Thoughts on
Science and Faith
What can we know?
by
Michael John
available as ebook at Amazon.com
Science and religious faith are both belief systems, and they share more in common than you might think. They are both attempts to understand the truth about reality. This book explores the underlying assumptions of both science and faith and offers new insights on the science verse religion debate. It turns out that the same assumptions used to justify science can be used to justify the Christian faith. There seems to be a deep connection, and an effort is made to explain the physics of miracles, the afterlife, and heaven.
I've been debating atheists in various discussion groups on-line since the mid 1990's. And I have been slowly converging on a philosophy that incorporates both science and religion (Christian religion). This book is the result of those efforts. This is written for the general public; no special knowledge is assumed. There are no math equations or diagrams. I introduce some concepts and arguments to prove my point with hopefully enough discussion to give them credibility. Perhaps the book can be expanded with further discussion.
I can be contacted using this contact form.
Some Featured discussions in the book:
God can be defined as the truth that underlies all reason and ensures that all
facts in the universe form a consistent set. God in this view is the axiom from
which all reality is derived. Therefore, all evidence is evidence of the
existence of God; it is evidence that all facts are being held together in a
coherent way by an abstract, almighty power of reason so that evidence has
meaning in the first place.
To say that there is no afterlife is to pose a theory
that is inherently unobservable. If you no longer exist, then you cannot observe
the fact that you do not exist. Does this unobservability of no afterlife,
therefore prove that there is an afterlife? There are only two options, either
there is or there is not an afterlife. The only observable option is that there
is an afterlife, for at least in this option you can observe.
Truth can be defined as that which corresponds to
reality. Stated another way, the purpose of reality is to represent the truth.
But what are the characteristics of truth to be represented? How do we recognize
what is true? Truth has the character that any attempt to negate the truth only
results in proving it. This is demonstrated in many professions. Yet it is we
humans who are most interested in demonstrating truth. So the ultimate
demonstration of truth will be in the attempt to negate the life of someone who
upholds what is right and true with all his strength, only to result in him
coming back to life. The resurrection is the ultimate truth.
Jesus did miracle of healing and provision. And he
continued to do these miraculous works of compassion even in spite of threats
and persecution from the religious leaders. Eventually, they captured,
falsely accused him and convicted him of blasphemy, even thought he had done no
harm. They condemned him for his faith because he said he was the Messiah. And
they handed him over to the romans to be crucified. He suffered and died and
they buried him. And because he persisted in doing good even unto death, Jesus
suffered for the cause of love and proved sincerely devoted to righteousness.
Yet God raised him from the dead because God does reward people for their faith.
Eventually, Jesus will return from heaven and appear in
great glory. And then those who love him will be vindicated and raised from the
dead and be gather to him in glory as well. However, those who hate him will be
astonished and ashamed to the point where they are no longer able to live with
the shame of being so completely wrong. And so the appearing of Jesus will be
the judgement of mankind. This will fulfill the expectation that truth will be
revealed in reality. Christ will symbolize the truth. And we humans symbolize
propositions. And as propositions are judged by what is truth. So we will be
judged by the appearing of Christ.
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Detailed Chapter Outline:
Chapter 1
What is Truth?
• Here I explain a few theories about truth.
• Correspondence theory of truth.
• Coherence theory of truth.
• But can we ever know the truth about physical
reality?
Chapter 2
To Define God
• The universe is logical in all detail.
• A short list of assumptions that
scientists make is given.
• Everything is reasonable.
• Science and theistic
faith share the same fundamental premise.
• God is the very reason that maintains
the logical consistence of all the facts in reality, and here’s how.
Chapter 3
Observable or Not
• A little bit about how the theories of science are supposed to work.
• Some
examples of unfalsifiable theories.
• Can science state that something actually
defies reason?
• Can there be brute facts in Nature without explanation?
• Can
throwing dice be truly random?
Chapter 4
Meaning of Life
• Does science provide any meaning to life?
• Science is only concerned about
predicting experiments.
• You can’t experiment with meaning.
