Conversations Beyond Science & Religion

Holograms form when a laser beam splits and then re-unites after one beam reflects off an object and the other split beam reflects off a mirror. The three-dimensional hologram duplicates the real object and occupies space, but is an illusion. Some scientific theorists have even speculated that the universe is a 3-D reflection of information stored in a quantum field. This week’s guest, Robin Kelly...

What is the meaning of life? Of all Big Questions, this one may be at once the biggest, and the most befuddling. But can we proceed through life without at some point confronting the question? And, more importantly, does the question have an answer? On this show, Professor Jay Garfield of Smith College and the University of Melbourne (among other institutions), and lecturer for the Teaching Compan...

Science and religion appear to offer the only explanations for how the world came to be. Science starts with the Big Bang, moves to galaxy formation, planets, and then life, at which point evolution begins. Many religions point to the Book of Genesis as telling the secret of how the world began. Science rejects supernaturnal causes; religion relies upon them. This week’s guest, Solomon Huriash ( h...

The 2012 Presidential election presents many contrasts: tax policy; health care; foreign policy; abortion -- and religion. Barack Obama practices a form of a rationalist Christianity inspired by the African-American church; Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and would be the first person of that faith elected to the Presidency. If nothing else, this sharp contrast in religious affliations will add a spiritu...

A quantum leap describes the odd way in which an electron jumps between orbits around an atomic nucleus without ever occupying the space between the orbits. But these leaps do not only occur at the atomic level. Springing to a new physical state also describes leaps of creativity, where the mind arrives at a new destination as if by magic. This week’s guest, James J. Mapes ( http://jamesmapes.com/...

By most measures, the world of humankind is not in great shape. Civil wars; starvation; religious strife; homelessness; environmental threats; mass murders; individual and corporate greed; the list goes on. In some ways, we seem to have let our lower nature, our "animal ways," dominate our spiritual or higher selves. In his book, Human Natures, Of Animal and Spiritual ( http://www.amazon.com/Human...

Scientific theories tell stories. In science's current materialistic story, we play the part of "survival machines," programmed to replicate genes and pass them onto our offspring. Quantum theory, as interpreted by this week's guest (appearing live), renown quantum physicist, Dr. Amit Goswami ( http://www.amitgoswami.org/) , tells a different story. Consciousness, Dr. Goswami teaches, must ultimat...

The scientific, "show-me" mindset of the U.S. may think of yoga only as an assortment of body positions. But yoga is a far richer subject. Its goal is to harmonize body, mind, and spirit with the outer world, to unite the whole being with a universal consciousness. In her new book, The Tenth Door: An Adventure Through the Jungles of Enlightenment, ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Tenth-Door-Adventure-E...

Our current mindset is in deep conflict: most people believe in the reality of the paranormal, but modern science says it's all make-believe, if not a fraud. Meanwhile, since the late 19th century, paranormal researchers, using the methods of science, have built an impressive case supporting the reality of psychic phenomena ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology) . It would seem that someth...

In 1993, Noble prize-winning physicist, Leon Lederman, published a book entitled, The God Particle ( http://www.amazon.com/God-Particle-Universe-Answer-Question/dp/0618711686/ref =sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342057927&sr=1-1&keywords=god+particle+lederman). The book was about a particle, hypothesized most prominently by Peter Higgs, which is associated with a field that permeates the universe and...

We are conditioned to look at the world as if we are physical beings; spiritual experiences become outliers filled with mystery: how did life arise from the dust; consciousness from the brain; or spirit from the heavens? Are we separate creatures forever disconnected from each other? In his book, The Phenomenon of Man ( http://www.amazon.com/Phenomenon-Man-Pierre-Teilhard-Chardin/dp/0061632651/ref...

The famous American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson ( http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/) , wrote that "the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind." Maybe he was right. Sources as diverse as the holy scriptures and modern cosmology tell stories of how the universe began, how it will end, and how it may rise again. But perhaps these sources are telling the same story...

An unavoidable fact of science is that the universe is finely-tuned to allow life to exist. Fundamental forces and constants, from the rest mass of the electron to the sun's distance from the Earth and the strength of "dark energy," appear to be adjusted to ensure a stable universe and the possibility of life. Scientists, faced with this fine-tuning, confront the age-old dilemma of whether to brin...

No question has more befuddled the mind of man than whether there is life after death. Many religious systems are based on a belief in an immortal soul or on another life that awaits us beyond the grave. Reported near-death experiences give clues to a hidden dimension of consciousness revealed only to those on death’s doorstep. But perhaps no one has approached the mystery of life after death from...