In Which An MIT Theoretical Physicist Lies

Here's an op-ed by  MIT theoretical physicist Alan Lightman trying to suggest that faith and science are essentially two different realities.  Let's dig in!


 He says there are experiences that can't be understood rationally.  That is ridiculous, the sciences of psychology, psychiatry, and neurology are rational attempts to understand people's experiences.  

He tells us there is a "spiritual universe"...evidence, please!

He writes that there a few beliefs that science holds (like the laws of physics we observe in our proximal universe are the same throughout the universe) which can't be proven.  That's true.  But if we should we ever get evidence that those beliefs are erroneous, we have no problems in changing our beliefs.

And we have plenty of scientific evidence that our experiences are products of neurochemistry that we can often observe on fMRI's.  There is no "spirituality"...that originates from the mistaken "dualism" notion, that the mind operates independently of the brain.

Here's a 2009, 60 Minutes clip on fMRI's :

And a more recent clip (with a familiar face) showing that even "free will" is an illusion of our neurochemistry:

And the "knowledge" from sacred texts?  C'mon now, they contradict each other, they are self-contradictory, and on hundreds of matters they have been proven in error.

I suggest Lightman seek psychological help for his pseudologia fantastica.