The necessity of balance

in science •  7 years ago 

As a follow on from yesterday's post, the other thing that Dawkins felt to address was the fact that he had received a number of communications along the lines of, as one woman put it, a desire for unreading the book.

Reading the book had left some readers suffering from bouts of depression, troubled by its seemingly cold, bleak message, empty and without purpose.

I'm not surprised some readers had this response reading a book describing scientific understanding of complex but everyday processes.

Science is about cold hard facts no mater how ugly, distasteful and unpalatable they may be.

Science seeks to uncover the "what" and the "how" of the world around us. It has no tools to discern the "why".

Lets take something as a simple as a scatter of archaeological artifacts.

Scientific methods can be used to deduce much about and from those artifacts:

  • what the artifacts are made of
  • where the source material is found
  • what techniques and processes were likely used in their manufacture
  • what peoples are known to have employed these techniques
  • what the stone artifacts where likely used for
  • how they were used
  • how old they are
  • how many were utilized as tools and how many were discarded a waste
  • etc. etc.

What scientific processes would not be able to glean is:

  • how satisfied where the tool makers with their end product
  • what emotions did making and using these tools evoke in the user
  • why did these hunter-gatherers choose this nomadic lifestyle as opposed to their more settled counterparts
  • where they happy
  • etc. etc.

There simply is not sufficient physical evidence to determine these things and scientific processes evaluate the available evidence.

It is therefore not unusual to expect a scientific book to be "cold and bleak". Facts generally are exactly that. But, we are not just simply factual beings, we are not robots simply executing a pre-set program.

We are emotional, we have feelings, we are more than just a collection of brain cells acquiring facts, we are in turn shaped by these facts and choose to apply them in various ways. We seek purpose and meaning in our interactions with the physical world.

Looking to the scientific method to find the purpose and meaning in our lives is likely to be a fruitless exercise. We need to strike a balance by searching for purpose and meaning elsewhere.

There are two sides to the brain for a reason and we should strive to find our balance. Understanding how something is done should not leave us less inquisitive about why it was done and for what purpose.

Without purpose we may as well be silicon based robots.

There are things in this life that leave no physical evidence, these cannot therefore be evaluated using purely physical methods. We need to develop other methodologies and find what works for us.

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Looking to the scientific method to find the purpose and meaning in our lives is likely to be a fruitless exercise. We need to strike a balance by searching for purpose and meaning elsewhere.

Well said. I am thankful for the many scientific advances that have improved countless lives. But science, in itself, is only a tool to help us to discover the purpose and meaning in our lives and empower us to bless the lives of others more efficiently.

Living a balanced life is about integrating those components of your life that are truly important to you and realizing that sometimes you need to make choices about what has to come first. Making choices is powerful and allows you to live a balanced life that's aligned with what you value. By choosing what comes first, sometimes there are sacrifices. But living a balanced life doesn't require you to give 100 percent of yourself 100 percent of the time. There will be times when personal/family life and work collide but by knowing what's most important to you and making choices based on this criterion, you'll be better able to balance your decisions and feel whole.

wow inspirational, I completely agree you should not wonder about your purpose in this life, you should try to be of purpose, then along the way you might find your purpose

Great..Balance is the "infinity from within"

Doing the work you love is the first step to finding balance.

The scientific method is a tried and true method for getting real results :)

Is interesting found the correct balance between soul and body and too remember that spirit is part of all, difficult be a human

always taking a specific subject and building around it to make it easy to understand yet inspiring . I see that , as you have stated, balance is different for all people due to the fact that we are emotional beings

My dear @gavvet

@gavvet We as people are always for searching for more and sometimes we don't realize that we never had to search in the first as what we need or balances us is right in front of us. Others, need time to focus. Thank you for all you do for Steemit. I invite you and all who read this to come join a contest I am doing called "Together We Build 2" it is a wonderful contest that promotes interaction and building each other on Steemit. Thank you

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

A few things are left unanswered.... I was tuning in to a verbal confrontation about how science and industrialisation is murdering our condition. The thought is that when burning motors were created,their main role was to make life simpler and not cause a dangerous atmospheric devation . Also, now it's upto to us to know how to clean our condition and still oblige vital poisons.


@gavvet

Looking to the scientific method to find the purpose and meaning in our lives is likely to be a fruitless exercise. We need to strike a balance by searching for purpose and meaning elsewhere.

What if we find purpose in something that is more of a lie than it is close to reality.

The search and dilemma posed by life, and the constant eager mind diving deeper with scienece to uncover these things, is what makes our life exciting!

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Interesting post

Great post and honestly we need to have purpose..a life not examined is not worth living

Some things are left unanswered.... I was listening to a debate about how science and industrialisation is killing our environment. The idea is that when combustion engines were created,their primary purpose was to make life easier and not cause global warming . And now it's upto to us to know how to clean our environment and still accommodate irreplaceable pollutants

Great information, thanks for your informative post sharing us.

interesting post

On the one hand, as creative humans we need to see the world just as it is, face it squarely, and accept it without filtering out the uncomfortable. We must accept both the beauty and the ugliness, the gentle and the violent, the wise and the stupid, the just and the terrible. We can’t move forward unless we have the courage to take it in without flinching.@gavvet

I think apart from us developing methods for purpose and meaning, we should also find ways to keep our findings for the coming generations not to ask the same questions.

