God and Modern Science Workshop
On September 22, the Clifton Family Church hosted a Unification Thought workshop on God and Modern Science presented by Dr. Richard Lewis. A total of 22 people, both Unificationists and non-Unificationists, gathered to hear about the developments in modern science and to expand their understanding of the role of modern science in life’s spiritual and religious dimensions.
The workshop consisted of two sessions; “Basic Science” and “Life Science.” The presentations “created a brief outline of concepts and scientific theories as well as some of the newest discoveries,” shared Dr. Donna Ferrantello. Additionally, they “examined and appreciated a brilliant and exquisite labor of love [in God’s creation] with much more detail, and in a language that modern people can appreciate and enjoy,” expressed Gerry Servito.
After each session, an organic and lively discussion allowed each attendee the opportunity to see more of what the content created for them. “I personally felt that this scientific approach to principles of creation, existence and reality is critical for our church to have a deeper understanding of our own theology,” said Joe Leonard. Others observed that the content could be a much more effective introduction to the Unification Movement than traditional scripture-based introductions. George F. Glass said that “younger audience members mentioned how irrelevant the Divine Principle is for millennials, with its focus on biblical stories and quotes,” but found this workshop to include practical concepts like co-creatorship and epigenetics which is a scientific explanation for “fallen” people to restore themselves back to God. The experience for many highlighted important questions of how we, as a Unification Movement, share the value of the Principle in a way that embraces today’s highly developed understanding of science and its principles.
At the end of the workshop, participants filled out a survey on their likes, dislikes and suggested improvements for the next workshop. Many expressed a deeper connection to the heart and love of God at the time of creation. In looking forward, Alex Beebe expressed the desire to see more of the content and its “development for introductory level witnessing” in hopes of creating the opportunity to embrace the scientific community that many young Unificationists are engaged in today.
Read our dplife blog God is the Ultimate Scientist.
Watch the full workshop videos by clicking below.
Gordon L. Anderson
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Dr. Lewis is helping to pave the ground for a higher understanding that integrates the sciences and traditional views of God. He is part of the “remnant” of the days of ICUS and other activities funded by True Father in the 1970s and 1980s that reached out to change the culture of the larger world. I hope these activities can continue.
I would just like to raise one point about his presentation in which he divides the sciences into basic sciences and life sciences. He does not discuss “social sciences,” which are in extreme need of help today. I believe there is such a thing as the possibility of genuine application of scientific methods to the study of society (econometrics, politometrics, etc.), but that the social sciences got off to a bad start with Comte’s rejection of theology and metaphysics, and the disastrous politicization of these fields with Marxism and other non-scientific ideologies that just masquerade as science for purposes of obtaining power or wealth. Therefore I want to put in a plug for adding social sciences to general overviews of unification discussions of science.
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Steven Dufour
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Outstanding. This is what needs to happen.
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Frank Bell
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I agree with and support everything that Dr.Lewis presented, except that tachyons are an interpretation that have not been experimentally verified and so are not necessarily a basis for the operation of “spirit world”. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research experiments published in the IEEE Journal that show that thought can influence the outcome of quantum probability results supports the interpretation that the universe has an information aspect as well as an energy aspect.
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