SAME WORLD, DIFFERENT WORLD BELIEFS
The Spiritual Belief
“Whatever being there is,
endowed with glory and grace and vigour,
know that to have sprung from a fragment of My splendour.”
The Bhagavad-Gita
***
The Classical Belief
“Euclidean space and Aristotelian time have formed the basis of
a paradigm that has been remarkably enduring.
This world view has survived
virtually unchanged since it was first proposed
nearly twenty-five hundred years ago.
Almost without exception everyone in Western
society uses this ancient system.”
Euclid’s Elements and Aristotle’s Logic
Art and Physics, Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light, by Leonard Shlain, 1991.
***
The Galilean Belief
“The discovery and use of scientific reasoning by Galileo
was one of the most important achievements in the history of human
thought, and marks the real beginning of physics.
This discovery taught us that intuitive conclusions based on
immediate observation are not always to be trusted…
The Galilean relativity principle is valid for mechanical phenomena.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938.
***
The Mechanical Belief of Newton
“We speak of the force of attraction between
the sun and the earth,
the earth and the moon,
and of those forces which cause the tides.
We speak of the force by which the earth compels ourselves
and all the objects about us
to remain within its sphere of influence,
and of the force with which
the wind makes waves on the sea,
or moves the leaves of trees.
When and where we observe a change in velocity,
an external force, in the general sense,
must be held responsible.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938,
The Rise of the Mechanical View, Newton’s Principipia.
***
The View of Field Belief
“A field may be regarded as something always
associated with a current.
A changing magnetic field is accompanied
by an electric field.
As field represents energy,
all these changes spreading out in space,
with a definite velocity,
produce a wave.
The electromagnetic wave spreads
in empty space.
The velocity of an electromagnetic wave
is equal to the velocity of light.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938, Maxwell’s Laws.
***
The Relativity Theory
“It arose from necessity,
from serious and deep contradictions in the old theory
from which there seemed no escape.
The strength of the new theory lies in the consistency
and simplicity with which it solves
all these difficulties, using only
a few very convincing assumptions.
The general theory of relativity gives a still deeper
analysis of the time-space continuum.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938.
***
The Quanta Belief
“ Thought and ideas, not formulae,
are the beginning of every physical theory.”
***
“If we had to characterize the principal idea
of the quantum theory in one sentence,
we could say:
it must be assumed that some physical quantities
so far regarded as continuous
are composed of elementary quanta.”
***
“Is light a wave or a shower of protons?”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938.
***
“Science is not just a collection of laws,
a catalogue of unrelated facts.
It is a creation of the human mind,
within its freely invented ideas and concepts.
Physical theories try to form a picture of reality
and to establish its connection
with the wide world of sense impressions.”
***
“The psychological subjective feeling of time
enables us to order our impressions,
to state that one event precedes another.
But to connect every instant of time with a number,
by the use of a clock,
to regard time as a one-dimensional continuum,
is already an invention.
So are the concepts of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry,
and our space understood as a three-dimensional
continuum.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938.
***
“With the help of physical theories we try to find
our way through the maze of observed facts,
to order and understand the world of our
sense impressions.”
***
“We want the observed facts to follow
logically from our concept
of reality.
Without the belief that it is possible to grasp reality
with our theoretical constructions.
Without the belief in the inner harmony of our world,
there could be no science.”
The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield, 1938.
***
***
“The purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves
and to forget ourselves.
When we forget ourselves,
we actually are the true activity of the big existence,
or reality itself.
When we realize this fact,
there is no problem whatsoever in this world,
and we can enjoy our life without feeling any difficulties.
The purpose of our practice is to be aware of this fact.”
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki.
***
***
“In Science Set Free, Dr Rupert Sheldrake,one of the world’s most innovative scientists,shows that science is being constricted by assumptionsthat have hardened into dogmas,which are not only limiting,but dangerous for the future of humanity.”***“According to these dogmas, all reality is material or physical;the world is a machine made up of dead matter;(Think Newtonian Mechanics)nature is purposeless;consciousness is nothing but the physical activity of the brain;free will is an illusion;God exists only as an idea in human minds,imprisoned within our skulls.But should science be a belief system,or a method of inquiry?”***“Sheldrake shows that the materialist ideology is moribund;under its sway, increasingly expensive researchis reaping diminishing returnswhile societies around the world are paying the price.”***“In the skeptical spirit of true science,Sheldrake turns the ten fundamental dogmas of materialisminto exciting questions and shows how all of them open upstartling new possibilitiesabout the nature of our collective reality.”******
Friend Nature: Artist D.A. Hartley 