Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Physicists & Priests | Albert Einstein on Science and Religion

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

[Today is the last day of the month-long "Physicists & Priests" series. From John William Draper's conflict thesis to Madhyamaka Buddhism's middle way, from the Templeton Prize to David Eagleman's possibilianism, from sacred geometry to the demarcation problem, 13.7 Billion Years looked at some of the many stories, studies and ideas that exist within the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

Who better to end an investigation into the relationship between science and religion than Albert Einstein? Considered by many to be the greatest scientific mind in history (his very name has become synonymous with the word "genius," after all), he nevertheless was a strong proponent of merging the two schools of thought into one. In regard to some interpretations of religion, Einstein saw the possibility of compatibility with science. In a 1930 New York Times Magazine article, he wrote:

"Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts. According to this interpretation the well-known conflicts between religion and science in the past must all be ascribed to a misapprehension of the situation which has been described."

But understanding the viability or even necessity of religion as a belief system is one thing. The debate over whether or not God exists is a separate matter altogether. On that point, Einstein was unequivocal. "I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one," he wrote in a 1949 letter to Navy ensign Guy H. Raner Jr. "You may call me an agnostic."

ACTION ALERTS
  • URGENT: 12 days left, tell Congress to stop delivery of 20 monkeys to Army for cruel chemical weapons experiments (PCRM)
  • Due 9/21: Tell USFWS to eliminate exemption of generic tigers from protection to save all captive tigers (ALDF)
  • Stand in solidarity with those risking arrest to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and make a call today (Friends of the Earth)
  • Say NO to aerial killing of wolves and delisting of Northern Rockies wolves from Endangered Species List (Animal Rescue Site)
  • Say YES to opening up Taiji to the public so that the world can see and stop the senseless slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan (Care2)
  • Tell National Park Service: Protect nesting shore birds and sea turtles from off-road vehicles (NPCA)
  • Tell Ohio Dept of Natural Resources: Finalize rules banning the private ownership of dangerous wildlife (Ohio DNR)
  • Tell New England fishery managers to advance real reform to the management of industrial fishing (Pew Environment Group)
  • More than 30,200 signatures and counting: Sign the ASPCA pledge to say NO to animal cruelty (ASPCA)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
THE BAD STUFF
  • Rising biomass demand could drive land grabs (Reuters)
  • Africa's mollusc stocks at risk from ocean acidification (SciDev.net)
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • WSPA presents global live export petition at Parliament House, Australia (WSPA)
  • International Primate Day highlights plight of thousands of primates used for animal testing as UK government considers new rules (Legal Action 4 Animal Rights)
  • Portland, Oregon plans for transit all powered by electricity (New York Times)
  • A busy month for Gorilla Doctors caring for sick gorillas (Gorilla Doctors)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

 image: Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921 (Wikimedia Commons)

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Physicists & Priests | Are Humans Predisposed to Believe in God?

"Attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts." — Roger Trigg, Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University

After three years, the massive "Cognition, Religion and Theology Project" has come to an end. Led by Justin Barrett from the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford University and Roger Trigg from the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, also at Oxford, the £1.9 million project involved 57 researchers, 40 separate studies and 20 countries, covering societies that are both predominantly religious and predominantly atheist.

The researchers explained that the project was not about proving or disproving the existence of god, but to explore the evolutionary and cognitive basis for religious thinking. They state in their FAQ, "We are just as interested in identifying the cognitive and ecological factors that contribute to the spread of atheism as we are in the factors contributing to the pervasiveness and persistence of beliefs in God or gods."

They found that humans have a natural tendency to believe in gods, the supernatural and an afterlife, and this begins at an early age. They also found that religion is less important in urban areas in developed nations, where non-religious social support systems are present. Conversely, in undeveloped and developing nations, religion represents an important way for people to cooperate and find support.

"This project suggests that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf," said Professor Trigg. "We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature across different societies. This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the existence of supernatural agents or gods, and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life."

