However, it is an interesting idiosyncrasy of our times that, as a society, we have become increasingly accustomed to the ongoing success of the human mind in probing reality and understanding the world we live in. Indeed, we take many modern aspects of life for granted which would have perplexed many great thinkers not too long ago. Today, even the most breathtaking technological breakthroughs, fostered by this ever growing body of knowledge, describing the universe and ourselves in greater and greater detail, can hardly capture the collective attention span for long. It is as if humanity has come to expect technological wizardry at a steadily accelerating pace. However, simply looking back at, for instance, the evolution of personal computers, information technology, and the Internet in the last decades should instill a sense of awe in everyone. Likewise, looking into the future, anticipating likely advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, bionics, robotics, and autonomous drones, should leave one spellbound. Indeed, genetic engineering (specifically gene editing techniques), brain-computer interfaces, brain-scanning techniques, and pharmacology promise an eerie age of human enhancement just around the corner. Moreover, the socially disruptive potential of the blockchain (Sect. 7.4.3), the Internet of Things, virtual reality, and 3D printing should definitely not be underestimated. We are living at the threshold of a brave new world, materializing itself from pure knowledge. In the words of the historian Yuval Harari (Harari 2015, p. 463):
While our knowledge of the world has clearly increased dramatically, the realization of the limits of understanding has been more gradual, ambiguous and vague. The growth of uncertainty can be ignored for some time before it poses a serious challenge. In his epic book, called The Passion of the Western Mind , the cultural historian Richard Tarnas analyzes the ideas of the last two and a half millennia that have shaped our modern worldview. His verdict on this simultaneous increase in knowledge and uncertainty (Tarnas 1991, p. 325):
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View downloads t
The Greek view, that creation out of nothing is impossible, has recurred at intervals in Christian times, and has led to pantheism. Pantheism holds that God and the world are not distinct, and that everything in the world is part of God. This view is developed most fully in Spinoza, but is one to which almost all mystics are attracted. It has thus happened, throughout the Christian centuries, that mystics have had difficulty in remaining orthodox, since they find it hard to believe that the world is outside God.
In the introduction to Chap. 11, the Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics was mentioned, focusing on contemporary challenges in quantum physics, cosmology, and consciousness. In 2018, the topic of the conference was The Enigma of Consciousness. Speakers from different disciplines were presenting. Among them were Hoffman; Wallace; Horgan, who is well-known for his book The End of Science (Sect. 9.2.2); the theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser, known for his writing about truth and knowledge (Gleiser 2010, 2014); Bernardo Kastrup, who has a Ph.D. in computer engineering, is an entrepreneur, and writes about metaphysics and the philosophy of the mind; and the cosmologist Martin Rees. In former years, the mathematical physicists and cosmologist Roger Penrose presented his views on consciousness (Penrose 1989, 1994, 1997). Other speakers were scholars of anthropology and psychology. One specific topic gravitated around non-ordinary states of consciousness found in the Peruvian shamanic traditions, discussed below. Relating to the concept of primal consciousness, the notion of the ontological primitive was discussed. This describes the irreducible components of reality. Next to matter/energy and space/time it was agreed that consciousness should also be a potential candidate. The challenge this poses to the prevailing materialistic worldview was acknowledged. Wallace invited the audience to ponder the following. In our scientific quest to understand the universe and ourselves, we implicitly incorporate a Eurocentric perspective. Specifically, older truth-seeking traditions found in the East are discarded as being pre-scientific and thus invalid. Wallace argued that any inquiry into the nature of consciousness requires introspection, focus, and awareness. Meditators in the East have been cultivating mindfulness form millennia. In detail:
In mechanizing the concept of living thing, Descartes did not denythe distinction between living and nonliving, but he did redraw the linebetween ensouled and unensouled beings. In his view, among earthlybeings only humans have souls. He thus equated soul with mind: soulsaccount for intellection and volition, including conscious sensoryexperiences, conscious experience of images, and consciouslyexperienced memories. Descartes regarded nonhuman animals as machines,devoid of mind and consciousness, and hence lacking in sentience. (Although Descartes' followers understood him to have deniedall feeling to animals, some recent scholars question thisinterpretation; on this controversy, see Cottingham 1998 and Hatfield2008.) Consequently, Descartes was required toexplain all of the powers that Aristotelians had ascribed to thevegetative and sensitive soul by means of purely material andmechanistic processes (11:202). These mechanistic explanationsextended, then, not merely to nutrition, growth, and reproduction, but also to the functions of the external and internal senses,including the ability of nonhuman animals to respond via their senseorgans in a situationally appropriate manner: to approach things thatare beneficial to their body (including food) and to avoid danger (asthe sheep avoids the wolf).
