Friday 23 November 2007

Pic of the day: "All my experiences will become nourishment for me" says this imaginary goddess from the anime Aa Megami-sama Tatakau Tsubasa. Of course, this requires one to actually have experience.

Mysticism and science

Mysticism and science are related. Their opposites are religious literalism (usually called "fundamentalism" now) and scientism, or boneheaded faith in science as a way to explain everything.

The fundamentalist, whether religious or scientific, claims to have all the answers. Well, usually he claims that someone else has all the answers, but he has them by proxy. The Church, or the Scientific Community, has all the answers. For this reason, the peon can speak with absolute certainty about things he knows next to nothing about. Because he has read a book, or heard a tape, or been to a meeting and heard some expert who had all the answers.

The thing is, there are a lot of situations where questions are far better than answers. The fundamentalist doesn't know this, because he is not an expert in the true sense of the word: He has no experience. He is simply reflecting, echoing, someone else.

The scientist and the mystic both seek to experience that which they deem to be important in life. The scientist seeks to explore the physical world, the mystic seeks to explore that which is beyond the world. They will use the experience of others as a map, but they will still travel the distance.

The fundamentalist doesn't travel the distance. To him, there is no difference between the map and the terrain. Since he has traced the map with his finger, he speaks with the absolute certainty of one who has already reached the goal, even though he has not yet taken the first step.

Anyone who claims to know everything about God, cannot possibly know anything about God. For if you glimpse God ever dimly from a distance, you will know forever, without doubt, that God is mindbreakingly alien despite being more us than we are ourselves. We can no more contain God within our knowledge than a cup can contain the ocean.

In the same way, those who explore the physical universe will learn one thing more than any other: Humility. "The more you know, the more you know that you don't know." There is no answer that doesn't come with at least two new questions. And it isn't just that we don't have all the answers. If we ever have all the answers, no one will be able to contain them all at the same time. Even holding onto a small piece is a task for a lifetime.

In fact, mystics and scientists are often the same people. In the past, one could be renowned for both, as Blaise Pascal and Isaac Newton were. But even today, I sometimes see scientists write in a way that I can easily recognize as a mystic. (Ursula Goodenough comes vividly to mind.) Likewise, the Dalai Lama has a keen interest in science and has encouraged Buddhists to cooperate with brain scientists in exploring the physical manifestations of consciousness in the brain.

On a lesser scale, I myself grew up expecting to become some kind of scientist, but became more of a mystic. But it is the same mindset. A childlike sense of wonder, awe and curiosity. A desire to understand deeply, not to memorize answers. But mysticism has the benefit that you have your "lab" with you wherever you go! I don't feel any "less scientific" than I did when I grew up.