I’ve been a Medium member for over a year, and it’s been very rewarding (and a lot of fun) reading the ideas of others, interesting people I would never have heard of otherwise, debating with them in the responses, and putting out my own thoughts. One thing I’ve noticed is that so many people are passionately working to create a better world, whether from perspectives of politics, ecology, education, philosophy, spirituality, religion, and others. It’s great to know that so many people care!
That’s the reason I’ve been writing, and I assume that those following me do so because they share, or are at least interested in, my vision for a better world — the ongoing battle against atheism, the philosophy of materialism, and the bad science derived from them. When such ideas dominate, we are led towards a secular society. Secularism, based upon the error that the world would be better off without religion, is therefore another opponent in this battle.
We do need a credible religion, however! What is currently on offer is unsatisfactory to many people, and for good reason. That is why I am also trying to promote better religion and spirituality because, when ridiculous statements are made, they become easy targets for atheists, and we are led down a dangerous path. Adopting and acting upon a spiritual perspective on life is the single most important thing that any person can do as we struggle to save the planet.
With that idea in mind, it’s time for a new paradigm. For everyone on the planet to have a spiritual perspective, implying that the planet would be organised and governed from a spiritual perspective, would require a revolution in thinking and politics on a grand scale.
The philosopher of science and physicist Thomas S. Kuhn is the person who has written in most detail about how something like this might be achieved. His book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1) described the process of how the world moves from one paradigm to another. Here are some of his chapter headings: The Nature of Normal Science, The Priority of Paradigms, Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries, Crisis and the Emergence of Scientific Theories, The Response to Crisis, The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions, Revolutions as Changes of World View, Progress through Revolutions.
I’ll summarise his argument. A certain scientific or philosophical world view becomes established, and continues for some time because nothing is perceived to contradict it. Then some anomalies (experimental results) begin to appear, which cannot be explained within this paradigm. If this continues and is repeated, then a crisis emerges for the old way of thinking, and new speculative theories begin to be developed, until a vision for a new paradigm emerges. However, there is no simple transition from one world view to the next, for those who are attached to the old paradigm defend it vigorously, and argue strongly against the new ideas. The two paradigms therefore coexist. At some point, however, a critical point is reached when the old paradigm is no longer credible, can no longer be sustained, and is swept away by a revolution. The new paradigm then becomes the accepted world view.
As I see it, the situation at the current time is that we have reached the point where the two paradigms coexist. The old paradigm of atheism, materialism, has passed its sell-by date, is no longer credible (there are too many anomalies), yet is still vigorously defended by its advocates. At the same time a generation of new-paradigm scientists and others has emerged, and it is only a matter of time before their ideas become the new world view. If it is not 2019, which it probably won’t be, then it is inevitable, if we follow Kuhn’s logic, that it will happen at some point in the future. Let’s do all that we can to accelerate the process!
Thanks to everyone who is following me on Medium, and a Happy New Year! How about this for a New Year resolution? Immerse yourself in and learn more about new-paradigm thinking, write about it and challenge outdated ideas and expose the errors of the old paradigm. (I’ll be suggesting some important authors in future articles.) The aim is to bring together the best of science, and the best of religion and spirituality, therefore to achieve a reunification of science and religion, a true spiritual science. From better ideas, a better society will follow. Become part of the revolution!
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By coincidence, as I had the idea for this article, I started reading a book described on its back cover as “a paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement”. One of the new-paradigm ideas that I have previously written about at length is the Earth as a living superorganism. This book offers evidence which contributes to that theme. It is The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (2), who “makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending danger”. (These are further notes from the back cover.) The book is said to be an ‘International Bestseller’. I know that this claim is often made by publishers but, if true in this case, it just goes to show how ready the public are for new-paradigm thinking. Long may this continue.
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I have written a song called Time for a New Paradigm, which is the last song in a cycle of the same name. You can see me play it on my Youtube channel grahampemberton1, click here.
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Footnotes:
(1) University of Chicago Press, third edition 1996
(2) translated by Jane Billinghurst, William Collins, 2017