This text fails to address this issue. It therefore promotes the present reality where people
do not use science for the purpose of serving any human values, but rather science uses people
for its own ends of exploitation and runaway technology. Science has taken over the train of
humanity and is speeding it down the tracks to tragedy. See appendix one for a look at where
the train of humanity might go if science were not the conductor. Without a clear grasp of a
map of human possibilities science can have no positive value.
Last year in Life Science the students learned to become more entrenched in the scientific
approach to life, the approach that sees everything outside the recalcitrant ego as having no
life, of being free of inherent value, as a thing to be exploited. They learned to understand
life in terms of mechanical processes instead of in terms of being, or even of consciousness.
This year as they study Earth Science they will learn to adopt the dogma of science that the
earth is not alive, that it does not have consciousness, and certainly not feelings or moods.
They will become entrenched in the belief that there is no consciousness outside the human ego,
and certainly none in the inanimate forces of nature. Last year in Life Science they learned
to see life as nothing more than a bundle of chemical reactions. This year they will learn in
Earth Science that the earth is nothing more than a bundle of physical forces.
This view of the world as nothing but a bundle of physical forces is a very sacred dogma to
modern science because it sets the stage to exploit anything and everything in nature for
economic gain. That is what modern science is doing to the earth. And that is the purpose of
all scientific research.
The opening statement lays claim to a belief that contradicts the teaching of almost every
religion on planet earth. I grew up singing "This world is not my home. I'm just a passing
through." But the scientific fact according to Cooney and Pasachoff is "The earth is our
home…" This immediately reveals the nature of the text as one of religious indoctrination,
indoctrination into the creed of science.
Continuing with the misinformation campaign it then shows an abbreviated timeline with the
title: Technology in Perspective. It starts 6000 years ago with "evidence of flint mining."
Why did they pick 6000 years ago. There is plenty of evidence of extensive flint use for
hundreds of thousands of years. Perhaps if they admitted that modern man has been around for
millions of years, as the fossil record indicates, then modern civilization doesn't seem so
special. Perhaps the student won't see it with the same awe and submission.
Then in the 20th century "the computer allows scientists to analyze and store detailed
information about all aspects of the earth." More misinformation. Their computers are not
analyzing the earth's feelings. They are not programming the computers with the earth's love
or wisdom. What about its purpose? Did it ever occur to them that maybe the earth has a
purpose. No. They believe only people have a purpose (to buy technology). Computers only
allow scientists to analyze and store logical, linear information about the earth. They can
neither store nor analyze love. They cannot store an understanding heart. They cannot analyze
feelings, or respect, or wisdom. They do not cultivate those values that promote an intimate
relationship with nature, with the earth.
Earth Science has not taken humanity into a closer more intimate relationship with the Earth or
the natural world. It has not given us the ability to be more honest with ourselves or with
each other. It has not helped us understand the purpose of life. It has not given us greater
control over our senses, our bodies, our desires, or our minds. It has not taught us to love,
forgive, and live in mutual understanding and respect with the rest of humanity, let alone with
the other living beings that share this planet. What is it then that science is trying to give
us?
Under the influence of science, progress has come to be regarded as technological progress. But
this technology is only a technology of manipulating the external environment, the apparent
material world. What about progress for the human experience? Where is the technology for
improving the inner consciousness of people? Which modern technologies can improve compassion,
patience, peace of mind, or non-attachment? Progress is no longer thought of in human terms.
Technology is no longer thought of in terms of the evolution of consciousness.
Manipulating the external world does not necessarily mean there has been any progress. All this
building, no matter how technologically sophisticated, is totally useless as far as humanity is
concerned if it does not contribute towards self-control, towards non-violence and the other
virtues.
So what is all this science and technology being used for? Those who have failed to understand
the third level in our map of the human being (see appendix) are abusing it. They are seeking
power, and they are seeking it at the expense of nature, at the expense of other creatures we
share this earth with, and at the expense of other people.
