Science
Epistemology
Science, according to Merriam-Webster, is “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation”. Science has the final word on whether or not any claim about physical reality may reasonably be regarded as true. A well functioning religion, Pagan or otherwise, must therefore be consistent with the established science of the day. Various religious claims differ in their consistency with science. If they be incompatible, the religion must either adapt to the science or finally become irrelevant. Even cherished scientific models must yield to new and challenging empirical findings. Thus, any modern belief, whether scientific or not, is conditional and dependent for its continued legitimacy on natural facts. Moreover, any mature system of belief must ultimately reject superstition. The cosmos reveals its divinity through the regular patterns of physical laws, not in their capricious violations.
Although the scientific method has certainly proved the most reliable and authoritative epistemology, it is by no means the only legitimate one, nor the only one supportive of human well-being. Perístanom is myth. It is not itself science, nor is it intended to be. Known science cannot be solely invoked to establish the existence of Déiwos. Nevertheless, Perístanom is fully consistent with current scientific understanding. Being so, from a naturalistic perspective, Perístanom is as worthy and acceptable a constellation of beliefs as any other functioning mythology, including atheism itself. While some religions seem too often antagonistic toward the revelations of science, Perístanom encourages scientific inquiry and investigation. Indeed, should Perístanom ever be found to conflict with accepted theory, it is mandated that the former must yield to the latter. It is mythology that must adapt to cosmology, or become irrelevant.
Perístanom offers a model of physical reality that makes several naturalistic, albeit as yet untestable, claims. It asserts that the universe will maintain its evident trend toward ever greater localized complexity and consciousness. Life will continue indefinitely to increase its abilities to manipulate matter and energy purposefully. Eventually, it will attain such knowledge and power that our use of the label ‘demigods’ or even ‘gods’ becomes, it may be argued, wholly appropriate, perhaps even unavoidable. These advanced beings will ultimately achieve mastery over the very act of creation itself. They will carefully engineer the birth of a ‘new’ universe, part of a cyclical, self-consistent, self-contained, self-creating, and vast multiverse through which the transcendent mystery may manifest itself.
[Dr. Tipler’s elegant cosmology is not the only postbiological cosmology to be postulated, although it introduces many key innovations.]
“I have presented and defended my Omega Point Theory at length in my book The Physics of Immortality (Doubleday, 1994), which is available from Barnes & Noble or Amazon. As science, the Omega Point Theory makes five basic claims about the universe:
“(1) The universe is spatially closed (has finite spatial size and has the topology of a three-sphere).
“(2) There are no event horizons, implying the future c-boundary is a point—the Omega Point.
“(3) Life must eventually engulf the entire universe and control it.
“(4) The amount of information processed between now and the final state is infinite.
“(5) The amount of information stored in the universe diverges to infinity as the final state is approached.
“I can show that these five basic claims directly follow from the most fundamental laws of physics: unitarity, general relativity with attractive gravity, and the Bekenstein Bound (a.k.a. the Heisenberg uncertainty principle). . . .
“I also argue that the ultimate future state of the universe, the Omega Point, should be identified with God. I have presented my argument in detail in my book The Physics of Immortality, but a main reason for my identification Omega Point = God, comes from Exodus 3:14. In this passage, God is speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. God gives Moses His Name: EHYEH ASHER EHYEH (in Hebrew, of course). (“.אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה”, “ʾehyeh ʾašer ʾehyeh.”) God’s Name is best translated into English as I SHALL BE WHAT I SHALL BE. In other words, God is telling Moses that His essence is future tense. If we regard God as something Ultimate, then He is telling us that He is the Ultimate Future. Hence my identification Omega Point = God. My translation of EHYEH ASHER EHYEH is taken from the Oxford University Study Bible (Revised Standard Version), but the great German religious leader Martin Luther translated EHYEH ASHER EHYEH the same way into German: ICH WERDE SEIN, DER ICH SEIN WERDE. Luther’s translation of the Bible was to the German language as the King James version was to the English language.
“I am also including on this web page two critical defenses of both my scientific argument and my theological argument.
“My science is defended by Dr. David Deutsch, a physicist at Oxford University. In January of 1998, Deutsch was awarded the Dirac Medal for his invention of the quantum computer. Deutsch’s defense of my science is taken from his brilliant book The Fabric of Reality (Penguin Books, 1997). This book is available from either Barnes & Noble or Amazon. I can strongly recommend this book for its presentation of the Many-Worlds Interpretation, the physics upon which the quantum computer is based. In fact, I agree with almost everything Deutsch says in his book. Where we disagree, I believe it is only because Deutsch has rejected his own theory! . . .
“My theology is defended by Professor Wolfhart Pannenberg, a theologian at the University of Munich, Germany. Professor Pannenberg has been called ‘the most brilliant living theological mind’. He has been termed ‘one of the three great theologians of the 20th century’. He holds five honorary doctors of divinity degrees. He is eminently qualified to judge theology. Professor Pannenberg’s paper . . . was originally presented at a conference on my book, held in June of 1997 in Innsbruck, Austria.
“Amusingly, the theologian Pannenberg is dubious about some of my physics, and the physicist Deutsch doesn’t like my theology! As you will read, Pannenberg does not like the Many- Worlds [sic] Interpretation (which Deutsch—and I—believe in because it is required by quantum mechanics). Deutsch defends the MWI in his book. I am placing on this web page another defense of the MWI, entitled ‘Quantum Nonlocality Does Not Exist’, which shows that locality—a fundamental fact of relativity—is restored to physics by the MWI. I might add that most of the great physicists—Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg, Stephen Hawking, for examples—have publicly announced their support for the MWI.
“I have included my replies to Deutsch’s criticisms of my theology in the excerpts from Deutsch’s book. Deutsch does not like the idea of God as the Ultimate Future, but Pannenberg many years ago concluded, as I have, that the Bible says God is the Ultimate Future.”
You can purchase this fascinating book online through Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or through your local bookseller.