But believing in supernatural powers is one thing. Proving them is another. And trying to apply reason to religion always ruffles more than a few feathers. "The whole point of religious faith, its strength and chief glory, is that it does not depend on rational justification," wrote British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his New Statesman defense of Salman Rushdie after the Ayatollah Khomeini urged Muslims to kill the author for writing The Satanic Verses. "The rest of us are expected to defend our prejudices. But ask a religious person to justify their faith and you infringe 'religious liberty.'"

Perhaps the difficulty in suppressing religion is not, as Professor Trigg asserts, because human thought is rooted in religious concepts, but because religious concepts don't need to be rooted in reason.

ACTION ALERTS
  • URGENT: 13 days left, tell Congress to stop delivery of 20 monkeys to Army for cruel chemical weapons experiments (PCRM)
  • Due 9/21: Tell USFWS to eliminate exemption of generic tigers from protection to save all captive tigers (ALDF)
  • Say NO to aerial killing of wolves and delisting of Northern Rockies wolves from Endangered Species List (Animal Rescue Site)
  • Say YES to opening up Taiji to the public so that the world can see and stop the senseless slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan (Care2)
  • Tell National Park Service: Protect nesting shore birds and sea turtles from off-road vehicles (NPCA)
  • Tell Ohio Dept of Natural Resources: Finalize rules banning the private ownership of dangerous wildlife (Ohio DNR)
  • Tell New England fishery managers to advance real reform to the management of industrial fishing (Pew Environment Group)
  • More than 30,200 signatures and counting: Sign the ASPCA pledge to say NO to animal cruelty (ASPCA)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
THE BAD STUFF
  • Ignoring Climate Change, State Department Report Concludes Keystone XL Has 'No Significant Impacts' (AlterNet)
  • Dispersants Used in BP Gulf Oil Spill Linked to Cancer (AlterNet)
  • Sportswear makers poisoning Chinese waterways with toxins (New York Times)
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • 17-Year-Old Polar Adventurer and Climate Change Activist to Attend Global Youth Summit (@OneYoungWorld)
  • Ohio approves comprehensive set of farm animal welfare rules (Columbus Dispatch)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255-1260 – c. 1318-1319), Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints, 1308, Cathedral of Siena (Wikimedia Commons)

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Physicists & Priests | The Bahá'í Unification of Science and Religion

"Religion and science are the two wings upon which man’s intelligence can soar into the heights." — `Abdu'l-Bahá (1844-1921), Bahá'í Faith leader

Founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, the Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion with some five to six million adherents around the globe. At its core is the concept of unity, seen in three different forms: unity of God, unity of religion and unity of humankind.

Perhaps it is this focus on unity that has allowed Bahá'í to remain somewhat outside the demarcation problem of science and religion. According to Bahá'í scripture, there is and never can be conflict between science and religion.

`Abdu'l-Bahá, the former head of Bahá'í and the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh, said, "Every religion which is not in accordance with established science is superstition. Religion must be reasonable. If it does not square with reason, it is superstition and without foundation."

In his 1980 essay "The Science of Religion," the late American philosopher, mathematician and Bahá'í practitioner William S. Hatcher wrote:

"With the continued development of science, religion has come to be regarded as an activity which deals essentially (and unscientifically) with the irrational, subjective, mythic, and emotional aspects of human life. Viewed in this way, a religious belief system appears as no more than a collective neurotic mechanism for dealing with the difficulties and sufferings of life: such beliefs are illusions which may give some comfort but which have no basis in any reality other than human imagination, The Bahá'í Faith addresses this problem through its concept of progressive revelation...a theoretical model for human history and social evolution as well as giving objective content to religion, a content independent of the subjectivity of any particular human being. In this view, religion becomes a phenomenon which can be studied, approached, and experienced scientifically without losing any of its multidimensional richness and capacity for emotional enhancement."

"Science can prove God's existence," Hatcher said, "but only prophetic religion can give man the experience of God for which he hungers."

During a series of talks he gave in Paris from 1911-12, `Abdu'l-Bahá put it rather poetically: "Religion and science are the two wings upon which man’s intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone! Should a man try to fly with the wing of religion alone he would quickly fall into the quagmire of superstition, whilst on the other hand, with the wing of science alone he would also make no progress, but fall into the despairing slough of materialism."

