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1. In his Nobel Lecture (8 December 1978, Les Prix Nobel 1978) Singer said:

“I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the cliches and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day. There must be a way for man to attain all possible pleasures, all the powers and knowledge that nature can grant him, and still serve God - a God who speaks in deeds, not in words, and whose vocabulary is the Cosmos.” (Singer 1979).

2. “I’m a sceptic. I’m a sceptic about making a better world. When it comes to this business where you tell me that this-or-that regime, one sociological order or another, will bring happiness to people, I know that it will never work, call it by any name you want. People will remain people, and they have remained people under communism and all other kinds of ‘isms.’

But I’m not a sceptic when it comes to belief in God. I do believe. I always did. That there is a plan, a consciousness behind creation, that it’s not an accident.” (Singer, as cited in The Brothers Singer by Clive Sinclair, London, Allison and Busby, 1983, p. 30).

3. In his last interview (1987) Singer stated:

“God is behind everything. Even when we do things against him, he’s also there. No matter what. Like a father who sees his children doing a lot of silly things, bad things. He’s angry with them, he’s punishing them. At the same time, they’re his children.” (Singer, as cited in Green 1998).

4. “Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It’s unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent.” (Singer, as cited in Rosen 1987).

5. “The serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation. He cannot but see that the power of religion, especially belief in revelation, is weaker today than it was in any other epoch in human history. More and more children grow up without faith in God, without belief in reward and punishment, in the immortality of the soul and even in the validity of ethics. The genuine writer cannot ignore the fact that the family is losing its spiritual foundation.

All the dismal prophecies of Oswald Spengler have become realities since the Second World War. No technological achievements can mitigate the disappointment of modern man, his loneliness, his feeling of inferiority, and his fear of war, revolution and terror. Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him.” (Singer 1979).

6. “The material world is a combination of seeing and blindness. The blindness we call Satan. If we would become all seeing, we would not have free choice anymore. Because, if we would see God, if we would see His greatness, there would be no temptation or sin. And since God wanted us to have free will this means that Satan, in other words the principle of evil, must exist. Because what does free choice mean? It means the freedom to choose between good and evil. If there is no evil, there is no freedom.” (Singer, as cited in Farrell 1976, 157).

7. “Life is God’s novel. Let him write it.” (Singer, as cited in Moraes 1975).

The Way of the Ultimate Tao (by Chris King)

From the beginning both mind and universe exist as paradoxical complements, each discovering its own nature through its complement. That is, the foundation of the mind and of the universe is the Tao. The universe is forever the Tao of Physics, as Capra noted, the paradoxical interplay of wave and particle, and as natural processes gather into the macroscopic world of experience, chaos and order, as the weather, evolution and conscious thought alike attest. For order to attempt to rule over chaos is as futile as for the particle to try to rule over the wave. Any society which attempts to rule by order alone is doomed to catastrophe as the natural process transition becomes frozen into an apocalyptic revolution collapsing the old order. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/164

The Self-Aware Emptiness of the Quantum Universe (by Graham P. Smetham)

Some of Zurek’s remarks seem to indicate that he thinks that his analysis undermines the ‘ultimate evidence’ that the classical world is entangled and dependent upon consciousness. However, a rigorous analysis shows that the opposite is the case; Zurek’s epiontic quantum Darwinian classical universe is ultimately dependent upon consciousness. It would seem that the entire epiontic process of the evolution of reality is geared towards the production of ever greater levels of sentient awareness and the material world is an ‘advertising billboard’ for a realm of solidity amidst the ‘unreal’ ‘dream stuff’ of the quantum realm within which individualized consciousness can grow to fruition. And the reason that the apparent solidity of the apparently material universe comes into being is because the universe is nothing more than an enormous and multitudinous ultimately immaterial epiontic information exchange which takes place within the quantum ‘dream stuff is made of.’ http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/165

Various Thoughts on God & Science (by Himangsu S. Pal)

In this essay, I describe my various thoughts on God and Science. God had to create this world in order to overcome His utter loneliness. So He wanted in His creation a conscious life-form (man) with whom He could communicate. It is unbelievable that God can suffer from any uncertainty of knowledge. At deeper level universe is deterministic. My own experience of life (mystical and others) also confirms it. So when God will observe the position of any subatomic particle, He will observe that with His own light. Evil is there not because God has given man free will, but because God is fully free. God is fully free means God has got full freedom to create. This is for those who are very much hurt by the idea that God is neither good nor evil, that He is beyond good and evil. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/166

