I love this article! I'm always seeking to understand myself and existence at every possible level. I've recently been contemplating Chris Langan's Cognitive Theoretical Model of existence and Bernardo Kastrup's philosophy and both are absolutely fascinating. It's amazing just how much we think we know that we really don't because we've just accepted the stories told by "scientists", governments, and other institutions that pretend to educate us. I believe the average indoctrinated medical understanding of the collective is way behind and actually very detrimental to our potential as a species. I'm excited to see more people wake up and accept personal responsibility for the life they are living. I anticipate a healthier society and a more peaceful and loving coexistence. After all, we are all aspects of one greater being and it makes no sense to destroy each other's individuality because just like each cell of the body contributes to the health of the organism, so does each one of us contribute to the whole of existence.
I absolutely agree. Modern science knows little about the living things it seeks to study exactly because life--and the intelligence that permeates--it can't be measured, touched, examined, or quantified. That's why biology (and all of its subheadings) is so ironically and tragically off track.
Genes don't cause disease. Microorganisms don't cause disease. But these are the scapegoats because material science can't look deeper.
I didn't run, but I used to walk all the time before my disability. It was an escape & a diversion for me. Unlike your friend, I was "running from" emotions and sensations I didn't want to face. Now I can no longer escape in that way. Instead, because I hope I'm a little wiser now, I try to stay present as much as possible.
Also, not meaning any offense, because I love your articles. But I hear you often refer to religion in terms of stories, beliefs, and restrictions. That particular paragraph sounded dismissive and maybe that's why it stood out to me. Seeing religion in this light is similar to the way that you're describing that material science sees living beings. It is looking at the letter and missing the spirit. Religion has been around for thousands of years. And it's not just because we needed stories. Yes, there's lots to learn by reading the Bible as literature (I even took a college class on this!). But it's another thing to commune with God by even something as simple as a heartfelt prayer. Faith is not mere belief. It's not something you can get just by studying about religion. You have to live it in earnest.
Again, not meaning to pull your message off course. That just stood out to me. 💛
Thanks for sharing your insights! I appreciate that we think differently and I always learn from hearing your perspective. 🙏
Hi Lisa, I always appreciate hearing your thoughts! Thank you for sharing some of your experience here.
Regarding the reference to religion, I am explicitly saying - in this article - that the many religious stories we possess, regardless of how how real they may be "in spirit" (and I tend to experience them as very real, spiritually speaking, in particular the biblical stories) do not help us to know, for example, the exact physiological nature and evolutionary arc of fascia, or the nervous system, or the mechanisms by which pain occurs in the body and brain. In fact I am saying that, on the one hand, religions give us the means by which to understand ourselves through story - which is the dominant way that human beings see the world; and on the other hand, we have the material sciences. And both remain incomplete so long as we neglect to unite them, to bring them into a kind of relationship that satisfies both our feeling for truth and our ability to know truth through logic, or thinking.
By saying that religion requires our blind belief, and that this is no longer sufficient to satisfy us, I am not making a case for the dismissal of religions. I am pointing to the "spirit of the times" we are in, which is an era where increasingly we are no longer satisfied with faith and belief ALONE - we also want to KNOW.
If religion were enough to satisfy our longing to know what is true, then we wouldn't seek answers about our diseases or our pain, we would merely accept these conditions as the conditions of being god bestowed upon us, and carry out our lives in whatever way our faith dictates.
Today, even the devoutly religious are rarely satisfied with what the bible (as one example) says about illness if they get a cancer diagnosis, or experience chronic debilitating pain. Our impulse today is to seek answers from doctors and scientists, whereas in the past we would have consulted priests and shamans about our various illnesses, assuming a purely spiritual nature to these phenomenon. We've swung in the opposite direction the last 300 years (assuming a purely material nature to all of reality), and I am suggesting that we unite the two - the material and spiritual realities.
Thank you for clarifying! And I apologize for misunderstanding.
I wholeheartedly agree that spiritual knowledge and scientific knowledge should be brought together. We're looking at the world with one eye closed, otherwise. Or sometimes both eyes closed!
