Feb
19A New Challenge To Modern Scientific Enquiry
Tagged Under : a, Method. of Syllogism, philosophy
Rationalist philosophers, from Aristotle to Bertrand Russell, have given philosophy methods of conducting syllogistic inferences – logical analysis. Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason, has proved beyond doubt that we cannot penetrate the tremendous dead wall called reason.
If the philosophy of reason was true and perfect unto itself, then its effect would have been to lead the human race to perfection. But as we see that nothing of the kind has happened. On the contrary, all that the philosophy of modern civilization has created has ended not in the evolution of man to a higher level of existence, but in chaos and confusion.
All philosophy is of the thoughts of the mind, and mind is collective memory of known experiences. How can you think of that which is unknown? The sense universe, as it were, is only one portion of that infinite spiritual universe projected into the plane of sense consciousness. How can this little bit of projection be explained or understood without knowing that which is beyond? It follows naturally therefore, that all enquiries of the unexplained, of the beyond, will have to take its stand, dare to seek, and succeed in finding something higher than reason.
That is why we see that there is a growing school of thought, particularly in theUS, which seem to be convinced that the universe was possibly created not only by random mutation and natural selection, asDarwin suggested, but by Intelligent Design of an Unseen Power as well. These words, ‘Intelligent design’, ‘Unseen Power’, ‘Free Will’, ‘Conscious Intelligence’, alien to science until recently, have had to become an essential part of modern scientific enquiry if it were to study those phenomena that they relegate to the realm of “The unexplained.”
Those who argue in favour of Intelligent Design say that even the single cell is too complex to be created by natural selection alone. Thirty proteins are arranged in a single cell in a specific order of sequence and quantity, and the removal of a single protein makes the cell dysfunctional. For thirty proteins to fall into a particular pattern is too much of a coincidence.
Researchers have invented a new scientific term, called “heirophany” where machines can record the brain patterns of persons who experience a higher power behind everything which people call God. Observation of the brain scans of persons, who can remain in a state of consciousness, when they experience spiritual oneness, showed that there is a distinct, repeatable brain pattern involved with the experience, and this experience is as real as any other experience when they are in their most alert state. It stands to reason then, that there exists the One Source in reality that the brain is allowing us to experience.
On the other hand, extensive neuropsychological studies conducted on near-death patients have shown that they experience an expanding consciousness even when they are clinically dead; the machines registering no brain activity at all. Despite this state, a majority of these ‘clinically dead’ could think a hundred times faster and with greater clarity than is humanly possible. Then there are patients with acute pancerebral ischemia, due to which they become clinically unconscious, but still they can think and feel as clearly as if they were fully conscious.
All these empirical evidences have opened up the fundamental question: that
Consciousness seems to have nothing to do with the physical body condition – whether healthy, sick, awake, sleeping, unconscious, or even near-death. Then, “Is Consciousness dependent on our physical existence or is independent and continues beyond death of the body as well?” Even for science it is becoming an increasingly undeniable syllogistic inference that Death cannot be the end of consciousness. They have stumbled on to the realization that there must exist some kind of force, some energy, which manifests as the Source in all life forms and upon which the future course of all scientific investigation will have to be founded in order that the fundamental question relating to life and existence is answered. Darwin’s theory of natural selection applies at the level of the material world while that of Intelligent Design applies at the level of consciousness, but how can the two be interrelated still remains a question mark, echoing once again the Kantian dictum of the unbreakability of the dead wall of Reason.
Bhaskar Banerjee is deeply involved in the quest for unraveling that fountain of strength contained within us all. His diverse inspirational awareness programs, talks, sharing of various articles, newsletters, have helped many take a glimpse into the joy of their being. Currently associated with an affiliate website 24-7 for high demand products, you may like to click below to have a look that could be of interest and value for you.
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Tags: a, Method. of Syllogism, philosophy