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the biological plausibility of the pace of creation written in the genesis. A fascinating hypothesis is made on the central role of serotonin as a guide, as the director of the phenomena that enable the best use of light by the plant world, the growth, the regulation of mood in the complex molecular interactions that characterize the varying levels of consciousness. This hypothesis provides biological interpretations of the correspondence of creative steps, from light to man, passing through the vegetable and animal world. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/160

Future Implications of a Pre-Adamic, Global & High Ancient Civilization (by Nadeem Haque)

A pre-Adamic global highly evolved united ancient civilization that believed in the oneness of God is shown to have existed from the textual evidence within the Quran, based on an analysis of certain verses that have been deconstructed and examined, with novel insights. Furthermore, recent archeological and textual work is pushing back the dates of ‘ancient civilizations’. This, together with the Quran’s remarkable historical accuracy of archaeologically unknown facts at the time of its advent about 1,400 years ago, is uncovering unexpected facets of our very distant past, with vital implications for our future. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/161

Pregnant Zero and Universal Paradox (by Chris King):

To illustrate the nature of paradox and sexual division we shall first make a short digression into numbers and logical systems including how to bootstrap from nothing to an abnormal universe. Paradox, in terms of logically confounding, has a wider application. Another face of sexual paradox may lie in our incapacity to completely tie down descriptions of reality into fully-definable closed systems. Thus, logical systems are rather like open thermodynamic systems, which exchange information across their boundaries, and do not necessarily tend to a closed equilibrium. There is also a deep identity between logic and set theory, because the set operations are symbolic logic applied to the elements. Finally, mathematics, like quantum reality, contains two currents, typified by the discrete operations of algebra and combinatorics and the continuous properties of the functions and limit operations of calculus and topology. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/162

NELSON MANDELA – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE

Nobel Prize: The President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela (born 1918) was granted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for his resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies and for his efforts to establish nonracial democracy in South Africa. Mandela was tried for high treason in December 1956, he was jailed for five years in November 1962, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964. Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment.

Nationality: South African

Education: Law Degree, University of Witwatersrand, 1942; University College of Fort Hare, South Africa

Occupation: President of South Africa, 1994-99 (elected in South Africa’s first all-race elections, 1994)

1. In his speech at the Zionist Christian Church Easter Conference (Moria, 3 April 1994) Nelson Mandela stated:

“We bow our heads in worship on this day and give thanks to the Almighty for the bounty He has bestowed upon us over the past year. We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death.

Easter is a joyful festival! It is a celebration because it is indeed a festival of hope!

Easter marks the renewal of life! The triumph of the light of truth over the darkness of falsehood!

Easter is a festival of human solidarity, because it celebrates the fulfilment of the Good News!

The Good News borne by our risen Messiah who chose not one race, who chose not one country, who chose not one language, who chose not one tribe, who chose all of humankind!

Each Easter marks the rebirth of our faith. It marks the victory of our risen Saviour over the torture of the cross and the grave.

Our Messiah, who came to us in the form of a mortal man, but who by his suffering and crucifixion attained immortality.

Our Messiah, born like an outcast in a stable, and executed like criminal on the cross.

Our Messiah, whose life bears testimony to the truth that there is no shame in poverty: Those who should be ashamed are they who impoverish others.

Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being persecuted: Those who should be ashamed are they who persecute others.

Whose life proclaims the truth that there is no shame in being conquered: Those who should be ashamed are they who conquer others.

Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being dispossessed: Those who should be ashamed are they who dispossess others.

Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others.” (Mandela 1994).

2. “Why is it that in this day and age, human beings still butcher one another simply because they dared to belong to different religions, to speak different tongues, or belong to different races?

Are human beings inherently evil?

What infuses individuals with the ego and ambition to so clamour for power that genocide assumes the mantle of means that justify coveted ends?

These are difficult questions, which, if wrongly examined can lead one to lose faith in fellow human beings. And there is where we would go wrong.

Firstly, because to lose faith in fellow humans is, as the Archbishop would correctly point out, to lose faith in God and in the purpose of life itself.

Secondly, it is erroneous to attribute to the human character a universal trait it does not possess – that of being either inherently evil or inherently humane.

