by Tam Hunt
In any attempt to bridge the domains of experience belonging to the spiritual and physical sides of our nature, time occupies the key position.
—Arthur Stanley Eddington, 1928
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
—Albert Einstein
Even very smart people can be wrong. After all, Einstein showed with his theories of relativity that Newton, another very smart guy, didn’t have the whole picture on the nature of space or time. But nor did Einstein, it seems, as I’ll describe. It is becoming increasingly clear that Einstein was wrong about the nature of time and determinism.
What is time? For Einstein and most physicists, time is considered an additional dimension akin to a spatial dimension — sometimes described as “the spatialization of time.” We arrive at a four-dimensional universe in which time is reversible and there is no real difference between past, present, and future. Past, present, and future are all just different coordinates in an unchanging and eternal “block universe.” Einstein made this view explicit in a 1955 letter to a friend; the appearance of past, present, and future as distinct features of our experience, he wrote, is a “stubbornly persistent illusion.”
Sometimes, developments that seem like advances can actually be setbacks. Einstein’s views on time have become prevalent in science and philosophy, but what is far less prevalent is the understanding that in a world where time is an illusion and the universe is deterministic, there is no room for free will. Read More
Krishna is Christ Consciousness Krishna is poorna or complete. He manifests perfection, an ideal being, who knows how to live, love, fulfil his duties and fight, if need be. "I would like to walk the path that Krishna advocates in the Bhagavad Gita. His is a path of love; to give your 100% to everything that you do and surrender the result of your actions to Him," says Mansi, a PhD student in Mumbai. Mridula Bhatia and Poonam Jain make regular visits to the church to pray. Neither is Christian, yet they are able to connect with Christ. "I feel his presence sometimes in the Church," says Bhatia, a Delhi University student. "I may not follow Christ religiously, but i definitely want to cultivate qualities that are associated with him. He always talked of love and service." Both Krishna and Jesus embody Supreme Consciousness...