The primary means used for gaining power is through the manipulation of information. With the
advent of computers and the information age the potential to manipulate information in order to
gain power and money (which is just stored power) has greatly increased. One of the means used
to gain power through the manipulation of information is called advertising.
Billions of dollars are poured into advertising because it is so effective in altering the
behavior of people in this society. I cannot imagine an educated person being vulnerable to
advertising. Are there any truly educated people in this society? Why are we all slaves to
advertisers and their endless caravan of toys? Are we that empty? Like an abandoned ship with
no captain, no rudder, no compass, and no plotted course. We float helplessly without a goal
or purpose in life. All the advertisers must do is move in and take over the helm. Their only
competition is not the ship, its crew or captain, but other advertisers.
We have no gods of our own so we readily bow to the gods of science and technology. hey give
us pleasure, entertainment, and, if we are lucky, some security and power too. But we remain
utterly without freedom. We are bondslaves to desire. They have us by the tail of desire. As
long as we are immersed in desires we cannot escape our slavery to the endless caravan of toys
and entertainment provided by modern science. Worst of all, we lack the time, energy,
perspective or intelligence to realize our own predicament.
Science neither understands the purpose of life nor does it concern itself with such
questions. Those who look up to science also tend to abandon concern about the purpose of
life. Their purpose becomes to be entertained, to create desires and get them fulfilled.
Science Defines the Universe
in Chapter 20
This chapter is about the universe. It starts with a very disturbingly inaccurate definition
of the universe. It claims that the universe is everything that exists. Not only is this
wrong, it is totally preposterous.
First, for all we know, there could be an infinite number of universes, the one modern
scientists study being just an insignificant one among countless universes.
Second, and more important, this is a statement of religious dogma, the dogma of materialism.
Most religions of recorded history have been convinced that there is a Being that exists that
transcends the universe. In some this being is seen as the creator of the universe. In some
the universe is seen as Its dance. In some the universe is seen as eternal and therefore not
in need of the Supreme, Transcendent Being to create it; but this in no way lessens the reality
of the transcendent Being. In others the universe itself is seen as not existing in reality.
In these worldviews the universe only appears to exist because of our limited and faulty
perception. If our perception were unlimited and correct we would perceive only the
Transcendent Being. In some worldviews the very consciousness or essence of people was found
to transcend the universe.
All of these religious and philosophical worldviews which see most of what exists as
transcending or outside of the universe are contradicted by the dogmatic claim of this science
book. Science has never disproved any of these religions or worldviews. Indeed, if it has
taught us anything, it should at least have taught us how very limited our perception is.
Science at least gives some credence to the findings of some that the appearance of the
universe is only an appearance that arises due to our limited and faulty perception of the
universe-transcending Reality. Then, of course, it is no longer a transcendent reality because
there is no universe for it to transcend.
The claim on page 474 that "scientists understand much about the universe" demonstrates a
religious fanaticism about science that many, and perhaps most, scientists fail to share.
Scientists know almost nothing about human history, less about the earth's history. Less yet
about the consciousness of the other life forms who share this planet. Less yet about life on
the billions upon billions of other planets in the universe.
I was just watching the Discovery channel. They claimed that after 20 years of intense
research on lightening scientists still understand almost nothing about lightening. They don't
understand what causes it. They don't know when, where, or why it will strike. Even something
as close to home (kills about 100 people a year in America) and as common (average about 100
bolts per second) as lightening remains a mystery to scientists.
Instead of claiming that scientists understand much about the universe, an obvious attempt at
proselytizing, they should admit that scientists probably understand nothing about the
universe. What scientists used to believe they no longer believe. What they believe now they
will no longer believe in the near future. In spite of the extreme dogmatism of science, which
makes change slow, they do, with slow certainty, reject beliefs that become worn out and adopt
new ones.
Understanding is really not even in the realm of science. Science is more closely connected
with the concept of pragmatism. Pragmatism does not seek to understand anything in the pure
sense of the word. It seeks not truth but what works. What works of course depends on what
you are trying to accomplish. Science has found many things that work, but only for what they
are trying to do. Perhaps they are trying to do the wrong things. So what is science trying
to do?
