Originally Posted By: redewenur
Surely there are a great many people from other religious cultures with similar 'Humanistic' perspectives. Well, at least, I like to think so.

Revl.
This was sort of "off topic" over there, so I thought I'd quote and respond over here....
In response to my post:
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=25998#Post25998
you wrote:
Originally Posted By: Revl.
Samwik, you have given us some very heady stuff to think about. Much of it is new information to me. I only wish I had enough science to understand, in simple terms, what it means, in detail; and to be able to explain, in simple and practical terms, what it implies for our known universe.

The Chaos, Solitons & Fractals Abstract mentions, "the stochastic underpinning of the universe itself."
Stochastic? Does this mean, having to do with random and variable processes. If so, it certainly helps me understand what the great mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead was trying to say when he wrote about process philosophy and theology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/whitehead/#WPI
Out of his work came panENtheism, which, to avoid confusions with pantheism, I call unitheism.

I hope you catch my post on "stochastics" over on Semantics....
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=26012#Post26012

I was thinking that "to be able to explain, in simple and practical terms, what it implies for our known universe," one need only look to the great religious literature, Vedas, Bible, etc.

From stochastic, the phrase "self-similar processes" came up and reminded me of the metaphor 'we are made in G0d's image' (or something like that).
There's a lot of language in religious texts that can be understood in terms of the "physics of cosmology."
Dharma, the true reality, is distinguished from Maya, that illusion we call the material world.

Of Maya: Bhagavad Gita Ch.7, Verse 6. "Know these two- my higher and lower natures- as the womb of all beings. Therefore, I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe."

Of Dharma: "Verily, that which is Dharma is truth." -(Brh. Upanishad, 1.4.14)

For Sikhs, "Dharma" means the "path of righteousness".
Other important aspects of a Sikh's life include Sewa
(dedication to the service of God's creation)
Thanks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma

p.s. I studied Whitehead's Metaphysics back in the 1980's. No wonder we think alike!
smile


Pyrolysis creates reduced carbon! ...Time for the next step in our evolutionary symbiosis with fire.