What might our greatest creation be?

I asked myself tonight: what is the greatest creation we can ever create? Some of the answers that came up were: our lifetime's accomplishments, our love and dedication to others, our children. Now all of these are great answers, surely, but ask yourself "what would really be the one thing, the one creation, accessible to all, that could encompass and surpass them all?" While you're pondering that, here's what I came up with.

As the only creatures in God's creation endowed with full and complete freedom, our greatest creation would be to create in ourselves a pure and radiant heart in which the divine light of love is reflected upon all humanity, to transform ourselves (or allow ourselves to be so transformed) so as to mirror forth all the names and attributes of God that are potentially latent within us. Wouldn't you agree that such a goal is attainable by each and every individual since the dawn of time and into the unfathomable future, regardless of our background, circumstances or station in life?

"Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, than an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage, to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight!" - 'Abdu'l-Bahá

What caused scientific progress?

My good friend Gabriel sent me the following:

From a speech by UCLA computer science professor Judea Pearl:

What Galileo showed us is that you cannot have one honesty without the other; scientific truth demands scientific honesty, and scientific honesty demands intellectual honesty overall.

We all remember the 1000 years of zero scientific progress through the middle ages -- what caused it?
The conventional answer is that the Church was repressive of scientific discourse. But this could not be the whole story, there was no repressive Church in the Muslim world. And Muslim scientists had access to the richest libraries of the time, well-funded astronomical observatories and all the writings of the Greek and Roman philosophers. So why didn't a genius like Galileo emerge in Cordoba or Alexandria or Baghdad in the 8th or 9th century?

Why was science held back, in almost total stagnation for 1000 years, until, as though by miracle, the genius of Copernicus, Vieta and Galileo emerged in dark-ages Europe, of all places? Can you imagine where mankind would be today had the renaissance and the scientific revolution taken place in the 5th century instead of the 15th?

What Galileo taught us is that permission to read, translate, observe and use fancy equipment is not enough; the development of Science requires a restless and rebellious spirit, a spirit that puts the individual at the center of the universe and proclaims: "I don’t care about Aristotle and his fancy books, I want to see these two rocks dropped from the tower of Pisa, and I want to see them with my own two
eyes."

In other words, what Galileo showed us is that you cannot truly search for the truth unless you are free to rebel against the detractors of truth: conventional wisdom, peer pressure, sacred cows, wishful thinking, revered authority and hidden agenda, in short, free to perceive yourself as an AGENT, in control of your destiny, not an OBJECT, at the mercy of destiny.

Remarkably, this Western perception of man as a free agent, sometimes called the "scientific philosophy", it not always taken for granted, even today.

and here is my answer:

There's something to be said for this professor's opinion. Here's another thought (credit goes to others who first proposed it):


The Revelation of Baha'u'llah required certain scientific and technological developments to be already in place so that His Cause could reach the whole world, as it was intended to do. (Note that the Spirit of Baha'u'llah has been eternally alive and has directed the course of human affairs since the beginning of history.)

Without the ease and speed of travel that enabled Abdu'l-Baha, Martha Root, and others to undertake their world-shaking journeys, the constant, reliable and near-instant communication between the center of the Faith and the followers of the Faith scattered throughout the world, the inexpensive mass-production of literature, and the rise of a global media network, among many such requirements, the Faith of Baha'u'llah could not have grown and blossomed as it has nor reached the thousands of citizens around the world whose lives are being transformed by His redeeming message of unity and peace.

This is why science flourished when it did. In my experience, scientific insights are not the result of a person's "own unaided efforts"–they are a divine gift entrusted to a receptive soul. The purpose of study and effort is to purify the soil so that the seed of insight may take root. How many and which kinds of seeds are planted is up to God–whether they are cared for and flourish is up to us.

In summary, we have to accept that we are objects of mercy and bounty while at the same time acting as free agents, responsible for the portion that has been given us in this life.

Two excellent TED talks

Steven Pinker on the myth of violence:
Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence

Robert Wright on (cynical) optimism:
Robert Wright: How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict

I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free

- Closer to Fine, by Indigo Girls

If evolution is the response, what is the stimulus?

Evolution and natural selection are the best descriptors of the process that results when a certain set of conditions are established and maintained in the physical world. This raises the question: how were these conditions established and maintained?

Untitled

What are the pieces
and how do they run?
Who put them together
and made them all one?

Stare at the beautiful
pieces that run.
Admire the web
He has lovingly spun.