This is the view that the only reality is the ideal world. This would be the world of ideas. It is the view that there is no external reality composed of matter and energy. There are only ideas existing within minds.
A well known exponent of this view was Plato, a philosopher in ancient Greece (428-347 B.C.). Plato believed that the physical world around us is not real; it is constantly changing and thus you can never say what it really is. There is a world of ideas which is a world of unchanging and absolute truth. This is reality for Plato. Does such a world exist independent of human minds? Plato thought it did, and whenever we grasp an idea, or see something with our mind's eye, we are using our mind to conceive of something in the ideal world. There are a number of proofs of this ideal world. The concepts of geometry, such as the concept of a circle, which is a line equidistant from a point, is something which does not exist in the physical world. All physical circles, such as wheels, drawings, etc. are not perfectly round. Yet our mind has the concept of a perfect circle. Since this concept could not come from the physical world, it must come from an ideal world. Another proof is that from moral perfection. We can conceive of a morally perfect person, even though the people we know around us are not morally perfect. So where does someone get this idea of moral perfection? Since it could not have been obtained from the world around us, it must have come from an ideal world. Platonism has been an extremely influential philosophy down through the centuries.- Omonia Vinieris (2002)
As a student at GCU, you are introduced to the Christian worldview from the start of your programs of study. By thinking from a worldview perspective, you will learn to reflect carefully on the underlying assumptions, motives and intentions that shape views of yourself and the world. You will be challenged to consider the practical implications of your personal perspectives and to refine understandings on the basis of investigation, reflection and dialogue. You are encouraged to consider the needs and interests of others in addition to your own, and to embrace the Christian values of love and service as you prepare to enter the workforce.
If we turn to the roots of our western tradition, we find that in Greek and Roman times not all human life was regarded as inviolable and worthy of protection. Slaves and 'barbarians' did not have a full right to life and human sacrifices and gladiatorial combat were acceptable... Spartan Law required that deformed infants be put to death; for Plato, infanticide is one of the regular institutions of the ideal State; Aristotle regards abortion as a desirable option; and the Stoic philosopher Seneca writes unapologetically: "Unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal... And whilst there were deviations from these views..., it is probably correct to say that such practices...were less proscribed in ancient times. Most historians of western morals agree that the rise of ...Christianity contributed greatly to the general feeling that human life is valuable and worthy of respect.[50]
In opposition to this view, some historians of science, including non-Catholics such as J.L. Heilbron,[214] A.C. Crombie, David Lindberg,[215] Edward Grant, historian of science Thomas Goldstein,[216] and Ted Davis, have argued that the Church had a significant, positive influence on the development of Western civilization. They hold that, not only did monks save and cultivate the remnants of ancient civilization during the barbarian invasions, but that the Church promoted learning and science through its sponsorship of many universities which, under its leadership, grew rapidly in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler all considered themselves Christian. St.Thomas Aquinas, the Church's "model theologian", argued that reason is in harmony with faith, and that reason can contribute to a deeper understanding of revelation, and so encouraged intellectual development.[217] The Church's priest-scientists, many of whom were Jesuits, have been among the leading lights in astronomy, genetics, geomagnetism, meteorology, seismology, and solar physics, becoming some of the "fathers" of these sciences. Examples include important churchmen such as the Augustinian abbot Gregor Mendel (pioneer in the study of genetics), the monk William of Ockham who developed Ockham's Razor, Roger Bacon (a Franciscan friar who was one of the early advocates of the scientific method), and Belgian priest Georges Lemaître (the first to propose the Big Bang theory). Other notable priest scientists have included Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste, Nicholas Steno, Francesco Grimaldi, Giambattista Riccioli, Roger Boscovich, and Athanasius Kircher. Even more numerous are Catholic laity involved in science:Henri Becquerel who discovered radioactivity; Galvani, Volta, Ampere, Marconi, pioneers in electricity and telecommunications; Lavoisier, "father of modern chemistry"; Vesalius, founder of modern human anatomy; and Cauchy, one of the mathematicians who laid the rigorous foundations of calculus.
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