Teaching Science, teaches thinking through a system of demonstrable facts. This system can be quite shocking when applied to religion. All sorts of mental gymnastics ensue when trying to fit the mythology of religion into a scientific structure. Trying to prove religion can often lead to launching logical thought off of unfounded premises giving the appearance that logic and reason are in the house.
This also happens with science. Much of science that is bandied around in the culture such as quantum physics and the big bang theory are just that theories, not facts. Yet absolute beliefs in the way that life works eg: the creating your own reality cults that have sprung from quantum theory are acting more like a religion than a science in many cases.
Religion comes from ancient texts that are finite. We watch science evolve before our very eyes and our belief systems adjust as we learn more. In our lifetime the shifts in perception that genetics alone has given us are breathtaking eg: all biological organisms carry DNA, all humans came out of Africa, and until recently our culture believed we were at the mercy of our genes alone and now we know that genes get turned on and off from external experiences. Imagine if we had stopped science at the point where we had learned we were at the mercy of our genes? That would be a religion in the making and a false one that would lead to limitations and prejudices.
But in our culture science is owned by corporations. Discovery not for it’s own sake but funded to be commodified. It too often carries the stamp ‘how much money can be made from this, what drugs can we develop from this new discovery, can this be a tool for war,’ not ‘who are we, what is the world?’.
What do we hang onto then? Why are so many taking medications for this plague of depression and anxiety? Has leaving religion and embracing science, which is owned by the corporate sector, left people without basic human comfort. Because there is such a stigma on religion and science is a part of commerce and commerce about positioning, networking, winning, filling our minds with ‘how to get’ rather than ‘how to be’ we have become a nervous mess. What are we missing?
In their pure form outside their use to manipulate for gain, the feelings of faith, patience, kindness, comfort, generosity, empathy, love, grace, peace and wonder, are there for us to have. They offer us nothing except the experience themselves – the reward of patience is patience. Though we often associate them with religion they were not invented by religion but are states innately available to all that have been given names and context through culture and religion. Turning away from religion and into a cynical society focused on gain have we left behind those states of being because they can’t push our agenda forward and are associated with dead religions?
Certainly this planet goes on and on despite what religion is in vogue, what government is in power, what is being taught in schools. Whatever we discover about the macro world, the micro world or our inner world we are all just riding on planet earth with our feelings of love, peace and wonder available for our pleasure, for their own sakes. Lucky us, at least we have that.
Science is always on the move and requires us to remain fluid. It is only limited by our questions. It is not an absolute and never can be as questions are infinite. That makes Science an Art. Let’s not treat it like a religion or only for the sake of the market.
Reclaim your birthright of faith, hope, peace and love. Do it with Art – poetry, painting, singing, dancing and science. That’s what Art is there for.
Arts in school? Yes but for their own sake not to please a parent, win a prize or groom a child for the marketplace but to allow them to remember their nature and to stir kindness and generosity in with their school work. Art is medicine.