It's hard for me to separate the two because my faith is so all-encompassing. A religion or a church is an organization that supplies doctrine and prescribes worship. But the doctrines my religion teaches apply to every aspect of life (not just worship).
Not everyone shares this belief, but everything good comes from God. Science--good, real, living science--was his creation as much as religion. And as a benevolent being he wants us to use all the tools he has provided to learn, grow, and improve. This includes mind/body, science/religion, intellect/emotion, physical/spiritual information. He wants us to find answers. And better than just giving us all the answers he lets us study it out for ourselves.
In the past, I've looked at Jesus's miracles in the Bible and foolishly wished I could have lived in his day. But I know I was born in this time for a reason (the kind of knowing that has moved beyond faith).
There is a story in John 9 about a man blind from birth. The assumption of his culture was that sin caused disease. However, Jesus said "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
I don't doubt that our mistakes can cause illness. I've said before that I believe I had a hand in my own disability (unconsciously). But I find it comforting that my disease is actually an opportunity for God's works to be manifest in me. Whether that involves physical healing or not is beside the point, but I believe it will.
Some people see the size of the miracles in the Bible and they overlook the everyday miracles. It's so much more impactful to partner with God and use the tools he has provided than to have him take all the struggle away. And he knows that.
It reminds me of a passage of scripture unique to my church, about a faith "science experiment." Like Biblical parables it hearkens back to the natural world (living science!). You can tell a seed is good if it grows and produces fruit. And you can know by its fruits what kind of plant it is. This parable demonstrates how I approach life. If you're curious, this link will get you to the parable:
One final note: I know you know of Dr. Sam Bailey. I'm not sure how closely you follow her, but she put out an interesting video recently "What Does the Bible Say About Germs?" I think this follows your point about leaning too much into "belief" at which point people abandon science and look for "evidence" to support the existing paradigm. This is looking at things with one eye closed.
I love this article! I'm always seeking to understand myself and existence at every possible level. I've recently been contemplating Chris Langan's Cognitive Theoretical Model of existence and Bernardo Kastrup's philosophy and both are absolutely fascinating. It's amazing just how much we think we know that we really don't because we've just accepted the stories told by "scientists", governments, and other institutions that pretend to educate us. I believe the average indoctrinated medical understanding of the collective is way behind and actually very detrimental to our potential as a species. I'm excited to see more people wake up and accept personal responsibility for the life they are living. I anticipate a healthier society and a more peaceful and loving coexistence. After all, we are all aspects of one greater being and it makes no sense to destroy each other's individuality because just like each cell of the body contributes to the health of the organism, so does each one of us contribute to the whole of existence.
I absolutely agree. Modern science knows little about the living things it seeks to study exactly because life--and the intelligence that permeates--it can't be measured, touched, examined, or quantified. That's why biology (and all of its subheadings) is so ironically and tragically off track.
Genes don't cause disease. Microorganisms don't cause disease. But these are the scapegoats because material science can't look deeper.
I didn't run, but I used to walk all the time before my disability. It was an escape & a diversion for me. Unlike your friend, I was "running from" emotions and sensations I didn't want to face. Now I can no longer escape in that way. Instead, because I hope I'm a little wiser now, I try to stay present as much as possible.
Also, not meaning any offense, because I love your articles. But I hear you often refer to religion in terms of stories, beliefs, and restrictions. That particular paragraph sounded dismissive and maybe that's why it stood out to me. Seeing religion in this light is similar to the way that you're describing that material science sees living beings. It is looking at the letter and missing the spirit. Religion has been around for thousands of years. And it's not just because we needed stories. Yes, there's lots to learn by reading the Bible as literature (I even took a college class on this!). But it's another thing to commune with God by even something as simple as a heartfelt prayer. Faith is not mere belief. It's not something you can get just by studying about religion. You have to live it in earnest.
Again, not meaning to pull your message off course. That just stood out to me. 💛
Thanks for sharing your insights! I appreciate that we think differently and I always learn from hearing your perspective. 🙏
Hi Lisa, I always appreciate hearing your thoughts! Thank you for sharing some of your experience here.
