Part Two: Physics

Chapter Nine: Physics

9.2. Knowledge as Power

And the Truth shall set you free...

Wisdom.  There is not a single culture on earth that does not respect it.  The greatest of leaders were always considered as and praised for being wise.  Ok.  So what is wisdom?  Well, among other things it means The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: “In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations” (Maya Angelou)⁽¹⁾.

The "sum of learning through the ages; knowledge".  In the meaning of the English language the meaning of wisdom - in the context in which we are discussing it - is pretty clear: knowledge.

The other key word in the chapter title is Power.  Power is in some ways the antithesis of wisdom or knowledge.  It is almost always seen as corrupting, demoralizing, and dehumanizing.  
  

Various 20th century philosophers and scientists alike have written volumes on the subject of "God". Usually the objective being a discloser of the unknowns of science in which it cannot prove that there is not a god. Saving the credibility of the religious by saying "We can't disprove god". Neither are we any closer to identifying the precise location of the Other World that so possessed our ancestors. Although we may be no closer to identifying where, if it exists at all, this Other World is, there are some tantalizing potentials in the hidden dimensions proposed by String Theory.

Still we are left to ponder the conundrum of whether there really is life after death, or is the existence of the Other World with its benevolent or malevolent spirits purely the product of wishful or fanciful thinking? Of this too we are no closer to a definite answer. But science has given us, if nothing else, new places to look. Places of which our ancestors (as recently as several generations ago) could never have even guessed at. Had they been allowed by the powers that be to even entertain such notions in the first place.

Unfortunately these new and hopeful sources of answers that stand to explain so many things are not always easily understood. Sometimes it requires a great deal of head scratching and mulling over for days at a time. But hey, who said Enlightenment was going to be easy? Jesus? “I come not to bring peace but a sword”. Do the people who worship our ancient texts think that understanding God will be as easy as memorizing a poem or two? Even understanding any greater message that these poems might contain benefits from for more mental dexterity than is usually encouraged in many of the houses of God even today. Whatever true understanding of deity that we may hope to gain in this time will probably not be found in ancient texts no matter how inspired they may be. These texts, as we saw in 3.3, were not exactly what our predecessor’s believed them to be - at least in terms of literalness, historical accuracy, and even authorship. The Bible may have served a simple desert herder or later an oppressed peasant, but today we need to develop a new means of communicating with deity. But I believe God gave us the Mind with which to do just that. Science gives us, you and I, the power that was once reserved only for the priestly casts. Sometimes, yes, scientific knowledge is VERY difficult to grasp. It is hard. Like war is hard. Or raising a child is hard. Or any of the really important things in life are hard. Life, as a devotion to higher ideals, is HARD. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is selling something.

So is not understanding the true nature and intentions of God, whatever He may be, going to be far more difficult than any of these? I believe that Jesus knew this and is what he meant when he proclaimed the deliverance of a sword. A sword that would set family against family, etc. If you want peace, don’t look to understand God or The Universe. Don’t ever hope to gain Enlightenment. Because if you do, you will invariably be forced to choose whether to get off your gluteus maximus, put down the potato chips (or whatever symbol of indulgence suits the culture of the day) and take up the sword of knowledge, or to be too tired and reach once again for the remote control. And that remote control comes in many forms. It could be to the TV. It could be to the recitation of memorized prayer or other form of religious dogma. It could be drugs or alcohol. Many “remote controls” in the world. Music or even gardening if its used as a means of inducing a vegetative state (pun intended) is living in an artificial way since it is only a means of avoiding the nagging questioning that never seems to go away - only ignored.

The idea of science as a means of attaining faith is not a new one. The earliest beginnings of the methodology of science began when man first began to make, use, and improve on his hunting weapons. It crawled along at a snails pace until the last ten thousand years. The Egyptians were perhaps to first peoples to delve deeply (and secretively) into the knowledge that scientific inquiry can revel. Very powerful knowledge which was used by the priest cast to hold sway over the people. When proof of supernatural proclamations were needed, or miracles performed, the priests were quick to provide them - using inside knowledge of the physical world and the way in which It operates. One of the glories of modern life is our ability to reflect back on the past with vast volumes of information about our history. Never was this possible in the way it is today. It has certainly given me many a great hours worth of pondering.

All of the “miracles” performed by the early priests and shamans can be reproduced today - and because we understand what is happening, we no longer see them as miracles. We see someone who is dead. There is no heartbeat or breath. We can watch a mere mortal man place two metal plates against the sides of the dead person and see the life ‘jump’ back into the body. We know why. Electricity stimulating the nerve in the heart that controls the contractions of the muscles that provide the pumping action necessary for ongoing life. With the heart beating again, breath follows because we understand the immediate interdependence between the two. There is no miracle. Yet to someone living at the time of Moses or Jesus, or even Mohammad for that matter, it would have brought people to their knees in genuflection. A sure sign of the presence of God Almighty. Could the miracles of early Judaism and Christendom have been a secret knowledge that was known only to a few? Knowledge that today is so easily taken for granted?

What changes will we see in science in the near future? 

#1   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ^{[Back to Text]}