The use of abstraction applied to the derivation of hypotheses in the centuries following Newton has produced a magnificent edifice of intellectual thought called science. The great scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries explained the nature of heat, light, electricity, magnetism and most other phenomena observed at the experiential level to such an extent that many scientists were convinced that their work was done, that there was nothing more to explain, that the foundation of science had been completed. In spite of this paradigmatic mindset, in a burst of intellectual energy in the first half of the twentieth century, modern science was created, a new paradigm was developed, and scientific knowledge was extended from the depths of the sub-atomic to the limits of the cosmos. Yet in spite of the success that modern physics has had in describing the nature of reality, it has not completed its goals.
Physical science is incomplete because: (1) it hasn’t found the Lagrangian, an equation that unifies all the forces and particles; (2) it hasn’t found an explanation for several troubling observations known collectively as quantum weirdness; (3) it hasn’t found the ground of reality, i.e., the base explanation of energy, gravity, mass, inertia, dark energy, dark matter, and all the rest of their abstractions. There is some evidence that the modern paradigm has run its course; the study of matter and energy is ensnarled in the mathematical morass of the super-string theory and the speculative multi-verse theories.
Biological science is incomplete because Darwinism has explained all that it can by skipping over the critical mysteries of the three main creation events: (1) abiogenesis - the creation of life, (2) *somagenesis *- the of creation multicellular life, and (3) psychogenesis - the creation of man with an associated mind and soul. The attitude of the best scientific minds as they defend Darwinism and grope for speculate theories that merely address parts of the three creation events is symptomatic of science constrained by its own paradigm that excludes God.
Because the philosophical principles to which science adheres were codified as logical positivism that (1) rejects the idea that reality has some purpose, (2) rejects any attempt to explain natural phenomena by attributing reality to an essence or a secret cause of things, (3) advocates the study of constant relationship among things without delving into the underlying causes, and (4) rejects any explanation not verifiable through the senses as meaningless, science self-restricts itself to a partial truth.
Having traveled down the path of positivism, scientists have found themselves in a cul-de-sac in which the truth about creation, life, mind, and soul are not to be found. In dedicating itself to that which can be observed and/or measured, science merely describes and doesn’t explain reality, it is time to rethink the philosophical principles by which science operates.
The wonder of reality is how intrinsically rational it is. The patterns of matter interacting with matter are so rhythmic and precise that mathematical equations are written to describe them. The equations of physics are so useful that there is a tendency to think of them as the reason that reality exists. One should never be fooled that equations cause the patterns of reality that we observe, they merely describe the patterns. Newton’s law of gravity does not cause gravity. The explanation of the patterns of reality must exist at a deeper level than the laws of physics. There are scientists that suspect that something inexplicable creates that which the laws of physics describe, but most, adhering to the positivist philosophy, are satisfied with the success of the laws of physics and feel there is no need to delve deeper.
Science is locked in to a partial truth of reality because it has proceeded as though there was no God and have ended up in the cul-de-sac. Isn’t it time for science to proceed as though there is a God? If they do, I contend they will find the complete truth about reality. They will find that God creates and sustains at the ground of reality, an implicate level, and we experience and science observes and describes at an *explicate *level.
The whole truth can only be found when philosophy replaces the current restrictive principles with which science operates with a new set that allows for a broader investigation of reality. When that happens we will realize that: (1) the foundation of reality is a hylomorphic duality of material and spiritual; (2) space is discrete not continuous; (3) reality is driven by information not energy; and (4) reality is modeled by algorithms not mathematical equations.
Yppop