The future

Five thousand years ago, the Egyptians built a civilization whose greatest art and science survives to this day, inspiring us with beauty and awe, a testatment to the capacities of the human spirit. If they could produce such marvelous works that have withstood the test of time, how much more should we, who are the inheritors of the entire world’s cultural, artistic, scientific and spiritual heritage, contribute our share of beauty and creativity to posterity. Today, in spite of our technological advancement, we are far from accomplishing anything even remotely as wonderful as what the ancient Egyptians have created.

The eradication of poverty and preventable diseases, the provision of employment and sufficient and nourishing food for all, the end of war and conflict, these are easy problems to fix. These are the easy questions. These are but the beginning of the rest of our collective life. What we do next is the real challenge.

Our duty is to work for the unification of the human race so that we can set ourselves to the more serious task of building a civilization whose works will bear testament to our capacity to work as a unified humanity and survive into the furthest reaches of time.

Amazon.com: The Last Lecture: Randy Pausch,Jeffrey Zaslow: Books

Amazon.com: The Last Lecture: Randy Pausch
"I think the most important thing I learned as I grew older was that you can't get anywhere without help. That means people have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good operational answer to the existential question: 'What kind of person should you try to be?'"

My Purpose in Life

My purpose in life is to investigate reality and share what I discover with others.

Sounds vague, right? Well, it so happens it perfectly captures and explains my all-embracing curiosity and love of knowledge, whether it's art, literature, physics, math, medicine, cosmology, theology, meditation, dance, technology and the list goes on.

And it explains why I listen so intently and why I'm not afraid to appear in public, why I'll try almost anything at least once, why I love to travel and need constant novelty in my life.

Andre Gide quote

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide

Going Public with the Religious Process

Adapted from
"Going Public with the Scientific Process" by Ruth Cronje
published in Science 14 March 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5869, p. 1483
DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5869.1483d
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5869/1483d
(write me for a copy of this article if you cannot access it yourself)

==========
The idea of using framing strategies to communicate religion to the public has recently been taken up in religious forums, the mainstream media, and the blogosphere. Most participants in the framing religion debate limit their notion of religious information to religious truths. However, confining religion messages to just the truths interferes with public understanding of religion as a systematic, logical process of human inquiry and effaces the distinction between reality and religionists' reasoning about reality. To communicate successfully, we should focus on religious process by emphasizing two important elements of religious rationality: skepticism and dynamicism.

Religionists deliberately integrate skepticism into their procedures by trying to refute their own hypotheses, retaining them only when confronted with compelling evidence sought through carefully controlled procedures. Religionists tend to shy away from revealing the intrinsic skepticism of religion to the public, fearful that it will open the door to doubt about the validity of their conclusions. But communicating only the truths of religion (framed or unframed) destabilizes public confidence in religion. A truth doesn't allow religion communicators to reveal, justify, and ultimately promote the skeptical reasoning process that helps make religionists more confident that their reasoning is correct.

Religion is also dynamic; it is a cumulative enterprise that requires religionists to situate their instrumental activities and interpretations against the evidence that has come before and to alter them in light of new evidence. Insisting that new reality be interpreted within the context of past and future reality will ferret out and correct error over time, but it means that a truth cannot, by definition, be anything more than the (ephemeral and fallible) consensus of religionists at a given point in time. A "just the truths" strategy can and often does backfire, ultimately fueling public alienation from religion. When religionists inform the public of "truths" (as with the Catholic Church's 16th-century claim that the sun and planets revolved around the earth), and then that "truth" is refined or altered, the public is justifiably confused. Studies suggest that the public tends to regard normal religious refinement and self-correction as equivocation or incompetence. Instead of sweeping uncertainty under the rug, religion communicators should help the public understand the logical and systematic procedures by which religionists confront it.

The true majesty and promise of religion lies in its systematic, logical, skeptical, and dynamic reasoning procedures. "Successful" religion communication should not be regarded as any message that enlists public support for religion. Rather, we should define "success" in religious communication as achieving a public that celebrates religious reasoning procedures.
==========


I wanted to remain as close to the original as possible, so I made only the following substitutions:

science --> religion
fact --> truth

and I had to substitute a different example of refinement: in this case, I chose the flat earth claim.

Finally, I don't know what studies suggest regarding public perception of "normal religious refinement and self-correction" but I left the phrase intact.

Uganda has got it going on!

A very recent article on the Baha'i World News Service site features a clip from a recently released film titled "Opening a Space - The Discourse on Science, Religion and Development in Uganda." Watch the video clip and tell me if its contents aren't THRILLING.

This. is. ex.ac.tly. what. I want to do with my life. To have this discourse, to contribute to these efforts, to see people come together and rise above their own limitations, to create beauty, to appreciate diversity, to contribute to our own well-being and that of others. What could be more exciting...?