Science tries to harness the natural environment to satisfy desires. What they have done seems
to work for that; but there is one serious problem, which I will try to explain later.
Harnessing the physical environment to satisfy desires may have been the wrong objective for
science. What if instead they had been trying to live in harmony with the natural environment?
What they would have learned would have been totally different. Scientific knowledge, beliefs,
and worldview would have been totally different.
The point is that understanding is not really even a goal of science. Science is really only
trying to develop a certain pragmatism. What they learn and what worldview they develop
depends entirely on what goals and objectives they apply in their pragmatic approach.
In the science we have in the modern world the primary objective is to harness the physical
environment to satisfy physical desires. This is the limit of their paradigm. It is an
artificially small world. It relates to such a small aspect of life that it can never hope to
gain any real understanding of life.
An even greater handicap of modern science is the parameters of its approach. It is called
empirical. It is perhaps the most limited and artificial approach to life yet developed. But
it is an approach that does have validity considering their goal of harnessing the physical
environment to satisfy physical desires. In their empirical approach they look only at sense
data and, using a linear, intellectual approach, they try to break things down into their parts
in order to find a way to make them serve their objectives. Life is not linear in nature. It
cannot be adequately represented with intellectual thought, which is linear in nature.
The purpose of the mind is to process sense data. This is only a small part of "life."
(Actually it is not part of life. But scientists are very confused and in the dark about what
life is. This is unavoidable because their approach is limited to their binary system of the
mind and sense data. The constellation of human life extends far beyond this binary system.)
Life is really not even in the universe. Scientists have defined the universe as the totality
of matter and energy, including the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole. The
universe is that which is contained in space and is composed of matter and energy.
Space itself is really only a perspective created by our system of relating to the universe.
Matter and energy are "contained" in space according to this system. Life is subtler than
matter or energy. The mind and sense data are a system that is oriented to matter and energy.
When your system of approach to understanding necessarily limits itself to a certain aspect of
life, exclusive concentration on that aspect of life inevitably causes one to explain all life
in terms of those aspects. Science may use instrumentation to extend the powers of the senses,
but it still limits its universe to sensual knowledge. And it limits its interpretation of
that experience to linear processes of the mind often called reasoning.
If scientific observation and linear reasoning can give any understanding they should at least
be able to reveal that life and the universe are nonlinear in nature and that they cannot be
adequately represented or understood with a linear approach no matter how sophisticated and
elaborate. The first step in any authentic search for a true understanding of life and the
universe must be to learn to transcend the limits of the mind. The mind is necessarily limited
and linear because of its reliance on sense data, which is linear.
Modern culture makes people a slave to their senses. It is a culture of slavery. Without
sense slavery all the "benefits" of modern science would be meaningless. They all cater to the
senses. They are supposed to make life easier and more enjoyable. Even if it has done this is
questionable because of how devastating it has been to the quality of our food supply and our
physical health.
The booming entertainment industry is proof enough that most the people our culture produces
cannot even live with the state of their own consciousness. They must constantly be distracted
by one form of entertainment or another. It's not just movies and music. Recreation is often
sought as a source of entertainment. TV's are on most the time in most homes. Advertisements
must be designed with the need for entertainment even above the need to inform. Even the news
is selected and presented with its entertainment value in mind. Education is now sometimes
retooled to make the learning objective a byproduct of entertainment. Perhaps it started with
Sesame Street, but now "educational" software with entertainment as the primary objective is
universal.
We use entertainment to "relax." We us it for recreation, for education, for news. We even
eat for entertainment. Even the process of procreation has, through the use of birth control
methods, been extracted from its object of perpetuating the species and made to serve our
insatiable need for entertainment.
When will we awaken to the depth of our slavery and fight off the tyranny of this bad science
that so dominates our culture? Why have we allowed this bad science to so totally tyrannize
our lives?
The tyranny of desires
Now back to the problem with harnessing the natural environment for the purpose of satisfying
desires. A proper understanding of our relation to the environment and how we are tyrannized
and destroyed by desires is of greater value than all the wealth and technology science will
ever produce.
