1. Knowing and Being: New Prospects for Integrating Science and Spirituality Chris Clarke University of Southampton (www.scispirit.com)

2. Science Spirituality Faith Traditions Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

3. Knowing-about rational verbal abstract public Knowing-by-being paradoxical non-verbal concrete private Knowing, Being and Reality Two realities - which do we trust? Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

4. Some proposed realities (the quest for certainty) Platonism: there is an eternal reality of Forms; appearances are illusory Kant: there is a boss-reality (the thing-in-itself) but it is unknowable; however there are laws of thinking which ensure that the reality we perceive is law-like Reductionism: everything can be explained from physics (=ultimate reality) Penrose: reality is threefold: Physical-Mental-Platonic/Math (The dominant view in our society – June Boyce-Tillman in Ways of Knowing) Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

5. Reductionism in the Dock Peter Atkins Richard Dawkins “there is absolutely no reason to suppose that telepathy is anything more than a charlatan’s fantasy” (Peter Atkins, The Times, Sept 6, 2006) “When religious people just have a feeling inside themselves that something must be true, even though there is no evidence that it is true, they call their feeling ‘revelation.’” (Richard Dawkins, A Devil’s Chaplain) The charge: bringing science into disrepute Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

6. Principal Witness: Gary L Drescher Good and Real The universe is mechanical and determinate Quantum theory can describe the universe without any reference to consciousness, observers etc Consciousness is completely accounted for by current science Ethics can be rationally based on science Second Witnesses: H Dieter Zeh et al. Decoherence and the appearance of a classical world in quantum theory The role that used to be played by “the observer” in quantum theory is in fact filled by a universal mechanism called “decoherence” Reductionism in the Dock: the case for the defence Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

7. Reductionism in the Dock: the case for the prosecution First witnesses: Fay Dowker and Adrian Kent, On the Consistent Histories Approach to Quantum Mechanics Quantum theory is compatible with the Classical world, but many other worlds are equally possible Second witness: David J. Chalmers Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness It is logically impossible to reduce the subjectivity of consciousness to any combination of objective functions of the brain Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

8. Reductionism in the Dock Peter Atkins Richard Dawkins Not Proven Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

9. Key proposal: There is no Boss-Reality!... but some realities are flakier than others. There is no ultimate certainty - discrimination is essential, based on: degree of consensuality degree of coherence Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

10. Knowing-about rational verbal abstract objective (public) Knowing-by-being paradoxical non-verbal concrete private Propositional Knowing and Being Implicational (relational) John Teasdale and Phil Barnard, Affect, Cognition and Change (the numinous transliminal) Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

11. Science (Knowing-about, Propositional) Spirituality (Being, Implicational) Enabling framework Meaning & Substance Spirituality is itself pluralistic: Jorge Ferrer, Neil Douglas-Klotz (in Ways of Knowing) Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

12. The World is not a Machine......but a conversation Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

13. The Future... Teach the path of peace Recognise and work with the numinosity of being Affirm the good in the faith traditions Overcoming the Fundamentalisms - Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future

14. The Future... Moving to the new society The need: to develop the sustainability of all our stocks of “capital” - natural, human, social, manufactured. The method: Changing progressively more firms, communities and governmental institutions to a new concept of capital Bringing spirituality into the mainstream Jonathan Porritt, Capitalism as if the World Matters Chris Clarke, Ed., Ways of Knowing: Science and Mysticism Today Introduction Reality Knowing/Being The Future