Re: FW: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence

From: AaronLynch@aol.com
Date: Sat Mar 16 2002 - 19:17:30 GMT

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    From: <AaronLynch@aol.com>
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    Subject: Re: FW: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence
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    In a message dated 3/16/2002 11:45:46 AM Central Standard
    Time, Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> writes:

    > Lawrence DeBivort wrote:
    >
    > > Good morning, everyone,From another list...
    > >
    > > -----Original Message-----
    > > From: owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk
    > > [mailto:owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk]On Behalf Of nargess
    > > sabeti
    > > Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2002 7:41 AM
    > > To: moq_discuss@moq.org
    > > Subject: Re: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence
    > >
    > > Glenn Bradford <gmbbradford@netscape.net> wrote:
    > >
    > > Richard Dawkins, in a Forbes article written three
    > > years ago, speaks his
    > > mind on the notion, popularized by Fritjof Capra
    > > and others, that the
    > > science of quantum mechanics is converging with
    > > religious mysticism.
    > >
    > > DAWKINS:
    > > [A] kind of marriage has been alleged between
    > > modern physics and
    > > Eastern mysticism. The argument goes as follows:
    > > Quantum mechanics, that
    > > brilliantly successful flagship theory of modern
    > > science, is deeply mysterious
    > > and hard to understand. Eastern mystics have
    > > always been deeply
    > > mysterious and hard to understand. Therefore,
    > > Eastern mystics must have
    > > been talking about quantum theory all along.
    > >
    > > Similar mileage is made of Heisenberg's
    > > uncertainty principle ("Aren't we all,
    > > in a very real sense, uncertain?"), fuzzy logic
    > > ("Yes, it's okay for you to be fuzzy,
    > > too"), chaos and complexity theory (the butterfly
    > > effect, the Platonic, hidden
    > > beauty of the Mandelbrot Set--you name it,
    > > somebody has mysticized it and!
    > > turned it into dollars). You can buy any number of
    > > books on "quantum
    > > healing," not to mention quantum psychology,
    > > quantum responsibility,
    > > quantum morality, quantum immortality, and quantum
    > > theology. I haven't
    > > found a book on quantum feminism, quantum
    > > financial management, or
    > > Afro-quantum theory, but give it time.
    > >
    > > The whole dippy business is ably exposed by the
    > > physicist Victor Stenger in
    > > his book, The Unconscious Quantum, from which the
    > > following gem is taken.
    > > In a lecture on "Afrocentric healing," the
    > > psychiatrist Patricia Newton said that
    > > traditional healers "are able to tap that other
    > > realm of negative entropy--that
    > > superquantum velocity and frequency of
    > > electromagnetic energy--and bring
    > > them as conduits down to our level. It's not
    > > magic. It's not mumbo jumbo. You
    > > will see the dawn of the 21st century, the new
    > > medical quantum physics really
    > > distributing these energies and what they are
    > > doing."
    > >
    > > Sorry, but mumbo jumbo is ! precisely what it is.
    > > Not African mumbo jumbo but
    > > pseudosc! ientific mumbo jumbo, down to the
    > > trademark misuse of the word
    > > energy. It is also religion, masquerading as
    > > science in a cloying love
    > > feast of bogus convergence.
    > > --

    Hi Douglas.

    My earlier use of the phrase "the ineffable Quantum of being"
    a few months ago was also in reference to some of the mystical
    interpretations of quantum mechanics.
      
    > and memetics is a science?

    Just suppose that Eastern mysticism got attached to quantum
    physics in the early days, so that a substantial fraction of
    the physicists reading their first quantum physics books were
    asked to swallow a lot of mysticism. The word "quantum"
    would have gained a very bad reputation among serious
    physicists.
      
    > sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

    Perhaps this is the old strategy of the best defense
    being a good offense.

    --Aaron Lynch

    http://www.thoughtcontagion.com

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