Everyone knows that something is screwy with the way we visualize the cosmos. Theories of its origins screech to a halt when they reach the very event of interest -- the moment of creation, the "Big Bang."
The current scientific model proposes that the universe is like a watch...
Posted November 14, 2011 | 11/14/11
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? ... When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" --Job 38:4,7
Was there a creator?
As a child I found myself playing on the center of God's stage. From some hidden celestial...
Posted September 27, 2011 | 9/27/11
All life can be traced back to some single-celled organism in the early Archean sea. Today − nearly 4 billion years later − you and I find ourselves sharing the planet with elephants and whales, and over 8 million other eukaryotic species. Clearly, we're all interrelated, but are...
Posted July 27, 2011 | 7/27/11
The question, "What is it like after you die?" can make you wonder about taking the time to ponder such philosophical babble. You might reply, "The only way to know is when you die." Not so. You won't know any more than you do now. Increasingly, scientists are beginning to...
Posted May 25, 2011 | 5/25/11
We all know the biological reason we age and die. Our bodies break down and are discarded like an old car or a worn-out pair of jeans. No one escapes the ravages of time. Or do they?
The big question is why is the universe this way to begin...
Posted April 20, 2011 | 4/20/11
Does your cat or dog have a soul? What about a flea?
In the last century, science has undergone several revolutions, with profound implications for answering this ancient spiritual question.
Traditionally, scientists speak of the soul in a materialistic context, treating it as a poetic synonym for the mind....
Posted April 1, 2011 | 4/1/11
In "Avatar," humans mine a lush moon inhabited by blue-skinned extraterrestrials, the Na'vi, who live in harmony with nature. Human military forces destroy their habitat despite objections that it could affect the bio-network connecting its organisms. On the eve of the big battle, the protagonist Jake communicates via a neural...
Posted March 2, 2011 | 3/2/11
For over 10,000 years we've looked to the sky and gods for answers. We've sent spacecraft to Mars and beyond, and continue to build even bigger machines to find the "God" particle. We're like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," who went on a long journey in search of the...
Posted February 17, 2011 | 2/17/11
We evolved in the forest roof to collect fruit and berries. True, after millions of years of evolution, we've developed ICBMs and guns, and even flung a piece of metal outside the solar system. But despite SuperColliders containing enough titanium wire to circle the earth 16 times, we've no more...
Posted February 10, 2011 | 2/10/11
You've laughed and cried. And you may even fall in love and grow old with someone, only to be ripped apart in the end by death and disease. The universe leaves you dead or grieving with a hole in you as big as infinity.
Are we part of a...
Posted February 3, 2011 | 2/3/11
We've been taught our consciousness -− and everything else in the world -− flows like an arrow in one direction from the cradle to the grave. But an amazing set of experiments suggest the present and the future are entangled, and that events in the future may influence things happening...
Posted January 20, 2011 | 1/20/11
We've been taught we're just a collection of cells, and that we die when our bodies wear out. End of story. I've written textbooks showing how cells can be engineered into virtually all the tissues and organs of the human body. But a long list of scientific experiments suggests our...
Posted January 13, 2011 | 1/13/11
Have you ever wondered what it's really all about? How does this little life of ours fits into the larger picture -- into a reality so huge the Universe itself is but a speck?
We go to and fro our affairs, baking cookies and digging up Sarah Palin bikini...
Posted January 3, 2011 | 1/3/11
All human knowledge is relational. What is light without dark? Good without evil? Perhaps free will and determinism, order and chaos, something and nothingness, are simply different sides of the same circle of scientific logic. As science has penetrated the atom, we've discovered that solid matter consists mainly of empty...
Posted November 12, 2010 | 11/12/10
Why do you happen to be alive on this lush little planet with its warm sun and coconut trees? And at just the right time in the history of the universe? The surface of the molten earth has cooled, but it's not too cold. And it's not too hot; the...
Posted November 4, 2010 | 11/4/10
When I was young, I stayed at my neighbor's house. They had a grandfather clock. Between the tick and the tock of the pendulum, I lay awake thinking about the perverse nature of time. Mr. O'Donnell is gone now. His wife Barbara, now in her nineties, greets me with her...
Posted October 6, 2010 | 10/6/10
Is there a higher level of being? Or are we merely a collection of atoms -- more dust spinning around the center of the galaxy?
James Watson, who discovered the structure of DNA, once said: "You've got to be prepared sometimes to do some things that people say you're not...
Posted September 16, 2010 | 9/16/10
You spend a third of your life sleeping. What if your dreams are real? Perhaps our dismissal of dreams as "just dreams" is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of consciousness and physical reality.
"I am real" said Alice (in Wonderland). "If I wasn't real, I shouldn't be...
Posted August 18, 2010 | 8/18/10
Recent discoveries require us to rethink our understanding of history. "The histories of the universe," said renowned physicist Stephen Hawking "depend on what is being measured, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has an objective observer-independent history."
Is it possible we live and die in a world of...
Posted July 30, 2010 | 7/30/10
Is it just a one-in-gazillion chance that you happen to be alive, now, on top of all time? Or is there a more rational scientific reason? Grade-school math tells us the probability of being on top of infinity is zero. If space and time are tools of the mind, then...


22 Comments | Posted January 5, 2012 | 1/5/12