Science and faith, is there a difference?

How can we say anything is proven unless we see it, and even if we see it, how we know it's real?

Today I was contemplating the nature of reality (as I do annoyingly often, especially around fall) and wondering how we can know anything is real. And not in the “what if we’re living in a simulation” way.

Recently, I listened to a talk that Rupert Sheldrake gave at the Holburg Debate at University Aula in Bergen, Norway, in 2023. He discusses the concept that the mind is not just in your brain. His evidence based theory is that our mind extends beyond our physical brain. He states at the beginning that he thinks that “the idea that it’s all in the brain is an unnecessary limitation.” He explains that the concept of matter has been broadened by the discovery of fields introduced by Micheal Faraday. Magnetic, electric, and gravitational fields are just some examples. Fields are defined as 'regions of influence. Usually invisible.’

We are constantly being affected by these fields; gravity keeps us on the earth, the device in your hands has electromagnetic energy radiating from it, and so on. There are the fields accepted by science, and fields that are only theories, such as auras.

What Rupert suggests is that “the fields of our minds stretch out invisibly far beyond our bodies, and that our consciousness is related to and based on these fields. That if we are going to solve the heart problem, taking into account the fields of the mind might be a very important ingredient, as well as studying processes within the brain.” He then goes on to explain his theory based on studies on vision. How what we see is not in our heads, but outward projection.

Hearing this began to look at things differently (both figuratively and literally, like staring out the window and wondering how I can know that everything I see is real and so on.) So back to my question, how can we know that anything exists? What is the criteria? Do we have to see it, maybe touch it? Or prove it’s existence somehow? What counts as proven? According to science? Science is just one method, can we prove something with others? I think of this through the lenses of science and faith. Many people believe they are two ends of a spectrum, complete opposites, but what if they are two sides of the same coin?

Let’s take for example the story of the bible. The scripture is holy to many several religions, including Christians and Jews. It is a text comprised of 66 books from various people and accounts the relationships between the people and their god. The old testament covers the creation story of earth and people and the new testament documents the life of Jesus Christ. I won’t get into the exact story, as most of us probably know it by now.

For people who follow the religion of Christianity the bible is proof enough that God and therefore Jesus (or is it Jesus and therefore God?) exists. If that many people witnessed and documented these miracles, they must have happened. There are five documented eye witnesses to Jesus’s reservation; Matthew, Mark, John, Peter and Paul. So if people saw him come back from the dead, then that means God resurrected him and if God resurrected him then that must means he must be the so of God, and if he’s the son of God, then everything he said must be true right? For some people this seems like an obvious conclusion, but for some this is not enough to prove anything. The Mayans wrote about plumbed serpent gods and the Chinese creation story is of a god breaking out of an egg and creating the world. They’re all stories right?

Then there are Jews who follow the old testament, but believe Jesus was a false profit. There are hundreds of religions all over the world that believe they are absolutely correct and everyone else is batsh!t. But how can anyone be so sure?

This reminds me of those small religious groups that I occasionally see walking around big tourist attractions. The women and girls are always dressed in some sort of long dark cotton dress and bonnet. The men and boys often sport short bowl cuts and overalls. Whenever I see these people I wonder why they restrict their lives that way. Do they believe that everybody else is going to hell because they show their calves and let their hair loose? (not a judgment, just a curiosity) This requires quite a bit of faith, does it not? To give your freedom and lively hood for a god you can't see, to drink the koolaid. I say this not to disrespect any belief system, just simply to question.

Then there is the scientific view of the world. According to University of California, Berkeley; “Science is a way of discovering what’s in the universe and how those things work today, how they worked in the past, and how they are likely to work in the future.” Science has been a tool to create modern invention, medicine, and our understanding of the earth and cosmos. But it can be just as dogmatic and require just as much faith to believe as religion. Take for example the origin story according to science. It starts with; as far as we know there was nothing in the beginning. But just right there that’s a big assumption. We really don’t know. What if there was no beginning and there is no end?

Then the universe just *ehhem* burst forth. They gathered from the fact that the universe is always expanding, that it must have started from I single point. It’s not a bad theory, but it’s not entirely complete. Then again it never will be. Because we weren’t there to see it happen, right?

But wait. That leads me back to my first point. Is the only way to prove something to see it? That can’t be true because we can’t see gravity, only feel it and watch it in affect. But then why doesn’t that prove “auras“? Many people claim to feel those. Even the things we see are relative. If somebody was born seeing what I call red where what I would can green, their red and green is different from what I see, but is still, and will always be red and green to them. Does that make them untrue?

There is not a point I am trying to prove here except for this that I am suggesting; there may be no such thing as a fact, we may not know anything for sure. Who can say what is right and wrong? Correct and incorrect? It takes faith to believe in anything, and each and everyone of us has a right to believe what we so choose as long as we don’t force it on to another person. This is especially pertinent in these times we’re living in. Our culture is undergoing a great shift, and beliefs are sometimes the only thing people have to cling to. There’s only one person in this world you can truly change, and that’s you dear reader.

But then again, are we so separate after all?

“Life is neither good nor evil, but simply a place for good and evil” -Marcus Aurelius