Exactly! You nailed it! Science is based on facts but doesn't answer all our questions...

thanks @gavvet for this post,what i know is that if you're doing alot of thing that the society suggests that are right'' thats probably a sign that you're off purpose,when you're living on purpose,you're entirely fulfilled because you're are living a life engulfed in personal meaning

As I saw yesterday, science obviously cannot answer all the questions because we as humans do not follow a set of codes or programmed instructions..we have flaws, high and low moments and the likes of them. Humans cant be blamed for seeing a scientific book of facts as "bleak" because like everything in life. Its easy to know stuff but a lot hard to do what you know. Thats why we search for purpose and motivation everyday. Some find it in God, others find it in people. Some even find it in science. But thats just what makes us human- our ever seemingly complicated natures. Like you said sir, the best way is to create a balance. Well not everyone is able to do this. But I think we should all try. Cheers!!

Very well said sir @gavvet and i personally like your this line very much:-

Science is about cold hard facts no mater how ugly, distasteful and unpalatable they may be.
Science seeks to uncover the "what" and the "how" of the world around us. It has no tools to discern the "why".

and iam totally agree with you thinking because if we totally dependent on science to find out the purpose and meaning of lives then that becomes very boring and nonsense,

And instead of depending on science we have to find out the inner balance and the purpose of our lives because each of us has a specific purpose for their lives,so we need to focus on that,so we have to keep searching instead of becoming totally dependent on a single method.

Excellent, amazing poat, thanks for sharing

EMOTION, n. A prostrating disease caused by a determination of the heart to the head. It is sometimes accompanied by a copious discharge of hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes.
— Ambrose Bierce

We always take from you valuable facts and information in various fields. You are truly a reservoir of science

Beautiful stone..

We have to love our work, to be able to find solutions in our world, and to achieve a full balance

very good post you. i love this

Wow inspirational, and full off spirite post! I completely agree you should not wonder about your purpose in this life, you should try to be of purpose and more deterministic to your thoughts, then along the way you might find your purpose.

Great post

Science just started to scratch a surface of the energy flows in the universe. So nothing is set in stone. Our brains are too slow (at least for now) to comprehend speed of those exchanges so we tend to stick to our left brain logic. There is no logic in universal truth, the moment we realize that even our bodies are 99% empty space and the rest of it is pure energy we strive to fill the void in knowledge with something else.

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Good read sir and the balance thing is something we really need to take into cognisance every moment of our lives
I will seek to find a balance

Nice post thanks for sharing this with us I upvote it.

it is truly inspirational and followed you @gavvet

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What passes for science these days isn't really science any way for instance nobody has ever seen any animal evolve into another or any species go beyond the DNA barrier. Yet the people who promote this garbage are called scientist. Anybody that believes that the DNA molecule just popped out the primordial soup one day is a moron.

You seem to have a flawed idea of what evolution or Natural Selection is. Could you explain what you mean by "go beyond the DNA barrier"?

Balance is the most important thing for ambitious and optimistic man in his work Thank you my friend I wish you a good balance

interesting ... good post, greetings bro!

This artifacts could hold the keys to our "true" history and where we came from.

balance in life can only be achieved by our good relationship with our god and our good relationship with human beings. relationship with god in religion and when dealing with fellow human beings and sharing with his needs. *** visit my blog because i also have an article about searching the meaning of this life ***

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Its a good write up. Science has really not answer the question WHY .that is because man its self is dynamic and because purpose can't be determined only if not fully discovered. It either through circumstances or people are born into it and this science wont be able to talk about because humanity in genral haven't been fully studied this is why the world in general cant be in a state of utopia because is an issue science cant really phantom. Thanks for this enlightenment on science and much.

nice post

just see your post you shear very nice stuff of blance ,,,science becoming more advanced day by day..awesome psot

good post Thank you for your idea

Thank you!!!

Great job @gavvet
Is being observed that Wisdom is organized life. Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
And yes like My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The night and the day...:)

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learning science is how scientist to thankful and find out every creation was created in a perfect, even there are things in our life leave no physical evidence.

God bless you to continue with educative post like this👍👍👍👍👍

Great post but I would have to disagree on one point. Science is not just 'cold and hard', it is about seeking an understanding and the truth of a matter. For the woman who wishes to 'unread' the book, she simply needs to keep searching and answers will be found, they may not be the ones she desired but true understanding of anything is its own reward.

I declare it lol that i have found balance

la ciencia trabaja en beneficio de todos , grandes avances sobre todo para enfermedades obteniendo curas que jamas pensamos tener.

stunning post, thanks for sharing

As I said in your first post regarding this, physical evidence or facts does not exactly stick with humans as instinct or what they personally feel is right.

Good one. The facts are spot on.

Well said. A lot of people have refused to unlearn what has previously be learned in other to re-learn. They have decided to lock shop and throw away the key of the side of their brain that does that.

As far as I am concerned, it is kind of hypocritical to accept some scientific findings and reject others without providing counter-evidences.

good post, thank you for information :) @gavvet

@gavvet, I went from being an existentialist philosopher to a mystical poet. After this sea-change, which I'm still undergoing, I know well the limitations of the rational mind, its tyrianny and how it can deceive...

If you're interested in more musings, I would be very happy if you might read this post of mine from On Being, exploring meaning and purpose:

Reverence for the Visible and Invisible Worlds

https://onbeing.org/blog/reverence-for-the-visible-and-invisible-worlds/

Warmly, Yahia

Very good info. Balance is brilliant!

Excellent. Stop reflecting "without a purpose, we are a robot", to realize what we are really passionate about is what differentiates us from all the artifacts or inventions that are created ... greetings

In Aceh, Sumatrera, Indonesia. also very much we find artifacts. We found many pottery relics of the kingdom of Pasai Ocean that ever triumphed in the mid-12th century AD. thank you for sharing knowledge.

so cool