From: desert@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (Desert Man...)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: God or No God...
Keywords: God, Science and Knowledge...
Date: 8 Oct 92 22:32:18 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: Univ. of Arizona...,TSN, AZ...
Nntp-Posting-User: desert


One of the characteristics of the unique God to the knowledge and worship
of Whom prophets and religoius leaders summon us is that He is utterly
inaccessible to sense perception.  In addition, He possesses the attributes
of pre-eternity and post-eternity.  Existing everywhere, He is nowhere.
Throughout the world of nature and sensory being His manifestations have an
objective existence, and His will is everywhere manisfest in the world of
being, all the phenomena of nature declaring the power of that wise Essence...

Of course, such a being that man cannot perceive with his senses, that is not
in any way colored by materiality, and that does not correspond to our normal
experience and observation, is extremely difficult for us to imagine.  Once 
the existence of a thing is difficult to imagine, it becomes easy to deny it...

Those who want to solve the question of the existence of God within the frame-
work of their own intellectual limitations and narrowness of vision ask how it
is possible to believe in an unseen being.  They overlook the fact that sense-
perception, being limited, can help man to know and percieve only one mode of
being; it cannot descover other modes of being and penetrate all the dimensions
of existence.  Sensory organs do not permit us to advance a single step beyond
the boundaries of the suprasensory....

If man through the application of scientific instruments and criteria cannot
perceive the existence of a thing, he cannot deny its existence, simply because
it is incompatible with material criteria, unless he disposes of some proof 
that the thing in question is impossible...

We discover the existence of an objective law from within the totality of 
phenomena that it is capable of interpreting.  If, then, the establishment of
scientific truths is possible only by means of direct sensation, the majority
of scientific truths will have to be discarded, since many scientific facts
cannot be perceived by means of sensory experience of testing...

As far as the realities of the material world are concerned, no rational person
will commonly regard his not seeing or not sensing a given thing in his every-
day life as grounds enough to deny it; he will not condemn as non-existent
whatever fails to enter the sphere of his sense perception. The same will hold
true *a fortiori* of non-material realities...

When we are unable to establish the cause of something in a scientific experi-
ment, this does not lead us to deny the law of causality.  We say only that the
cause is unknown to us, because the law is independent of a given experiment;
no experiment can lead to the negation of causality...

Is it true that all the things we accept and believe to exist have an existence
belonging to the same category as our own or are things that are visible to us?
Can we see or feel everything in this material world? Is it only God we cannot
see with our senses?

All materialists are aware that many of the things known to us consist of
matters and realities that we cannot sense and with which we are not customarily
familiar.  There are many invisible beings in the universe.  The progress of
science and knowledge in the present age have uncovered numerous truths of this
kind, and one of the richest chapters in scientific research is the transfor-
mation of matter into energy...

When the beings and bodies that are visible in this world wish to produce 
energy, they are compelled to change their original aspect and transform it into
energy. Now is this energy -- the axis on which turn many of motions and changes
of the universe -- visible or tangible?

We know that energy is a source of power, but the essence of energy still
remains a mystery...

Take electricity on which so much of our science, civilization and life depend.
No physicist in his laboratory -- or anyone else, for that matter dealing with
electrical tools and appliances -- can see electricity itself or feel and touch
its weight or softness.  No one can directly perceive the passage of electricity
through a wire; he can only perceive the existence of a current by using the
necessary equipment...

Modern physics tells us that the things of which we have sense perception are
firm, solid and stable, and there is no visible energy in their motions. But 
despite outward appearances, what we see and perceive is in fact a mass of atoms
that are neither firm nor solid nor stable; all things are nothing other than
transformation, change and motion.  What our sense organs perceive to be stable
and motionless lack all stability and permanence and immobility; motion, change
and development embrace them all, without this being perceptible to us by way 
of direct sensory observation...

The air that surrounds us has a considerable weight and exerts a constant
pressure on the body; everyone bears a pressure of about 16,000 kilograms of
air.  But we don not feel any discomfort because the pressure of the air is
neutralized by the inward pressure of the body.  This established scientific
fact was unknonwn until the time of Galileo and Pascal, and even now our senses
cannot perceive it...

The attributes assigned to natural factors by scientists on the basis of sensory
experiments and rational deductions cannot be directly perceived.  For example,
radio waves are present everywhere and yet nowhere!  There is no locus that is
free of the gravitational force of some material body, but this in no way
detracts from its existence or lessens its substance...