In a physical sense, we come from the environment, the environment sustains us. She is a mother
to us. All that we are comes from the environment. We are part and parcel of the environment.
The environment is a part of us. In reality there is no dichotomy between the environment and
us.
We use all our science, pitting ourselves against nature in a desperate effort to subdue and
conquer her, to bring her to her knees and make her serve us. But she is a part of us. We are
a part of her. When we pit ourselves against her we are fighting against our self. When we try
to conquer her we are trying to conquer our self. When we try to force her to serve us we are
enslaving our self. When we fail to respect nature we fail to respect our self.
We can never have true self-respect without true respect for nature. We can never understand
our own needs or how to satisfy them without understanding the needs of nature. And we can
never understand nature as long as we see her as something separate from us, as something to be
exploited.
We think we are alive, we are conscious, we are the subject. Nature is dead and without
consciousness; she is the object. And so we set about to exploit our mother and make her our
slave. You will never win a mother's love that way. We will never discover the true potential
of the mother-child relationship that way.
As long as we think nature is something to be exploited to satisfy our desires we will never
understand the most elementary things about the nature and purpose of life. We think our
consciousness is so great we think it must be the crowning glory of the universe. It is our
insensitivity that is great. It is our numbness and blindness to the consciousness in
everything around us that is so great.
Nature is like an infinite ocean of consciousness. Our self-consciousness is like a few
molecules of condensation in some dry seeds in the middle of the desert. If the seed of our
life is ever to grow to its potential it will require much more consciousness than the meager
amount that can be produced by self-consciousness.
Until we learn to connect to the consciousness of the ocean of nature around us we will not
even be able to germinate. We think we are so great in our conquest of nature, and we are only
dry seeds that have not even begun to sprout. One reason we fail to see our own problem is
because the tyrant desire has enslaved us. We are so busy serving the tyrant desire we have no
resources left to discover what is really the source of our problems.
It would be fun to write a whole book siting examples of how each chapter in this text has been
hijacked from the purpose of educating and is being used to indoctrinate the students into
becoming good consumers. Alas, there is no time now for that. If careful reading of this short
critique does not open one to the possibility that the worldview of science is not just wrong,
but that it is also dangerous, then it is unlikely that a detailed discussion of the whole text
will be of much good.
Appendix One
The map of the human being can be likened to an inverted triangle. At the bottom is a point.
The separate point is a child of the time-space idea. Without the time-space idea there could
be no separate point. The idea that I am a separate soul, a unique individual, is dependent on
the idea of the separate point. The bottom point from which the triangle originates represents
this separate point on which the whole idea of the separate, individual human being rests.
Only by change can we know of time. In perfect changelessness there is no time. And without
time or change there can be no space. The idea of space cannot reveal time unless there is
movement or change. Rhythmic movement, vibration, or what could be called primordial sound is
thus inherent in the idea of time and space. These four then arise together: time, space,
individual points, and vibration.
Four is best represented by a square. The point where the triangle originates contains the
symbol of the square to represent the idea complex of time, space, individual points, and
vibration, upon which the separate individuality of the person rests. From this primordial
base the triangle expands.
This root idea expands into the idea of polarity. Vibration takes place between poles.
Everywhere we look within this idea or realm of time-space there is polarity; there is a
positive and negative pole. In the atom there is positive and negative, what scientists call
protons and electrons. The moon waxes and wanes. The tide goes in and out. High and low, hot
and cold, fast and slow, hard and soft. So in the realm of human experience we find these
poles: happy and sad, love and hate, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, attraction and
repulsion. Just as the moon ever waxes and wanes so human experiences ever flows back and
forth between these poles. This is the second level of expansion along the triangle of the
human being into the time-space idea.
Individuality is represented by a square because it is based on the four-sided idea of time,
space, the separate point, and vibration. A crescent moon represents the second level of
expansion into the time-space idea because it symbolizes the constant waxing and waning of
human experience between the opposite poles, which make experience in the time-space idea
possible.
