Reader’s contributions: Where will the Next Great Discovery Come From?

We present a reader’s contribution from Mr. A. Brown of Sussex. We welcome your thoughts or comments or new perspectives on this or other topics
Mathematicians, Philosophers, Scientists, Psychologists, Clergymen, etc. have all rowed into the subject of improving the lot of Man. All have sought more and more improvements to older beginnings, better ideas on and means to get to a better condition or to improve civilisation.

Religion advocates moral codes and finding ( and sometimes obeying or worshipping) God. Whether we define God as a Being with omnipotence or simply a state of infinite potential, it matters little if there is no effective roadmap that works for all. How does one tap into God?

The Christian bible says ‘seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given unto you …etc. Where and how? If it were that easy many more would have done it and we’d be well on the way as a race. Or does take eons of time? Is He saying we have to go through the hoops to near destruction to come up with the answer and in the meantime just believe in Him? If so we are certainly doing that.

The Buddhists and other Eastern religions seem to have come closest to the answer, by giving their version of the 10 commandments plus advice on and a technique for attaining spiritual enlightenment , this being ‘God’ to them, not a single all powerful Being. But this seems limited, that is, limited by the ability of its adherents or practitioners to apply it.

Science and Mathematics has given us somewhat of a mastery of all things physical or material which at best has given us comforts and facility but also the means to destroy the planet? What madness is this? Are we planning on transferring to the moon or Mars when this happens? However we are told it is human to err.

Psychology has given us a few theories and practices on we errant humans. The jury seems well out on whether this is developing the solution. Psychiatry, its offshoot, which by definition is the treatment of the soul or mind (even then are these two things the same?) has mixed up the soul with the body (brain) and uses force and chemicals to address spiritual or mental problems. This has failed if not exacerbated the problem. Then again it is human to err.

If any of these subjects is the way to find God they are very incomplete as evidenced by the increasing problems of our societies.

Perhaps Religion is the closest to solving our dilemmas on the basis that it at least recognises that we beings are spiritual, completely, and God ‘made us in his own image’ if you like. Religion seeks to enhance our inherent abilities.

Does it really matter what you call a spirit or who God is if one can improve the condition of a person by Education or some effective counselling. Whatever, isn’t it simply a matter of finding a better way of addressing a real live being and getting him or her to change his or her mind about things, take better decisions, and live by true ethical principles? You are appealing to the PERSON to do better, to reason more optimumly.

Religion does this best but needs an advancement and to perhaps get away from ‘only one God’.

If the next greatest advancement has got to come from this field, the problem is we are conditioned to think that if you can’t sense it with the 5 main senses, or measure it in some way, then it doesn’t exist. How can you recognise and deal with a spirit if isn’t any THING? Don’t most people think they are bodies and when they expire it’s game over?

This problem is so bad that the inquiring minds of scientists are hamstrung by their own specialisation in the ‘physical’.
How many of our brainiest top dogs could admit to being this far wrong even if the evidence of a troubled society and a disparate planet is all around them? But no one is infallible.

Sure we can go to the moon and travel faster than sound, and do all sorts of things with energy but we can’t solve human affairs like Brexit, or economic solvency, climate change agreements, drug proliferation, ad infinitum.

The spanner in the works is the entity behind all these realities – the spiritual and mental state of the maker of these conditions. Is this not Religion?

Blinkered senses and outright dogmatism and perhaps vested interests have so much to answer for. Who knows, the answer may already have been found, be right under our noses, so close to our eyes, so unbelievable that it can’t be believed. Didn’t the great minds of Earth used to think that the Earth was square, not so long ago? Until the great adventurer, Christopher Columbus, or someone, ‘ disappeared off the edge of existence ‘ to find a whole New world?