ACTION ALERTS
  • Tell Obama: No dirty tar sands Keystone XL pipeline project (Ecological Internet)
  • Do you live near a nuclear plant? Find out with the Greenpeace ZIP code nuke locator
  • Tell Congress: Phase out old nuclear plants, support safe, clean renewable energy (Greenpeace)
  • More than 29,900 signatures and counting: Sign the ASPCA pledge to say NO to animal cruelty (ASPCA)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
THE BAD STUFF
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • Renowned NASA climate scientist James Hansen explains decision to join Keystone pipeline protests (Solve Climate)
  • First Glimpse Into Birth of the Milky Way (Science Daily)
  • Northeast Clean Fuels Standard = Thousands of Jobs, Billions of Dollars (NRDC)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: The Greatest Name at the top of the interior of the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois (photo by Sean M. Scully, Wikimedia Commons)

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Physicists & Priests | John William Draper's Conflict Thesis

"As a better knowledge of Nature was obtained, the sky was shown to be an illusion…But this did not take place without resistance. At first, the public, and particularly its religious portion, denounced the rising doubts as atheism." -- John William Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, 1874

Born in 1811 in Merseyside, England, the American scientist John William Draper was a professor of chemistry and botany at New York University starting in the early 1830s and later became the president of the school of medicine. He was also a founder of the NYU Medical School and the first president of the American Chemical Society. He contributed important research to the field of photochemistry, and in 1840 became the first person to take a photograph of an astronomical object, the Moon.

Draper is also known for his 1874 book History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, a seminal work in the area of conflict thesis, the idea that a fundamental intellectual conflict exists between science and religion. Along with the American educator and historian Andrew Dickson White, who addressed the restrictive elements of Christian dogma in his 1896 book History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, Draper was a leading proponent of this idea. The term "conflict thesis" came from the title of his book.

According to conflict thesis, the relationship of religion and science will inevitably result in hostility between two ideological factions in the public realm, particularly when a new scientific discovery refutes a religious belief. Prime examples of this thesis in action are the Galileo Affair — when the Catholic church refuted Galileo's support of Copernican heliocentrism — and the clash between Darwinian evolution and Biblical creationism, a conflict that still exists today. (A December 2010 Gallup poll found that 40 percent of Americans believe in strict Creationism.)

It would have been interesting to know what Draper's father, John Christopher Draper, might have thought about his son's thesis. The elder Draper, who passed away in 1831, was a clergyman of Wesleyanism, a Protestant Christian movement that espoused the Holy Scripture as the ultimate authority and the basis by which all truth should be tested. The movement's founder, a Church of England cleric named John Wesley, would likely not have approved of the younger Draper's scientific bent. After all, it was Wesley who once warned his followers, "Beware you be not swallowed up in books!"

ACTION ALERTS
  • More than 28,000 signatures and counting: Sign the ASPCA pledge to say NO to animal cruelty (ASPCA)
  • Tell Congress to make the Clean Air Promise (NRDC)
  • Support the American Anti-Vivisection Society and help save animals simply by using eBay (AAVS)
  • Tell House of Representatives: Don't cut critical funding for EPA (Rainforest Site)
  • Tell Adidas: Take toxic chemicals out of your products and supply chains (Greenpeace)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
THE BAD STUFF
  • In rural Pakistan, up to 2,000 spectators will assemble to watch one of the world's most cruel events, "bear baiting," in which a tethered and clawless bear is set upon by trained fighting dogs (WSPA)
  • 150,000 days of missed work because of bad air induced health issues (@cleanenergyorg)
  • Climate cycles are driving wars (@esciencenews)
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • WSPA's partner organization, the Bioresource Research Centre (BRC), recently rescued three bears — Azad, Sawan and Nita – from the cruel "sport" of bear baiting (WSPA)
  • Suspected ‘Crush’ Video Ring Leaders Arrested (PETA Asia-Pacific)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: John William Draper (Wikimedia Commons)

