What you are, and will
become, depends largely upon your values.
Values arise from self-image: from what you
believe yourself to be.
...where reason is honored,
belief must be reconciled with empirical
evidence. If you seek evidence for your beliefs
about what you are, and how you fit into Nature,
then science claims jurisdiction, or at least
relevance. Physics presents itself as the basic
science, and it is to physics that you are told
to turn....a radical shift in the physics-based
conception of man from that of an isolated
mechanical automaton to that of an integral
participant in a non-local holistic process
that gives form and meaning to the evolving
universe....
--Henry Stapp,
Mindful Universe
Stapp goes on to provide a
historical thumbnail sketch of the connection of
science to values. He concludes by saying,
The alternative materialist view
that the universe is completely controlled by
localized microscopic mechanical properties,
interacting with neighboring local properties in
accordance with mindless rules---and in which
our conscious thoughts are seen simply as
re-organized expressions of this local
mechanistic order---renders totally irrational
any effort to strive to achieve a future judged
to be more just or equitable, or better in any
way.
This surrender to irrationality
is an invitation to chaos....
A debased self image begets a debased
life.
- Henry Stapp,
Mindful Universe
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