Albert Einstein1
- The Scientific Exploration, and Adoration, of Reality
- A Religion of Scientific Truth?
- Scientific Pantheism
- Satanism: The Worship of Truth
- The Scientific Exploration, and Adoration, of Reality
- A Religion of Scientific Truth?
- Scientific Pantheism
- Satanism: The Worship of Truth
1. The Scientific Exploration, and Adoration, of Reality
"The God Delusion" by Prof. Richard Dawkins (2006)2
That maths is both an artform, and a beautiful enterprise, is something that is often-repeated by those in-the-know. Likewise, it is a common theme that those who enjoy the sciences - the challenges of scientific theory - often have greater feelings towards their chosen fields than the cold experience of technical number-crunching pitted with moments of inspiration. The ongoing search for truth bestows upon its adherents a glowing satisfaction and awe at the wonder of the universe.
Reality is simultaneously complex and simple, engaging and passive, black and white and colourful. Out of simple laws comes complexity, and out of the chaos of experimentation slowly comes understanding. The scientific methods of understanding the world can involve a person completely and fully; the intellectual and rational commitment to hard work and truth are obvious. Not so obvious is the emotional wonder and adoration that arises within those who seek the truth. Philosophers and scientists, as Dawkins' points out, have had a tendency towards an almost mystical and pantheistic love of the fabrics of reality. Steven Weinberg, professor of physics and astronomy, says in The First Three Minutes (1977) that "the effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce"3. Understanding gives meaning and value to life.
2. A Religion of Scientific Truth?
The cold hard facts of science can seem inhuman, belittling and sometimes even demoralizing. The unfortunate truths of the ultimate facts of life, thought and teleology have led some laypeople to presume that such knowledge leads itself to nihilism. This concern is not, however, accurate. Scientists, cosmologists, physicists and other researchers often find that the universe is inspiring, the more they learn. Prof. Richard Dawkins, the foremost public evolutionary biologist, explains that such abstract concepts are irrelevant to our spiritual existential problems.
“There is indeed no purpose in the ultimate fate of the cosmos, but do any of us really tie our life's hopes to the ultimate fate of the cosmos anyway? Of course we don't, not if we are sane. Our lives are ruled by all sorts of closer, warmer, human ambitions and perceptions. To accuse science of robbing life of the warmth that makes it worth living is so preposterously mistaken, so diametrically opposite to my own feelings and those of most working scientists.”"The Selfish Gene" by Prof. Richard Dawkins (1976)4
Scientists develop feelings that are the opposite to nihilism. This happens so strongly that some people equate the search for truth with sanctity. And more.
Carolyn Porco (2007)5
“Carolyn Porco, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., called, half in jest, for the establishment of an alternative church, with Dr. Tyson, whose powerful celebration of scientific discovery had the force and cadence of a good sermon, as its first minister."”Skeptical Inquirer (2007)5
Prof. Porco's call is an echo of what an earlier esteemed astronomer and prominent scientific thinker was wondering about. Carl Sagan wrote, 13 years ago:
“A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.”Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (1994)
Such a universe-admiring and science-embracing religion does exist! Paul Harrison founded the World Pantheist Movement in 1997. Although the word 'theist' is used in the title, scientific pantheism is not a theistic religion. The title merely denotes that all of reality is a divine total - God is not a supernatural being in its own right.
3. Scientific Pantheism
"Scientific Pantheism" is a science-first philosophy of life that embodies an emotional embrace of reality, including reverence for the universe itself. On its good side, Pantheism is a wholesome embrace of the beauty of the natural universe and natural laws, and has a genuinely inspirational attitude towards scientific endeavours to understand nature better. But on its bad side, it sometimes degenerates into a mixture between bad poetry and pointless word-mincing. Nonetheless, pantheists can draw upon a convincing and commanding list of eminent scientists amongst their ranks, including Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and James Lovelock, religious leaders such as Spinoza, and a host of philosophers and academics.
James Lovelock
Born 1919. "An atmospheric chemist, inventor and environmental theorist. Lovelock [portrayed] the Earth's biosphere as a complex, self-regulating, living 'being', which he named Gaia (at the suggestion of the novelist William Golding). Although the Gaia hypothesis extends the ecological idea by applying it to the Earth as an ecosystem and offers a holistic approach to nature, Lovelock supports technology and industrialization and is an opponent of 'back to nature' mysticism and ideas such as Earth worship. His major writings include Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) and The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our Living Earth (1989).""Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood
“We take the real universe and nature as our starting and finishing point [...]. We feel a profound wonder and awe for these, similar to the reverence that believers in more conventional gods feel towards their deity, but without anthropomorphic worship or belief that Nature has a mind or personality that we can influence through prayer or ritual. Our ethics are humanistic and green, our metaphysics naturalist and scientific, but to these we add the emotional and aesthetic dimensions which humans need to joyfully embrace their place in the universe and to motivate their concern for nature and human welfare.In the WPM we revere and care for nature, we accept this life as our only life, and this earth as our only paradise, if we look after it. We revel in the beauty of nature and the night sky, and are full of wonder at their mystery and power. Our beliefs and values reconcile spirituality and rationality, emotion and values and environmental concern with science and respect for evidence. ”
"Pantheism" by Paul Harrison
Generic pantheism (without the 'scientific' prefix) is a very wide religious umbrella term, and includes people from Buddhists to philosophers, and can include new age ideas, nature-religions and a milliary of superstitions It also includes some Earth-worshippers and pagans. Gaia worship, featured above, is an example of Earth-centric pantheism. This page has discussed scientific pantheism which is strictly universal in scope, and generally skeptical in nature.
4. Satanism: The Worship of Truth
This is an excerpt from my "Satanism: The Worship of Truth and Reality" (2005), which is an exploration of the concept of the search for truth and how it applies to Satanism.
Satanists seek to abolish foolish things and things that cloud the mind or will. The worship of truth is a compelling journey that invigorates life and gives meaning. The destruction of lies is an unholy mission that we have dedicated our lives to. The preservation of lies is the abode of religious dogma. In dogma lies an absence of thought and a failure to search for truth.
“Satan represents Doubt. God did not want Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. Allah did not want his creation to doubt his word. In both theologies, it was Satan, the most intelligent created being, who stood up against this enforced ignorance. Satan tells mankind: Search for knowledge, even in taboo places. Shaitan told the Djinn: Let us test God's word, let us not mindlessly believe all that God says. Although these myths are irrelevant to the modern world, the role of Satan is very much relevant to our lives and our search for knowledge. Enlightenment is the ability to look past stated truth and dogma, and Lucifer is the Crown Prince of Satan that represents our search for enlightenment.”
"Doubt" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)
Anton Lavey, the founder of the Church of Satan, proclaimed in line with the scientific method, that: "Without the wonderful element of doubt, the doorway through which truth passes would be tightly shut" and this is reinforced by the Book of Satan, the first book in the Satanic Bible, verse 7, which reads: "No hoary falsehood shall be a truth to me; no stifling dogma shall encramp my pen!" However untraditional this defence of the scientific method may seem, it is still to the merit of Satanism that it actively seeks to reduce religious ignorance.