is consciousness even real? What if you’re just a machine tricked into thinking that you’re creating your own thoughts and making your own choices? THIS IS A REAL QUESTION.

Not to mention the ideas that the universe could be a hologram or that we’re all part of some big alien experiment and could be having our experiences fed to us, Matrix-style. 

And none of this even gets close to the problems of reducing all human existence to terms of physical processes, which is logical but also really hard to hear and sounds wrong somehow. Like, you feel something when you’re in love, probably due to all the chemicals that your brain is sending along because biology definitely wants you to get your groove on so you can make some babies, but is that all there is? How do destiny and fate factor into all of this, if those even exist? And I feel like that’s what I should primarily be concerned about because societally I’m conditioned to think that if I just have someone to love me then it’ll all be worth it at the end of the day, no matter whether I achieved anything, and besides, there’s no proof that all of our existence is more than just a shout into the void and if that’s the case, why not be in love before the impending oblivion reaches us all? 

*catches breath*

*composes self*

I just have some thinking to do, that’s all.