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Physicists & Priests | Heidegger, Suzuki and the Existential Crisis

"If I understand this man correctly, this is what I have been trying to say in all my writings." -- German metaphysician Martin Heidegger on Zen master D.T. Suzuki

Considered the most important metaphysician of the 20th century, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger preoccupied himself with deep phenomenological questions into the nature of being. His thinking can be traced back to his early interest in Aristotelian logic. In his 1968 book What is Called Thinking? he even recommended waiting to read Nietzsche to "first study Aristotle for ten to fifteen years." But Heidegger, a master logician, was also critical of logic and made great pains to explain its temporal basis. So perhaps it isn't surprising that he found a kinship with Zen master D.T. Suzuki.

In a 1966 interview with Der Spiegel, Heidegger confirmed his agnosticism, saying, "I think the only possibility of salvation left to us is to prepare readiness, through thinking and poetry, for the appearance of the god or for the absence of the god." Suzuki also linked poetry to the divine when he said, "The greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality — something approaching the work of God."

Perhaps art is a better method for grasping the concept of god as the basis of nature than scientific inquiry. In his 1954 essay "Science and Reflection," Heidegger called science the "theory of the real," saying that the primary failure of science is that it cannot fully encompass nature, which is constantly revealing itself in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Thus, he concludes that science cannot be the basis for any serious reflection on the nature of being human. For Heidegger, this is the crux of the modern existential crisis.

Heidegger's affinity for Suzuki's writings may help explain how a Zen philosophy might help bridge the gap between the limits of science and its ultimate quest for truth. In Zen, there is no existential crisis. "Life," Suzuki said, "ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water." His point is well taken. Birds have been around for 150 million years. Fish, over 500 million years. Humans have been around for a mere 200,000 years. It stands to reason then that humans can learn a lot about life by simply observing our finned and feathered friends. After all, they've been living on planet Earth for much longer — with arguably more success — than we have.

ACTION ALERTS
  • Tell House of Representatives: Don't cut critical funding for EPA (Rainforest Site)
  • Tell Adidas: Take toxic chemicals out of your products and supply chains (Greenpeace)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
THE BAD STUFF
  • In the last century more than 100 million people died from war (@DeepakChopra)
  • Older adults with too much salt in diet and too little exercise at greater risk of cognitive decline (Science Daily)
  • Humanity Knows Less Than 15 Percent of the World's Species (Mongabay)
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • Germany: Deutsche Bahn to power its trains by wind, hydro & solar energy, will be carbon-free by 2050 (Mother Nature Network)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: rofanator, Flickr Creative Commons

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Physicists & Priests | The Walloon from Charleroi and the Case of the Primeval Atom

"Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable." — Albert Einstein to Georges Lemaître

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was born out of a super-hot, super-dense state called singularity. And since that moment, some 13.7 billion years ago, it has been expanding. Though there is no consensus as to the origins of the universe, the majority of the scientific community agrees that some version of Big Bang is what happened when time as we know it began. The physicist who came up with the theory was Georges Lemaître. He was also a Catholic priest.

Lemaître was born in 1894 in Charleroi, a city in Wallonia, a French-speaking region in the south of Belgium. From an early age, he combined both scientific study with theology. After receiving a classical education at Le Collège du Sacré-Coeur, a Jesuit secondary school in Charleroi, he began, at 17 years old, a course of civil engineering at the Catholic University of Louvain, where he would later teach as a professor of physics. In 1920, he received his doctorate. Three years later, he was ordained a priest.

VOTRE PHYSIQUE EST ABOMINABLE

In 1927, he published the paper that made him famous: "A homogeneous Universe of constant mass and growing radius accounting for the radial velocity of extragalactic nebulae." In it, he described his theory of an expanding universe. He would later call the initial point from which the universe was born "the primeval atom." Upon reviewing his paper, Albert Einstein said, "Vos calculs sont corrects, mais votre physique est abominable." ("Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable.")

