Thanks to the power of YouTube, I am able to share this great medicine, and the story behind it. It comes from Carl Swan, and his story begins:
“This is a song that came to me about 5 years ago when things weren’t exactly going the way I had envisioned them to be. I was at one of the lowest times of my life and when that happened I turned especially to the gift I was given and my drum. Rather then thinking about myself in what i was going through, I sat alone and looked towards the sweat lodge near the bushes and thought about what the world was going through. The world as i know it is home to my children, knowing that I am alive and my children are alive, breathing the same air that i breathe.”
Visit Carl’s YouTube listing for more of this story; enjoy.
Sean Carroll is a scientist and self-proclaimed truth vigilante who is leading some very important new discussions on the subject of naturalism and the meaning of life. Here’s a quote of his to whet your appetite: “The world keeps happening in accordance with its rules; it’s up to us to make sense of it and give it value.” His website is http://preposterousuniverse.com.
Below I am sharing more of the transcript from the phenomenal video I’m embedding above. To me it’s a fascinating lesson, and one that would have thrilled Mr. Kiefert, the creator of this website.
Excerpted from Sean Carroll’s “The Meaning of Life” (all rights reserved by the original copyright holder).
The world is one thing, the natural world, and it can be understood. This is very counter-intuitive; it is not at all obvious, this naturalism claim. You are made of atoms; you are made of cells which are made of molecules which are made of atoms, and as physicists, we know how atoms behave. The laws of physics covering the behaviour of atoms are completely understood: You put an atom in a certain set of circumstances, you tell me what the circumstances are, as a physicist I will tell you what the atoms will do.
If you believe that the atoms that are inside your brain and your body act diffently because they are in a living person than if they are in a rock or a crystal, then what you are saying is that the laws or physics are wrong. That they need to be altered because of the influence of a spirit or a soul or something like that. That may be true. Science can’t disprove that… but there is no evidence for it. And you get a much stronger explanatory framework by assuming that it’s just atoms obeying the laws of physics. (more…)
To stimulate thoughts and conversations, it’s my pleasure to share this 2004 exchange from our message board between Ron Matrisch and Dave Stoverden.
From Ron Matrisch: My reason for joining this group was to find others that think like I do. All of the text that the “church” has banned or tried to hide from the world such as the Gnostic text sparks my interest. In my opinion the “church” has done its best to keep its power and control, and anything that takes that power away from them is considered (by them) not of God. Instead of teaching the truth they give us half truths and outright lies. It does say that in the end times that knowledge will be increased. I say it will be the truth that has been hidden from us all of these years.
From Dave Stoverden: Absolutely right Revron8. But when you speak of “truth” I get kinda uneasy. (more…)
“Thomas Nagel is not crazy,” an Oct. 23, 2012, Prospect Magazine article written by Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson, raises many provocative questions.
…what if science is fundamentally incapable of explaining our own existence as thinking things? What if it proves impossible to fit human beings neatly into the world of subatomic particles and laws of motion that science describes? The philosopher Thomas Nagel thinks the materialist scientific worldview cannot explain consciousness. Is he right?
I invite you to read on here. Your feedback and additional ideas on consciousness are welcome here.
Featured Video: Antonio Damasio: The quest to understand consciousness from TEDtalksDirector on YouTube. “Every morning we wake up and regain consciousness — that is a marvelous fact — but what exactly is it that we regain? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio uses this simple question to give us a glimpse into how our brains create our sense of self.”
With many thanks to New York’s Edge Foundation and its editor and publisher John Brockman, I want to invite you to read this important article on the historic and fascinating lecture:
A brief excerpt: All living cells that we know of on this planet are DNA software driven biological machines comprised of hundreds to thousands of protein robots coded for by the DNA software. The protein robots carry out precise biochemical functions developed by billions of years of evolutionary software changes.
Enjoy this thoughtful remix of Mister Rogers from Symphony of Science’s John D. Boswell for PBS Digital Studios. **If you like this video, please support your local PBS station.** http://www.pbs.org/donate
Gnostic Compass 