I would venture to say that there is something inherently good in all human beings, deriving from, among other things, the attribute of social consciousness that we all possess. And, yes, there is also something inherently bad in all of us, flesh and blood as we are, with the attendant desire to perpetuate and pamper the self.

From this premise arises the challenge to order our lives and mould our mores in such a way that the good in all of us takes precedence. In other words, we are not passive and hapless souls waiting for manna or the plague from on high. All of us have a role to play in shaping society.” (Mandela 1994b).

3. In another speech at the Zionist Christian Church Easter Conference (Moria, 20 April 1992) Nelson Mandela said:

“May Peace be with you!

We have joined you this Easter in an act of solidarity, and in an act of worship. We have come, like all the other pilgrims, to join in an act of renewal and rededication. The festival of Easter, which is so closely linked with the festival of the Passover, marks the rebirth of the resurrected Messiah,

who without arms,

without soldiers,

without police and covert special forces,

without hit squads or bands of vigilantes,

overcame the mightiest state during his time.

This great festival of rejoicing marks the victory of the forces of life over death, of hope over despair.

We pray with you for the blessings of peace! We pray with you for the blessings of love! We pray with you for the blessings of freedom!” (Mandela 1992; see also Mandela 2003, 332).

4. “Yes! We affirm it and we shall proclaim it from the mountaintops, that all people – be they black or white, be they brown or yellow, be they rich or poor, be they wise or fools, are created in the image of the Creator and are his children!

Those who dare to cast out from the human family people of a darker hue with their racism!

Those who exclude from the sight of God’s grace, people who profess another faith with their religious intolerance!

Those who wish to keep their fellow countrymen away from God’s bounty with forced removals!

Those who have driven away from the altar of God people whom He has chosen to make different, commit an ugly sin! The sin called APARTHEID.” (Mandela 1992; see also Mandela 2003, 332).

ISAAC SINGER – NOBEL LAUREATE IN LITERATURE

Nobel Prize: Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.”

Nationality: Polish; later American citizen

Education: Traditional Jewish education at the Warsaw Rabbinical Seminary

Occupation: Novelist, essayist, and journalist

1. In his Nobel Lecture (8 December 1978, Les Prix Nobel 1978) Singer said:

“I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the cliches and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day. There must be a way for man to attain all possible pleasures, all the powers and knowledge that nature can grant him, and still serve God - a God who speaks in deeds, not in words, and whose vocabulary is the Cosmos.” (Singer 1979).

2. “I’m a sceptic. I’m a sceptic about making a better world. When it comes to this business where you tell me that this-or-that regime, one sociological order or another, will bring happiness to people, I know that it will never work, call it by any name you want. People will remain people, and they have remained people under communism and all other kinds of ‘isms.’

But I’m not a sceptic when it comes to belief in God. I do believe. I always did. That there is a plan, a consciousness behind creation, that it’s not an accident.” (Singer, as cited in The Brothers Singer by Clive Sinclair, London, Allison and Busby, 1983, p. 30).

3. In his last interview (1987) Singer stated:

“God is behind everything. Even when we do things against him, he’s also there. No matter what. Like a father who sees his children doing a lot of silly things, bad things. He’s angry with them, he’s punishing them. At the same time, they’re his children.” (Singer, as cited in Green 1998).

4. “Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It’s unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent.” (Singer, as cited in Rosen 1987).

5. “The serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation. He cannot but see that the power of religion, especially belief in revelation, is weaker today than it was in any other epoch in human history. More and more children grow up without faith in God, without belief in reward and punishment, in the immortality of the soul and even in the validity of ethics. The genuine writer cannot ignore the fact that the family is losing its spiritual foundation.

All the dismal prophecies of Oswald Spengler have become realities since the Second World War. No technological achievements can mitigate the disappointment of modern man, his loneliness, his feeling of inferiority, and his fear of war, revolution and terror. Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him.” (Singer 1979).

6. “The material world is a combination of seeing and blindness. The blindness we call Satan. If we would become all seeing, we would not have free choice anymore. Because, if we would see God, if we would see His greatness, there would be no temptation or sin. And since God wanted us to have free will this means that Satan, in other words the principle of evil, must exist. Because what does free choice mean? It means the freedom to choose between good and evil. If there is no evil, there is no freedom.” (Singer, as cited in Farrell 1976, 157).

7. “Life is God’s novel. Let him write it.” (Singer, as cited in Moraes 1975).