Perhaps, but Lemaître's theory was eventually accepted by the scientific community and by the mid-1930s, he was hailed as a leading mind in the arena of cosmological physics. As another famous (albeit fictional) Walloon, Agatha Christie's super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, once said, "Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it."

ACTION ALERTS
  • Tell Unilever: Replace palm oil with native fats and help stop rainforest deforestation and human rights crimes (Rettet Regenwald)
  • Tell Dean & DeLuca: Stop selling foie gras (PETA)
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PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
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  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: Monseigneur Georges Lemaître, priest and scientist. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Physicists & Priests | Building a Better Brain Through Meditation

"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance." — Buddha

From the Buddhist pursuit of Nirvana to the Judaic mystical tradition of Kabbalah, from the reflections on the revelations of God in Christianity to the meditative path of Dhyana in Hinduism, from the Islam devotional act of dhikr to the Taoist martial art of Tai Chi Chuan, meditation has been an integral part of the religious experience throughout history.

But while spiritual devotees across the world's religions have long been aware of the power of meditation, science is still catching up. But so far, numerous studies have shown that meditation results in positive physiological and neurochemical changes in the brain.

DEEP THOUGHTS, DEEP CHANGES

"The neurophysiological effects that have been observed during meditative states seem to outline a consistent pattern of changes involving certain key cerebral structures in conjunction with autonomic and hormonal changes," according to Andrew B. Newberg from the University of Pennsylvania and J. Iversen from Stanford University, in their 2003 study "The neural basis of the complex mental task of meditation: neurotransmitter and neurochemical considerations," which was published in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

Specifically, the authors note that the changes are "reflected in neurochemical changes involving the endogenous opioid, GABA, norepinephrine and serotonergic receptor systems."

In their 2006 study "Meditation States and Traits: EEG, ERP, and Neuroimaging Studies," which was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, B. Rael Cahn from the University of California, San Diego, and John Polich of the Scripps Research Institute found that "CNS [central nervous system] function is clearly affected by meditation," adding that "the likelihood for clinical utility of meditation practice in conjunction with psychological and neuropharmacological therapies is a strong impetus for future studies."

MEDITATORS HAVE BIGGER, BETTER BRAINS

Now, a recent study led by Eileen Luders at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), "Enhanced brain connectivity in long-term meditation practitioners," which was published this month in the journal Neuroimage, has found that long-term meditators have more gray matter than those who don't meditate.

"People who meditate also have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy," reports Science Daily. "Having stronger connections influences the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain. And significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas."

"Our results suggest that long-term meditators have white-matter fibers that are either more numerous, more dense or more insulated throughout the brain," Luders said. "We also found that the normal age-related decline of white-matter tissue is considerably reduced in active meditation practitioners."

This follows an earlier study conducted by Luders that found that "meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions."

For meditators, this is good news, because as we age, the brain shrinks and connections inside it weaken. As the Buddha said, "Meditation brings wisdom." But it also gives you a better brain.

GET INVOLVED
  • Watch a video of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, leading a session of mindfulness meditation at Google
  • Get an introduction to mindfulness meditation (free iTunes audio tracks from Mindful Awareness Research Center, UCLA)
  • Say YES to expanding critical habitat for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Sea Turtle Restoration Project)
  • Californians: Voting is coming up for a shark fin ban. Contact your Senator and speak up for sharks (Oceana)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
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CHECK OUT PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: A large statue in Bangalore depicting Lord Shiva meditating (Wikimedia Commons)

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Monday, August 22, 2011

Physicists & Priests | The Power of Faith: Are We Neurologically Wired for God?

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." — Voltaire

In an episode of the British television drama "Wire in the Blood," protagonist Dr. Tony Hill, a psychologist and serial killer profiler played by Robson Green, is asked if he believes in God. He replies, matter-of-factly, "I believe in the power of faith."

It's a canny response. To believers, his words are reassuring. To non-believers, the statement is a sly reminder of the sway that religion has held on mankind for millennia.

But considering the vast capacity that humans have for logic, how has religion held humanity in its grip for so long? Perhaps this phenomenon has a logical, scientific basis. Perhaps that formidable feeling of faith — at turns magnificent and terrifying — derives its power not from a soul or some sort of spiritual grace, but from within the recesses of the human brain.