• From Galileo to
Newton to Einstein.
• The laws of physics are provisional.
• We can’t know we
have the final theory.
• Science does not address issues of purpose, meaning, or
faith.
• The purpose of reality is to demonstrate the principles of logic.
• It
is we humans who represent reason.
• Heaven and hell represent true and false.
Chapter 5
The Purpose of it All
• How is the character of truth proven?
• Truth overcomes all
attempts to negate it. This is used in many professions.
• Life demonstrates
this character of truth.
Chapter 6
An Afterlife
• Existence is our foremost concern.
• Some think there is an afterlife, other do
not.
• The source that inspires virtues and vices.
• Posing that there is no afterlife is
not a falsifiable theory.
• Practically falsifiable and inherently falsifiable
theories.
• Posing no afterlife is inherently unobservable. But does this prove
that the afterlife exists?
• Some have near-death-experiences.
• What about
life before being born, or reincarnation, or being replicated?
Chapter 7
What is the Soul
• How can the soul continue without the body?
• The soul is more than the brain.
• The spirit is that part that believes; the soul is what it is you believe.
• The soul is abstract, not concrete.
• The soul is what brainwaves are
about.
• Some thoughts are better than others.
Chapter 8
Entropy and the Soul
• A brief description about entropy, information, and the latest theories.
• Entropy
may depend on the accuracy of the laws and the initial state.
• Many choices make
for more entropy in the soul.
• Theorists say spacetime itself is a medium of
information storage.
• The soul might be stored there after death.
• Could a
shrinking cosmological event horizon require low entropy events to occur?
Chapter 9
Paradigm Shifts
• When do scientists change their theories?
• Faith and deeds is like the scientific
paradigm of theory and observation.
• The interpretation of life is a Rorschach
test.
• Everything we do assumes an ultimate future state.
• Virtue and sin is
defined by acts of the expectation of an ultimate future.
• The afterlife will
bring a judgement on every single person.
• The afterlife can be compared to a
dream.
• If the afterlife is real, then that spiritual reality can be accessed
in this life as well.
Chapter 10
Test the Paranormal
• Scientists want physical evidence that paranormal phenomena exist.
• But the
science of the paranormal is problematic. We don’t even know how to
scientifically define
faith.
• Miracles are context dependent; you can’t repeat them.
• Shall we
create the distress all over again so we can see the miraculous intervention
again?
• So investigators study innocuous situations of no real importance.
• What
then are miracles? Miracles would also have to be part of the ultimate laws of
Nature.
• Thermodynamics and quantum theory both allow unusual events to occur.
• How are thoughts like a wave function of quantum theory?
• We are all connected
through the background of virtual particles.
• When we die, our souls get
transferred to this virtual background.
Chapter 11
Resurrection
• There is no difference between living in the afterlife or the resurrection of
the dead.
• Your faith will be vindicated by the resurrection.
• Life and death are
like true and false; so we study the characteristics of truth.
• God’s
judgment of human souls will be how the universe demonstrates the logic behind
it.
• The only physical evidence of an immortal soul is the resurrection.
• You’ll have to be expecting a resurrection if you are going to receive it.
• Some
history about the resurrection.
Chapter 12 Christian Resurrection
• Christian scriptures go into some detail on how the resurrection will happen.
• So
must a messiah come first and rise from the dead?
• The first to rise will have to
be of a special character.
• The rest of us are just redeemed sinners compared to
that.
• He is the standard by which we are judged.
• He is not like the supposed
dying and rising gods of mythology.
• There is some hint of this in Jewish
scriptures.
Chapter 13
The History of Jesus
• A brief history of Jesus as found in the New Testament.
• He did miracles; he
taught in parables, and he drew large crowds.
• But he ran into controversy with
the religious leaders.
• He claimed to be the Messiah.
• So the religious leader
accused him of blasphemy and threated to kill him.
• Yet he continued to heal
people anyway.
• So the religious rulers paid someone to betray him.
• They captured
him at night and tried him in secret.
• They handed him over to the Romans who
crucified him.
