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"Code Name God" – Science Could Support Spiritual Beliefs
Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Tue 18 Dec 2007 04:33 PM PST
19 Dec 2007, 0001 hrs
Review from Amazon.com
Dr. Mani Bhaumik is the co-inventor of the laser technology that made Lasik eye surgery possible. His contributions to science merited the rare dual election as a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, while his successes won him a spot on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Eventually he discovered that :happiness is an inside job," and immersed himself in study of the hidden relationship between science and spirituality and the integration of mind and matter. He has published over fifty papers in professional journals and maintains a lively correspondence with other physicists around the world. His alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology, bestowed him with an honorary D.Sc. degree for lifetime academic achievements. Dr. Bhaumik is the founder of the Mani Bhaumik Educational Foundation, which currently provides full scholarships to sixty seven extremely bright but underprivileged Indian young men and women to enable them to earn a university degree in science, engineering or medicine. His US Foundation, Cosmogenics, is set up to foster research in consciousness and healing as well as mind/body integration. Dr. Bhaumik is the creator of a forthcoming animated TV series, focused on getting children interested in science. He lives in Southern California.
by MANI BHAUMIK
Some questions we've posed persistently through the ages have remained largely unanswered: Why are we here? Is there a purpose to our lives? Is there a Creator who brought us here?
All of us have asked these questions sometime in our lives. That's when we have traditionally turned to spirituality to find the answers. However, since we live in the age of science that pervades our daily lives, it would be essential to ask: Can science support our belief in spirituality?
You might ask: Aren't science and spirituality like apples and oranges? Most people including many scientists think science and spirituality are just too different to be mixed. This apparent perception of conflict is perhaps not without some justification.
Those who followed spirituality down the ages did so with blind faith. Why? Because their experience showed that spirituality enriched their lives. But blind faith invariably gets mixed up with some false and undesirable beliefs such as superstitions and dogmas that can lead people down a thorny path.
Many scientists are turned off by such misleading beliefs and that is understandable. But they also tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. They dismiss true spirituality along with superstition.
As a physicist, I am rather elated about the latest advances in modern cosmology and quantum physics. Not long ago, it would have been considered extremely arrogant to think that we could figure out how this vast and busy universe developed and that we could trace our ultimate origin back to 13.7 billion years ago to a tiny nugget of space containing the blueprint of the universe, which sequentially unfolded to create everything.
The evidences are so convincing that Nobel prizes are being awarded for advances towards the "theory of everything" which has the remarkable goal to show that at least everything physical in this universe comes from a single source.
As exciting as these advances are, there still seems to be a significant gap in our scientific world view.
Because we have no consensus about the origin and the nature of existence of our consciousness, the very window that allows us to perceive all of these amazing insights.
A particular aspect of the enigma of consciousness has been very puzzling to quite a few great thinkers of our time.
Einstein put it eloquently by proclaiming "the most incomprehensible fact about nature is that it is comprehensible". Others such as Nobel physicist Eugene Wigner have referred to this as a miracle. Mathematician Roger Penrose is baffled by the fact that the universe has developed in obedience of the laws that our consciousness seems designed to grasp.
The question then begs itself: Could it be that our consciousness is a fundamental reality which is intertwined with the universe itself? Is physicist Freeman Dyson right when he says: "The universe in some sense must have known that we were coming?"
Quantum physics and modern cosmology support the oneness of all spiritual traditions, popularly known as God. However, the God that science supports is an abstract entity akin to Brahmn, which manifests itself through us. When we realise our oneness with God, our minds acquire a laser-like focus and we instinctively know the purpose of life.
(The US-based physicist is author of the book Code Name God.)
Author Website: https://cosmogenics.org/main.htm
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