HEAD CASE: THE RISE OF A NEW REAL-WORLD "X-FILES"

This realm — the study of correlations between spirituality and gray matter — is neurotheology, a term first used by the English writer Aldous Huxley in his novel Island, the utopian counterpart to his 1932 classic Brave New World. 1962 Neurotheology is a very tiny corner of academia. (Think of the cramped basement office at the FBI Building where "X Files" special agent Fox Mulder toiled away, trying to prove the existence of aliens.) A recent search for "neurology" or "theology" on Google Scholar returns over 1 million articles. "Neurotheology" represents a less than a thousandth of that scholarship, with a mere 898.

One wonders what kinds of new discoveries might be made if neuroscientists and theologists worked together more often. But, while he may be a far cry from Agent Mulder, associate professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Andrew B. Newberg is one of the few scientists who are forging head-first (pardon the pun) into this rather rarefied field of inquiry.

NEW BUT OLD: THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF NEUROTHEOLOGY

Acknowledging that neurotheology "is still in its nascent stages" in his 2010 book The Principles of Neurotheology, Newberg also points out that "the relationship between the mind and human spirituality has been considered for at least several thousand years."

"This intersection was described in the ancient Hindu scriptures of the Upanishads in which it was realized that something within us, particularly in the head, enables us to explore and experience the universe via our cognitive and sensory processes and also to discover our own sense of spirituality."

THE LORD OF THE MIND: REASON NEED NOT APPLY

The Upanishads, ancient philosophical texts that are the foundation of Hinduism, were described by Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo as "the supreme work of the Indian mind." Newberg asserts that the following passage, from the late Vedic, pre-Buddhist Taittiriya Upanishad of the 6th or 5th century BCE, reveals "the importance of the body and the brain in achieving spiritual enlightenment":

"Between the two palates there hangs the uvula, like a nipple — that is the starting point of Indra (the lord). Where the root of the hair divides, there he opens the two sides of the head, and saying Bhu, he enters Agni (the fire); saying Bhuvas, he enters Vayu (air); saying Suvas, he enters Aditya (sun); saying Mahas, he enters Brahman. He there obtains lordship, he reaches the lord of the mind. He becomes lord of speech, lord of sight, lord of hearing, lord of knowledge. Nay, more than this. There is the Brahman whose body is ether, whose nature is true, rejoicing in the senses (prana), delighted in the mind, perfect in peace, and immortal."

In his defense of Salman Rushdie after the author was sentenced to death by Ayatollah Khomeini for his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wrote in the New Statesman, "The whole point of religious faith, its strength and chief glory, is that it does not depend on rational justification."

That's also why Agent Mulder got stuck with the crappy basement office.

ACTION ALERTS
  • Say YES to freeing 55-year-old Saigon, Australia's last circus elephant (Animals Australia)
  • End cruelty to NYC horses: Say YES to a ban on New York City's carriage horse industry (banhdg.org)
  • Each year around 18,000 racehorses are sent to slaughterhouses — say NO to horse racing (Animals Australia)
  • Save beagles from lab breeding farm (Care2)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter (@13point7billion)
THE BAD STUFF
  • President Obama's decision to allow ocean drilling off the coast of Alaska is "hugely troubling" (NRDC)
  • Nearly 1 in 10 children have ADHD (Care2)
THE GOOD STUFF
  • Tonight, look up: Find out what's in the sky tonight (Sky & Telescope)
  • India Elephant Polo Match Canceled Amid Protest (Care2)
  • Air Force: Science and Regulation Dovetail to Give Wind Power a Boost (Justmeans)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
PHYSICISTS & PRIESTS
PAST SERIES
  • Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  • Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  • Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
  • Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
  • Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
  • Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
  • Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
  • Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
  • Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
  • Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)
[Last month, "Deep Space" looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series "Physicists & Priests" considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]

image: Triumph of Faith Over Idolatry by Jean-Baptiste Théodon (1646–1713) (Wikimedia Commons)

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