Science, Religion, and International Relations

Daily news reports are alarming because of guerilla warfare, the recurrence of acts of terrorism worldwide, and the threat of future terrorist acts. Although much of the motivation for these acts is political there is an ideological component underlying this terrible movement. Specifically, a few extremists out of the approximately 1.3 billion in the Islamic world, about 20% of the global population, use parts of the Koran to justify active “holy war” against Israel and its allies. Many more Muslims are inactive but favor these actions. We in the West tend to dismiss the underlying religious motivation by labeling the guerillas as “insurgents” or “ideologues.” It is high time that the competing ideologies were brought into the open and examined in objective detail.

Consider the Middle Eastern tensions. For example, you see in Iran’s Ahmadinejad a head of state who proudly announces his ignorance of world history in order to deny the Jewish people in Israel any sympathy for the 1940’s holocaust. He is subordinate to Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of an Islamic government which foments guerilla warfare through Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza in a campaign of hatred against Israel and its allies. As a Shiite Ayatollah, his religious support for these actions is parts of the Koran which were written nearly 1400 years ago during a time when Islam was under attack, further conditioned by a later power struggle which resulted in the split of Islam into Sunni and Shiite sects. Islam has deified the prophet Mohammed as the sole, final spokesman for a formless God and blindly follows 1400-year-old guidance, heavily steeped in culture of the period, relatively unmodified by current common sense.

Similarly, modern Christianity, although laudably a peaceful religion which stresses brotherly love and humanitarian values, has substituted for a formless God the person of Jesus. The deification of Jesus came into full form about 100 A.D., 71 years after Jesus’ death, with the Gospel of John stating that Jesus was the “Word made flesh.” The concept was codified over 200 years later by committee, to the exclusion of other interpretations of Jesus’ life and message.

Science, which is also a religion of sorts, is the only truly universal search for truth because of the scientific method. The scientific method is based on direct observation of phenomena in the natural world. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in a Creator, although differing on what happened in their respective recorded histories. But they all understand and use the same set of physical principles. What would happen if it could be proven that there is a Creator as a scientific statement? Well, there is proof of the reality of a Creator by observation of everyday experience which has been ignored by science. One can reasonably state that God is the only explanation for existence based on the argument below.

The best hope for world peace is for church leaders to abandon the forensically impossible trappings of their histories, recognize that there is one formless God, and work together to seek equitable resolutions to conflicts. Then thugs such as the Islamic extremists in places like Somalia, stealing humanitarian aid intended for the suffering and highjacking merchant vessels for ransom, would be exposed as the unrepentant evil they are. The proof that there is one formless God lies in the philosophy of presentism.

One of the definitions of presentism is the belief that all existence is in the present. This belief can be demonstrated objectively. You will observe that it is always “now.” Everything that has ever existed has only existed in the present. But in the physical sciences such terms as “now” or the “present” are colloquially useful but have no place in science. The physical sciences, which defer self-awareness to the behavioral sciences, are limited to observed phenomena only—the external visible universe.

It has been argued that presentism is not valid because it conflicts with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This argument is false. Presentism actually complements the laws of physics in explaining existence. The perceived conflict is due to the basic tenet of science—seeing is believing. Relativity is based on the interaction between speed of relative movement and the speed of light in the sight process. This is in order to maintain consistency of physical principles for all conditions of motion. It establishes the speed of light as the maximum possible speed in the visible universe. But the universal instant postulated by presentism is independent of the propagation of light. The luminal limit is challenged by phenomena such as quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement is the term given to results of experiments indicating simultaneous particle linkages at distances requiring interactions at many times the speed of light. The demonstration of superluminal speed is important because a part of the proof of a Creator has to do with immediate particle re-creation.

If you draw a time line representing all experience from the Big Bang into the future, you have to place a pointer we term “the present” to represent where you are in time. You will notice that the pointer is the only fixed point on the time line. You also will notice that the elapsed time for the interval which is the present is 0. That means that the visible universe is being continually recreated in the present, an interval where time does not exist. The present is eternal. A continual recreation in the present means that the visible universe is a Creation and there must be a Creator, an intelligent creative reality which can maintain the visible universe.

My name is Maynard Person. I am retired from a business career. Science, philosophy, and comparative religions have been leisure interests for many years. Presentism has answered most of my life questions. Because of the religion-based madness we see daily in the news I wrote an essay a couple of years ago, now published as an e-book, entitled “God and the Conservation Principle.” For those who want the whole presentation in detail, the book is available at http://www.eloquentbooks.com/GodAndTheConservationPrinciple.html. The publisher will charge $9.99. Those who stay with the series of blog posts I plan will receive most of the content at no cost. The objective here is to spark a very public debate.

There is a caveat in the thesis I am proposing. When you elevate the Almighty to a level of universality equivalent to science, you must abandon as truth the forensically impossible trappings of organized religions. This could be quite beneficial in undermining the religious justifications for terrorism used by Islamic extremists. It also rejects the deification of Jesus. Jesus is an important historical figure for the wisdom, compassion, and moral leadership demonstrated in the credible parts of the gospels. Christology, the belief that Jesus was God in human form, is an invention of the early Christian church, adopted by committee about 300 years after Jesus’ martyrdom. The Christian ideals of kindness, forgiveness, charity and faith in God are not unique to Christianity. They are also present in Islam, Judaism and other great religions. Acceptance of presentism need not undermine the spiritual benefits of worship. If anything, the certainty that there is a God should enhance the experience.

Thanks in advance for constructive comments, questions, or good-faith criticism. Response to this blog will tell me if these ideas have popular value or if a single voice cannot be heard amid the modern information overload. The effect of superstition must be stripped from international affairs to remove the ideological fuel for terrorism. Pragmatism is the only sound course in human affairs and is the key to conflict resolution. Emotion is involved, of course. But an objective proof that God is real is important and positive.

The next post I plan is a brief summary of the physicist’s world view and its relationship to the realization that the present is the only reality. Except for the relation to presentism it will be too limited to be of great interest to a reader with formal education in the sciences. But for the general reader it might be enlightening. Following that post, I plan to present a very brief summary of the histories of Islam and Christianity, including analysis of parts of the Koran which provide a religious basis for the current worldwide guerilla warfare.

There are many publications which cover these topics. They vary in their detail, in their authors’ credentials, and in their popularity with the general public. But I haven’t seen any which integrate these topics in a manner which is necessary to provoke some positive action.

I would like to see a general realization that the visible universe is a Creation and a Creator must exist. This is a challenge to atheism. Organized religions pose no doubt that there is a God but they vary widely in their personifications while offering important ritual guidance on how to relate. If you are interested, welcome to the discussion. If you think you can prove this material wrong, you are doubly welcome. We may quibble over semantics or precision but the thesis is solid. Many world leaders are working within their political constraints to reduce the threat of terrorism, with little apparent success. If you can add anything effective to reduce terrorist activities, God bless you.