The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism (Part 4)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

Most of us take perception for granted as a photograph – in five sensory dimensions – of the real world. If you walk past the house where you were born, however, you won’t see it the way a camera would. You can’t help but see it as a personal  part of your life. A termite inspector would see it a different way, as would a zoning official, an architect, a landscaper, and so on. The fact is that we can take any perspective we want on any object in the universe. No one disputes this fact, but it can’t be taken for granted, because there’s a deep mystery about how we apply mental models to the reality that spreads out before us.  The application of this mystery to the rise and fall of skepticism will become evident in a minute.

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The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism (Part 3)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

The bond between militant atheism and militant skepticism has been unusually strong, to the point where attacks on religion are delivered as if no rational, science-mined person could object. In two posts the argument was laid out about how shaky militant skepticism really is in the light of current physics and cosmology. So that the discussion won’t seem too arcane and removed from everyday life, this post will examine the fallacies that undermine the skeptical position of two popular skeptics, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

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“What Is Consciousness & Where Is It?” – a panel conversation recorded at Science and Nonduality Conference 2013 with Rudolph Tanzi, Menas Kafatos and Lothar Schäfer facilitated by Deepak Chopra

 

[youtube]http://youtu.be/scI9ZFImN8o[/youtube]

What is the fundamental activity in the universe? Although neuroscience has made enormous progress in looking at the brain correlates of subjective and objective experience, there is still no theory on how we experience mental or perceptual reality. Where our memories are stored? Is there a scientifically viable way to explain consciousness? Does mainstream science have the methodologies to address this question? Are there states of consciousness that go beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping? Is our current science which is based on a subject/object split equipped to answer these mysteries? What is the nature of the universe? What is the of nature awareness that makes it possible for us to experience the universe?

Hosted by Science and Nonduality Conference

The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism (Part 2)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP and Jordan Flesher, BA Psychology

 

As an attitude, skepticism is a natural part of the scientific method. It calls for solid proof and verification. As an agenda, however, the story of skepticism is quite different. The way that strident atheism has clothed itself in science seems convincing to people who are skeptical about God in the first place. But there’s no scientific basis for atheism, since God isn’t subject to experimentation. As the dust has settled, the agenda of militant skepticism has come to light – it’s basically another symptom of the blogosphere’s culture of personal attack, unfounded allegation, and a reckless disregard for the truth. (more…)