But fortunately a couple of fairly simple exercises to ground these insights were presented and so we were off to the races. We tried out what it felt like to compare dreams of the future with memories of the past. Is a memory that different from a dream? Does one or the other, or both, define who you were in the past?
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Or does one or the other help articulate who you are now, in the present? What about a future self? As you can see, the existential implications of such a conversation could get pretty sticky, pretty easily. A good thing then, that the morning ended with a simple grounding breath meditation, breathing in and out, up and down, as we mused on what it means to live physically, mentally and spiritually in the present moment, not in the past or future.
So we sat, we breathed in unison, and we tried to feel what it was really like to be fully present, here and now.
At the end there was the Amen, a suitably creative closing prayer to affirm the wisdom and strength of living in the present moment. God, Creator, Mother and Father of the Universe, preserve us from cognitive dissonance, in which our image of ourselves contradicts the reality of who and what we are as we age and as we evolve spiritually.
Wash the windows of our soul, so we can see clearly that to which we are clinging. We are pleased to present the concluding half of an essay about Carl Sagan and his views on science and the spiritual world. Use the navigation bar at the top right to catch up on Part I.
Science and spirituality: the gospel according to Sagan
C arl Sagan dedicated much of his time and many of his books to the interplay between religion and science. His views were not necessarily an attack on religion, but they are written in defense of science and of critical thinking. He argued that, in some senses, science and religion are compatible and have the same goals: He draws a parallel between trying to understand the Universe and trying to understand ourselves — who we are, where our place is and what our role is in the great scheme of things — in short, a search for the meaning of life.
But the main problem he perceives with religion is that it reveals a restricted universe, where the god of most world religions is a very limited extraterrestrial being. Sagan is not against the idea of a god, but for Sagan, God by definition must be above all these petty characteristics.
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In a universe fourteen billion years old, why would an incredibly powerful God spend his time occupied with a small piece of dust that has existed for only the last 4. It makes no sense for an omnipotent God to limit himself, in terms of power and radius of action, in space and in time.
It makes more sense to think that the idea of God evolved out of the human character. We want to feel special despite being such small players in enormous universe, so it would bring comfort to think that a very powerful being is very interested in us — even more if we are so important that the only reason for the existence of an omnipotent God is to serve us.
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This is an idea that is as limited as mankind. The geocentric conceit was defeated by Western science about five hundred years ago, but it lives on in our religious subconscious.
People continue to think that humanity and the planet Earth have a central position in the universe. Nevertheless a psychological anthropocentrism persists, and Sagan gives several examples, including modern versions of the anthropic principle that occasionally trespass onto scientific ground Sagan Human leaders may hide information from their subordinates to keep them under control, but an omniscient and loving God would have no reason or place for such petty human characteristics, and thus would prefer to have His sons living in total knowledge and awareness of their surroundings.
As he put it: Or would He prefer His votaries to admire the real universe in all its intricacy? Either way, curiosity, knowledge, intelligence and science will carry us closer to understanding the nature of the universe in any real sense. The divine idea exists because we exist and psychologically require that divine persona to exist.
The problem Sagan sees here is a lack of understanding. Worse, this lack can lead to ignorance and a determination to leave threatening problems to posterity. The UFO camps do not supply a ready spirituality.
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Instead they fall into the same traps as their religious counterparts. But such a retreat is also used by theologians and fundamentalists when scientists do not understand a certain step in a theory or when they make an observation which does not fit the pattern. In evolution for example, if a step is not understood by scientists, the religious tend to arrrive at ridiculous conclusions: Again, this limits the idea and the power of God, because when that step becomes finally understood according to the principles of theory, God has to move from there to another place not yet totally understood.
Science is a work in progress, always evolving. At any given moment, it cannot know everything about everything. Religion has never provided a similar level of choice and human understanding. Certain forms of strict religion want to obscure truth and close the world in the enveloping darkness of ignorance, blind faith and obedience to principles which are created, interpreted and regulated by man.
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Each culture interprets sacred texts in its own way, sometimes in completely opposite ways, and thus not every religion can be correct Sagan, In fact, Western cultures interpret the sacred texts in different ways depending on the time frames. Once, slavery was seen as divine intention and justified by injudicious use of some passages of the Bible Sagan, There was a time when people thought diseases were sent by God Sagan, The major criticism Sagan levels against religion is when people have an ulterior motive for behaving in a certain way: Many of course are motivated simply out of fear.
Mainstream religion has always displayed a level of control that has not always had a beneficial effect on its adherents.