Perspectives on Religions, Sciences, Politics & Societies

What Unscientific Values Should Hindus Abandon? by Pradeep B. Deshpande

In this article the author presents a scientific perspective on what Hindu unscientific values should be abandoned. India has a unique opportunity to take advantage of a scientific framework for world transformation to reinvent itself and help transform the 21st century. This scientific framework consists of two components: (1) External excellence; and (2) Internal Excellence. It is interesting that that the two component of excellence are intricately related. That is, in the absence of an adequate level of internal excellence, we neither possess the capacity to materialize intentions, nor can quality initiatives such as six sigma and others deliver acceptable performance. India has to embrace both components of excellence if its vision of joining the ranks of developed nations is to become reality. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/413

Unveiling Apocalypse: Reflowering the Tree of Life (Part I & II) by Chris King

In this three-part article, the author will survey and discus the wider, deeper backdrop of apocalypse as part of our existential condition over the last two thousand years and extending into the next century. Apocalypse is an expression of a sense of future-shock, of political domination by corrupt world powers, of military turbulence and genocide on a vast planetary scale. In many ways this has been a burgeoning reality ever since the agricultural revolution. It was certainly the case around the time Revelation was written. Today we are facing a much huger planetary apocalyptic crisis, in which we have gained the powers to effectively destroy much of life on Earth and ourselves through nuclear holocaust and are having impacts which are leading to irreversible changes in the climate, ocean levels and biological and genetic diversity, diminishing our own survival prospects as a species in the process. The author argues that apocalypse is a motif in every person's existential consciousness in the sense that we seek to understand the ultimate mystery of existence and come face to face with it before we pass away into oblivion. The author also argues that the 'unveiling' of reality is also absolutely central to the scientific revolution. As we have progressed from the first wave of Greek science through to the Renaissance and the flowering of the Western scientific tradition, the covers have well and truly been thrown off reality. With our own generation, "apocalypse now" has become an even more potent planetary reality - nuclear weapons of mass destruction, overpopulation, mass extinction of genetic diversity and climate change. We are thus literally facing planetary apocalypse, if we don’t get a grip on our own folly and the impacts of business-as-usual on the planetary future.

Part I of this three-particle includes: 1. The Dilemma of Apocalypse; 2. The Deeper History of Apocalypse; and 3. Planetary Apocalypse Now. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/414

Part II of this three-particle includes: 4. The Empty Vessel and the Prodigal Son; & 5. Unveiling the Sacred Reunion under the banner of the Tree of Life. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/415

Part III of this three-particle includes: 6. Covenant of the Tao of the Tree of Life; 7. Resplendence: A Paradigm beyond Religion to Reparadise the Earth 8. The Abrogation of Violent and Repressive Scripture; 9. Epilogue: Singing the Apocalypse; and References. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/416

Understanding the Lord’s Prayer by Contzen Pereira

Prayer is not a psychoactive chant that may trigger a meditative mood or transfigure us into a mystic. It is a simple set of words that are metaphorically arranged which induces a state of being aware and conscious beyond the mundane. It makes an amendment between us and God and makes us to be aware of God, Its creation and the purpose of our existence. The Lords’ Prayer indeed conditions us to know the reality beyond the personality of the mind. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/412