Regarding the reference to religion, I am explicitly saying - in this article - that the many religious stories we possess, regardless of how how real they may be "in spirit" (and I tend to experience them as very real, spiritually speaking, in particular the biblical stories) do not help us to know, for example, the exact physiological nature and evolutionary arc of fascia, or the nervous system, or the mechanisms by which pain occurs in the body and brain. In fact I am saying that, on the one hand, religions give us the means by which to understand ourselves through story - which is the dominant way that human beings see the world; and on the other hand, we have the material sciences. And both remain incomplete so long as we neglect to unite them, to bring them into a kind of relationship that satisfies both our feeling for truth and our ability to know truth through logic, or thinking.
By saying that religion requires our blind belief, and that this is no longer sufficient to satisfy us, I am not making a case for the dismissal of religions. I am pointing to the "spirit of the times" we are in, which is an era where increasingly we are no longer satisfied with faith and belief ALONE - we also want to KNOW.
If religion were enough to satisfy our longing to know what is true, then we wouldn't seek answers about our diseases or our pain, we would merely accept these conditions as the conditions of being god bestowed upon us, and carry out our lives in whatever way our faith dictates.
Today, even the devoutly religious are rarely satisfied with what the bible (as one example) says about illness if they get a cancer diagnosis, or experience chronic debilitating pain. Our impulse today is to seek answers from doctors and scientists, whereas in the past we would have consulted priests and shamans about our various illnesses, assuming a purely spiritual nature to these phenomenon. We've swung in the opposite direction the last 300 years (assuming a purely material nature to all of reality), and I am suggesting that we unite the two - the material and spiritual realities.
Thank you for clarifying! And I apologize for misunderstanding.
I wholeheartedly agree that spiritual knowledge and scientific knowledge should be brought together. We're looking at the world with one eye closed, otherwise. Or sometimes both eyes closed!
It's hard for me to separate the two because my faith is so all-encompassing. A religion or a church is an organization that supplies doctrine and prescribes worship. But the doctrines my religion teaches apply to every aspect of life (not just worship).
Not everyone shares this belief, but everything good comes from God. Science--good, real, living science--was his creation as much as religion. And as a benevolent being he wants us to use all the tools he has provided to learn, grow, and improve. This includes mind/body, science/religion, intellect/emotion, physical/spiritual information. He wants us to find answers. And better than just giving us all the answers he lets us study it out for ourselves.
In the past, I've looked at Jesus's miracles in the Bible and foolishly wished I could have lived in his day. But I know I was born in this time for a reason (the kind of knowing that has moved beyond faith).
There is a story in John 9 about a man blind from birth. The assumption of his culture was that sin caused disease. However, Jesus said "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
I don't doubt that our mistakes can cause illness. I've said before that I believe I had a hand in my own disability (unconsciously). But I find it comforting that my disease is actually an opportunity for God's works to be manifest in me. Whether that involves physical healing or not is beside the point, but I believe it will.
Some people see the size of the miracles in the Bible and they overlook the everyday miracles. It's so much more impactful to partner with God and use the tools he has provided than to have him take all the struggle away. And he knows that.
It reminds me of a passage of scripture unique to my church, about a faith "science experiment." Like Biblical parables it hearkens back to the natural world (living science!). You can tell a seed is good if it grows and produces fruit. And you can know by its fruits what kind of plant it is. This parable demonstrates how I approach life. If you're curious, this link will get you to the parable:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/32?lang=eng&id=p26-p43#p26
One final note: I know you know of Dr. Sam Bailey. I'm not sure how closely you follow her, but she put out an interesting video recently "What Does the Bible Say About Germs?" I think this follows your point about leaning too much into "belief" at which point people abandon science and look for "evidence" to support the existing paradigm. This is looking at things with one eye closed.
https://open.substack.com/pub/drsambailey/p/what-does-the-bible-say-about-germs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2e4dlo
Sorry for the long reply! Thanks for helping me understand. And thanks for listening! 💛