Melting a stone block, breaking a crystal case

Religion = Authenticity in all relationships.

The purpose of power is to protect the weak, as a parent to a child, a sovereign to his subjects.

We have tamed and harnessed nearly every power in the universe (albeit on a smaller scale) but the power to transmute and purify the human heart is still beyond our reach.

"I have desired only what Thou didst desire and love only what Thou dost love."
More than expression of a wish, it is a statement that all I have ever loved and desired in my life has been for God and because of God. The definition of love and desire is: love and desire for the things of God.

God is not limited or conditioned by His creation's ability to grasp or understand Him. What is said about Him in Holy Books and Scriptures is for our benefit, not His, and descriptions of Him evolve in refinement and complexity as our capacity grows and our understanding evolves.

Apologizing is the act of placing someone else above our shame. Forgiveness is placing the other above our pride.

Character building in children includes making them experience that which is beneficial to them. In this sense, one does not teach a child, one trains a child as a living being. The child will react in his or her unique way to the experience. The art of parenting is a dynamic interplay between how a child reacts and giving that child what they need in light of their past reactions.

Papyrus collection

I visited the Egyptian exhibition at the German State Museum in Berlin a week ago (on the Birth of Baha'u'llah in fact) and I was deeply impressed by the artistry of their sculptures. What literally took my breath away however was the papyrus collection. I walked into this room, one of the last of the exhibition, completely unprepared for what I was about to feel. An overpowering sense of awe and wonderment at the timelessness of the written word, of its power to move, transform and preserve civilizations. One day it will also be all that is left of us, and yet it will still be alive and meaningful.

What does your Birth date mean?

This is eerily accurate.

Your Birthdate: October 1

You are a natural born leader, even if those leadership talents haven't been developed yet. You have the power and self confidence to succeed in life, and your power grows daily. Besides power, you also have a great deal of creativity that enables you to innovate instead of fail. You are a visionary, seeing the big picture instead of all of the trivial little details. Your strength: Your supreme genius Your weakness: Your inappropriate sensitivity Your power color: Gold Your power symbol: Star Your power month: January

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Parents make a great birthday present

Mom and Dad just left after spending two wonderful weeks with me. Having them here was the best birthday present ever. Not to mention they turned my apartment into a proper home.
Now it's back to focusing on work. I have also resolved not to do so much pondering about the world and more living in it. There'll be plenty of time for pondering later but right now I need more data (scientifically speaking).

Working to music

Today I got a bunch of new music (mostly classical, devotional music) from my Mom. It's great to work to. I've missed working. This week was productive of quality but not quantity. Spent a lot of time with my parents who are only here for two weeks. Still, being given time to drown out the world and focus exclusively on my work is an opportunity that brings me joy and gratitude. Today has been better that way. And I feel my headache beginning to recede, for which I'm also grateful.

That's all for today. Just thought my many readers deserved some update. ;)

What is physics?

This passage from an article written by John J. Hopfield, who served as President of the American Physical Society in 2006, is a beautiful summary of "what is physics". I hope you enjoy reading it and come to understand a little bit more of the world I get to play in every day. :)

What is physics? To me—growing up with a father and mother both of whom were physicists—physics was not subject matter. The atom, the troposphere, the nucleus, a piece of glass, the washing machine, my bicycle, the phonograph, a magnet—these were all incidentally the subject matter. The central idea was that the world is understandable, that you should be able to take anything apart, understand the relationships between its constituents, do experiments, and on that basis be able to develop a quantitative understanding of its behavior. Physics was a point of view that the world around us is, with effort, ingenuity, and adequate resources, understandable in a predictive and reasonably quantitative fashion. Being a physicist is a dedication to a quest for this kind of understanding.

—John J. Hopfield, APS News, 16 (8), Aug/Sep 2007, p.8.

The privilege of education

Yesterday I read the Universal House of Justice's 9 Sep 2007 letter to the Baha'i youth of Iran who are still denied access to higher education. It brought tears to my eyes. The simple fact that I can be where I am and do what I do is something not everyone can have and for that, I should be deeply grateful and exert every effort to ensure that I make the most of the opportunity I've been given.

The Knowledge of God and the Knowledge of Self

The existence of God would imply, amongst other things, that it is possible for every human being to experience the divine for himself or herself.

Sacred Scriptures state that

He who hath known himself hath known God. [Islam]

and also

Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting. [Bahá'í Faith]

So it seems the knowledge of God comes as the fruit of the process of self-discovery. The self that is to be investigated is the self described in all the Holy Texts of the world. For example:

We made man in Our own image and after our likeness. [Christianity]

and again

I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty. [Bahá'í Faith]