1. The God Delusion? Part 1

Comment #73228 by Gnosis on September 24, 2007 at 2:14 pm

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein

Richard Dawkins has no true knowledge of religion. I'm sorry to delude you; but this is clearly the case of the blind leading the blind.

From his writings, it's evident that Dawkins has never had a true experience of a higher states of consciousness. His consciousness has always been trapped in his left-brain hemisphere, just like most secular Westerners. It's obvious why most Western scientists can't cognize any Divine Intelligence in the natural phenomena they profess to study: instead of living in the world, they live solely in the circular thought chatter of their minds. No wonder that this methodology can't figure out from where the so-called physical laws of the universe come from!

Dawkins and his ilk have no understanding of Consciousness, and they are unquestionably unqualified to talk about spirituality and the nature of the Mind and the Universe. They don't even acknowledge the basic facts that individual Consciousness is not dependent on the brain and that it precedes physical birth and survives bodily death - a fact that it's even validated by myriad scientific studies and analytical psychology. The body of evidence for this is vastly huge. If you're really interested, (and I'm not so sure you are), consult the studies by Raymond Moody, David Fontana, Anthony Peake and Steve Taylor about these issues. The fact the our scientific establishment (or clergy?) doesn't recognize their findings doesn't mean that they're not valid, it rather means that our scientists are myopic, and bigotedly so. Materialism has been repeatedly refuted even by our science, and yet we keep upholding it matter what. Rationality, anyone?

I can't understand why you have so much confidence in people who have never bothered to study religion seriously. They are totally ignorant of seminal spiritual traditions such as the Perennial Philosophy, Jungian Psychology, esoteric traditions such as theosophy and anthroposophy, Gnosticism, the ancient wisdom of the Ancient sages, the Vedas, Taoism, Pantheism, the various schools of Buddhism... the list is endless... How can such people talk about the Divine in Men? What experience they have of transcendence? And since you all seem to claim that you are so reasonable and rational, how can you have confidence in the claims these persons?

What really strikes me about Dawkins is his religious faith in the ordinary senses and in this transient world of mere appearance. And this really strikes me as odd, since even science tells us that that the way we perceive our surroundings in the space-time continuum is not an accurate picture of the world. Anybody who is familiar with quantum physicsm and perception would attest to this. There's always an anthropic principle that distorts our sensory observation.

Nevertheless, the realm of the Infinite does not exclusively belong to the senses or to reason alone, but also to our innate intuitive connection with the all pervasive Life Principle... It is The All - the Isness and the Suchness of the innermost essence of Cosmos. And this is not the domain of scientists, but of poets and mystics; it can't be grasped with scientific inquiry, but with deep meditation; it's not the object of relative thought, but of absolute stillness. It is the voice of silence.

Nevertheless, I think that only a charlatan would buy into this science vs. religion polarity. This is a ridiculous dichotomy; a mind-shrinking controversy that should have no place among freethinkers and sensible truth seekers. Haven't we learned anything from luminaries as Einstein, Jung, Madame Blavatsky and Rudolph Steiner? What pleasure it gives you to deny your own souls?

We live in a soulful universe which exhibits infinite intelligence and possibilities. We are part of a dynamic universe urgent with animated and intelligent life. And yet we keep rejecting in a dogmatic fashion any spiritual foundation to our existence and to the origins of life. This just goes to show that despite its rational pretensions, mechanistic science is just another form of religious fundamentalism - another eloquent medium of mass ignorance.

Only the combined study of science, comparative religion and philosophy will help us understand the nature of the universe and our place in it. The unification of these disciplines has been one of the main objectives of the Theosophical Society.

There's no higher religion than Truth.