• He was buried nearby, but three days later is rose from the grave
and appeared to his disciples.
• His disciples began to preach about what they
experienced.
• And now we have to discern what it all means.
Chapter 14
His Intent
• The meaning of the gospels seems clear in summary.
• He predicted that they would
kill him, yet he continued anyway.
• So he suffered for the cause of love and
proved sincerely devoted to righteousness.
• And here are the verses in Scripture
that prove it.
• Because he was so devoted to God, God raised him from the
dead.
• What someone believes about Jesus say a lot about their intentions?
Chapter 15
The Atonement
• How does Christian salvation work?
• We need an example to inspire us to believe.
• Love for Jesus becomes love for his cause and cleanses our hearts of evil
intent.
• Other theories of atonement and evidence for them.
• The penal
substitutionary atonement theory and its controversy.
• These other theories seem to only be
analogies.
Chapter 16
Atheist Objections
• Atheists don’t believe in the miracles of Jesus, and some don’t believe he ever
lived.
• Some say the gospels are 3rd century fabrications, but we have
historical documents from the late first century.
• Some say the story changed
over time, but the essential story was understood early on.
• If the gospels were
a late fabrication, then it would have been impossible to correctly name people
and places used 100’s of years earlier.
• The parallelomania of mythicists
is a big conspiracy theory.
• God is not like the flying spaghetti monster in the
sky.
• No alternative theory for the resurrection works.
• There was no motive for
the disciples to lie.
Chapter 17
Jewish Objections
• Most Jews reject Jesus as Messiah because not enough biblical predictions have
been fulfilled.
• He can’t be Messiah until everyone follows him, and no one
will follow him until he has first proven worthy of their honor.
• So does
Scripture predict a suffering Messiah?
• They object to the Trinity, that God
cannot be a man.
• But God appears many times as a man.
• There are many scriptures
that refer to God as a Father, the Holy Spirit, and as the Son.
• Messiah is
supposed to represent the highest authority, namely God.
• And we expect the rest
of the predictions to be fulfilled at the second coming of Christ.
Chapter 18
The Second Coming
• Jesus is worthy of honor, and one day he will come again in great glory.
• Everyone will be judged by comparison with him on that day.
• An antichrist is
predicted to come first.
• The scriptures that will be fulfilled.
• Wouldn’t the one
true religion affirm the most expedient expression of truth, the resurrection?
• The coming of Christ will completely exemplify the nature of truth.
• Will the
Rapture happen before the tribulation?
• Why should anyone want to come back to
life to live on earth again?
• What happens when the earth becomes overpopulated
again?
• Why does God allow evil?
Chapter 19
A New Heaven and Earth
• The new heaven and earth are a result of God’s final judgement.
• The afterlife
will become materially manifested; heaven and hell will become real.
• How can a
just God punish forever for finite sins?
• What about those who have never heard?
• It’s easier to believe when you know about Jesus as part of history.
• The new
earth for his friends, the new heaven for his family?
• The universe started out
smaller than an atom.
• It corresponded to truth distinguished from false, and
that’s how it will end.
• Heaven and hell will represent true from false. And
everything will be perfectly logical.
Chapter 20
The Physics of Heaven
• What principles of Nature could God use to bring about the new heaven and earth?
• What does human certainty have to do with the certainty calculated in physics?
• God is the one collapsing the wave function.
• Our minds are like wave
functions.
• Our souls exist in the virtual world, below the zero point energy
level of the Uncertainty principle.
• Cosmic inflation was driven by a false
vacuum energy that fell to the present vacuum energy.
• The new heaven and earth
may result from another fall of the vacuum energy.
• This may be triggered by the
complete defeat of all opposition.
Chapter 21
What is Heaven Like
• What could we possibly do for eternity without getting bored?
• It will be like a
constant miracle.
• And our beliefs will become immediately real.
• Supernatural
abilities will become common place there.
• People will be organized according to
their beliefs and intentions.
• We will live in the New Jerusalem, where
we will all love each other and see God’s face.