Cocepts such as justice, beauty, love, hatred, enmity, wisdom, that make up our
mental universe, do not have a visible and clear-cut existence or the slightest
physical aspect; nonetheless, we regard them as realities. Man does not know the
essence of electricity, or radio waves, or energy, of electrons and neutrons; he
perceives their existence only through their results and effects...

Life very clearly exist; we cannot possibly deny it. But how can we measure it,
and by what means can we measure the speed of thought and imagination?

From all this it is quite clear that to deny whatever lies beyond our vision and
hearing is contrary to logic and the conventional principles of reason. Why do
the deniers of God fail to apply the common principles of science to the parti-
cular question of the existence of a power ruling over nature?

Let us not forget that we are imprisoned in the framework of matter and its
dimensions; we cannot imagine an absolute being with our custormary habits of
thought. If we tell a villager that a great and populous city exists called
London, he will conceive in his mind of some big village, maybe ten times
bigger than his own, but the same with respect to its buildings, the way people
dress, their way of life and dealings with each other. He will assume that the
characteristics of people everywhere are the same as in his own village...

The only thing we can tell him to correct the unrealistic way he thinks is that
London is indeed a place of settlement, but not of the kind you imagine, and its
characteristics are not of the same kind you see in your own village...

What we can say concerning God is that God exists, and that He possesses life,
power and knowledge, but his existence and knowledge and power are not of the
kind familiar to us.  In this way we can to some extend escape the restrictions
placed on our understanding. For the materialist, too, it is impossible to 
conceive of the essence of primary matter...

Although it appears that sense objects are the things we know most clearly and
precisely, we cannot rely exculsively on such objects in scientific and philo-
sophical matters. Laying aside all fanatical attitudes, we must assess the true
nature of sense objects and the degree to which they can aid man in uncovering
the truth.  Otherwise, they will mislead us, because sense perception relates
only to certain qualities of the external aspect of sense objects. It cannot
perceive the totality of those qualities or the essence and substance of sense
objects, let alone non-sensory objects...

The eye that is the surest means for the perception of reality is in many cases
unable to show reality to us. It can observe lights only when their wavelength
is less than .04 microns and more than .08 microns, and therefore it cannot see
lights higher than violet or lower than red. In addition the errors made by
sense perception form an important section in books on psychology; the eye is
known to commit numerous errors...

The colors we recognize in the external world are in fact not colors.  They are
viberations on different wavelengths. Our visual sense experiences these 
different wavelengths of light in accordance with its own particular machanism
as colors. In other words, what we perceive by means of our senses is limited
by the structure and capacity of those senses.  For example, the structure of
the visual sense in certain animals such as cows and cats causes them to see
monotone external reality as colored. From the viewpoint of scientific analysis
the nature of the mechanism in man's visual sense that permits him to see colors
is not entirely clear and the theories put forward so far are all hypothetical.
The question of man's ability to see colors is obscure and complex...

In order to see how the sense of touch may be deceived, you can fill three bowls
with water; the first with very hot water, the second with very cold water, the
third with lukewarm water. Then place one hand in the hot water and the other
in the cold water, and leave them there for a time. Then place them both in the
lukewarm water, and you will see to your great surprise that you experience
contradictory sensations. One hand will tell you that the lukewarm water is
extremely cold, and the other will proclaim that it is extremely hot. Of course,
the water is one and the same, and its temperature is known...

Now reason and logic say that it is not possible for water to be both cold and
hot at the same time, to have two contradictory arributes.  It is the sense of
touch that is at fault, having lost its self-control as a result of the two
bowls of water in which the hands were immersed.  What it feels is at variance
with the truth, and reason and the mind point out its error...

This being the case, how can we rely on sense perception without the guidance of
the intellect and mental criteria?  Is there any way to protect ourselves
against the errors of sense perception other than rational judgement?

It is then the judgement of reason which is entrusted with the task of correct-
ing the errors of sense perception, and the source of that judgement lies beyond
the sensory realm...

Sense perception cannot therefore yield a realistic vision; its only value is
practical.  Those who rely exculsively on sense perception in their investiga-
tions will never be able to solve the problems of existence and the riddle of
creation...

From our assessment of the competence of sense perception we reach the conclu-
sion that even in the emprical, sensory realm it is unable to bestow alone
certain knowledge of man and to guide him to the truth...

The followers of metaphysics are conviced that in just the same way that
experiment and testing are the method of inverstigation and cognition to be 
followed in the sensory sceinces, it is intellection that is the means of
discovering the truth in metaphysical matters...


Ali...

P.S.: Reference(s) will be furnished later... :)

--
Desert@ccit.arizona.edu
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| ``It is hard to make friends with Reality,                              |
|	       because Reality doesn't care whether you like it or not.'' |
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian