The “Paranormal” Is Normal
“Psychic phenomena are normal in the sense that they are common: for example, most people have made other people turn round by staring at them, or had seemingly telepathic experience with telephone calls . . .. But because these experiences do not fit in with the materialist mind-in-brain theory, they are classified as paranormal, literally meaning ‘beyond the normal’. In this sense, ‘normal’ is defined not by what actually happens, but by the assumptions of materialists… If psi phenomena exist, which I think they do, they are normal, not paranormal; natural, not supernatural. They are part of human nature and animal nature, and they can be investigated scientifically.”
–Rupert Sheldrake (English Biologist, Researcher and Author, 1942-)
“Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery” (Rupert Sheldrake)
Science and Spirituality
“The deepest intelligence of philosophy and science are inseparable from a religious view of the world.”
–Rudjer Boskovic (Dubrovnik-born Jesuit Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer and Philosopher, 1711-1787)
Mystics and Scientists
“A physicist who rejects the testimony of saints and mystics is no better than a tone-deaf man deriding the power of music.”
–Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian Philosopher and, from 1962-67 President of India, 1888-1975)
The Scientific Delusion
An important comment from a new book that I recommend most highly:
“The delusion that science has already answered the fundamental questions chokes off the spirit of enquiry. The materialist agenda was once liberating but is now depressing. Those who believe in it are alienated from their own experience; they are cut off from all religious traditions; and they are prone to suffer from a sense of disconnection and isolation.”
–Rupert Sheldrake (English Biologist, Researcher and Author, 1942-)
{The Scientific Delusion a.k.a. Science Set Free}
“Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery” (Rupert Sheldrake)
Good Science Is Creative and Revolutionary
“Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law.”
–William James (American Psychologist and Philosopher, 1842-1910 )
“The will to believe, and other essays in popular philosophy” (William, 1842-1910 James)
Science and Wisdom
“Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.”
–Bertrand Russell (Welsh Mathematician, Philosopher, Pacifist and, in 1950, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1872-1970 )
“RC Series Bundle: What I Believe (Routledge Classics)” (Bertrand Russell)
Knowledge Is Our Destiny
“We are a scientific civilization. That means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a Latin word for knowledge. Knowledge is our destiny.”
–Jacob Bronowski (Polish-born British Scientist, Author and Poet, 1908-1974)
“The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence” (Carl Sagan)
Perspectives on Science and Truth
“The theist is persuaded that while nothing that contradicts science is likely to be true, still nothing that stops with science can be the whole truth.”
–Gordon W. Allport (American Psychologist, 1897-1967)
“The Individual and His Religion: A Psychological Interpretation” (Gordon W. Allport)
Locked Into Paradigms
“Science today is locked into paradigms. Every avenue is blocked by beliefs that are wrong, and if you try to get anything published by a journal today, you will run against a paradigm and the editors will turn it down.”
–Sir Fred Hoyle (English Astronomer, Mathematician and Writer, 1915-2001)
Miracles
“Miracles do not happen in contradiction of nature, but in contradiction of what we know about nature.”
Saint Augustine of Hippo (Numidian-born Theologian, A.D.354-430)
Still true, seventeen hundred years later.
(Numidia, by the way was in North Africa, and the city of Hippo was in modern day Algeria, not too far along the coast from modern Tunisia and Libya. So next time you are on a quiz show… 🙂