When the inexperienced individuality encounters pleasure and pain it forms an attraction to
pleasure and repulsion to pain. It does not realize that these are inseparable poles of the
same vibration. Without pain there can be no pleasure. Without hot there can be no cold.
Without sorrow there can be no joy. Forming as it does an attraction to pleasure and repulsion
from pain it seeks ever to increase pleasure and avoid pain. This requires energy or power.
Through the use of energy it is possible to alter the duration, sequencing, or pattern of
waxing and waning between pleasure and pain, between the objects of attraction and the objects
of repulsion. Through the mechanism of this energy of desire or personal power the realm of
the time-space idea gains in complexity.
At the first level of the triangle, the level of the square, material desire blossoms for the
purpose of increasing the perceived security needs of this separate self and the needs believed
to sustain the existence of this separate self. At the second level, the level of the crescent
moon, the blossoms of desire and activity are to bring pleasure and the objects that are
believed to bring pleasure, and to avoid pain and the objects that are believed to bring pain
and suffering. On the third level, the level of fire or the inverted triangle, desire blossoms
for the sake of power itself. It can be likened to the person who first earns money to meet
the needs of his family, and then, when these are met, begins seeking more money for its own
sake.
First power is sought to increase pleasure, reduce pain, and to provide for the security of the
separate self. Then power speaks to some sleeping aspect of the inner being, it is perceived
to be related to something that is missing in the experience of the self. At this level in the
individual's expansion into and captivation by the time-space idea, desire blossoms for all
kinds of power. There is the energy in the muscles and nerves. There is the power experienced
through imagination stimulated by such things as powerful cars, powerful machinery, powerful
forces of nature, and the power observed through television and movies. Then there are forms of
social and political power, of authority over other people or animals.
This explosive increase in the complexity, and therefore the seaming size, of the time-space
idea from the great energy or power arising from the desire to increase pleasure and avoid pain
and to gain power for its own sake can best be represented by fire. Fire, in turn, is
represented by a triangle with point below and base above. As the triangle expands outward and
upward from the point so fire expands outward and upward from its point of origin in the wood.
The triangle is an apt symbol for another reason. As the triangle has three sides, so the
nature of fire is based on three ideas. First comes the solid wood from which it arises. Next
it is flowing or liquid. Finally it is gaseous or expansive in nature.
As the ego, the idea of being a separate individual, continues to develop and expand. It sends
its roots ever deeper into the ever increasing complexity of the time-space idea. It becomes
ever more social and involved in the lives of the countless other individuals who have arisen
from the idea of individuality or multiplicity born of the time-space idea complex. This social
development is the fourth distinct level of involvement in the time-space idea and brings with
it the development of such qualities as empathy, compassion, service, and sacrifice. Although
this development involves reaching out and becoming more involved in the time-space complex; at
the same time it represents a whole new development. This empathy and compassion is based on
identification with other separate individuals.
The very basis of the whole time-space complex is individuality, and the first level is devoted
to developing and protecting the separate individual identity. Identifying with and sacrificing
for other individuals is now a movement in the opposite direction. It is working to erase the
separateness of individuality. This requires adding a new aspect to our map of the human being.
The fourth level becomes the base of a new triangle facing the opposite direction. At the
fourth level one is both moving into much greater involvement in the time-space complex through
involvement and identification with others; and by this very movement is also bridging the gap
between individuals, thus moving toward a unity that is beyond or free of the bonds and chains
of the time-space complex of ideas.
The fourth level in our map then rests in the middle of two interlocking triangles and its apt
symbol is then two small interlocking triangles. The fifth level is the final degree of
expansion into the time-space idea and thus forms the upper line of the lower large triangle.
It is the increasing freedom from the time space idea made possible by the fourth level of
identification with others that allows the development of the fifth degree of involvement in
the time-space complex of ideas.
Increasing identification with all life brings increasing freedom from the deafening demands
and blinding addictions of the first three levels of development into the time-space idea.
This allows the dawning of an increasing understanding of the nature of the universe and its
bases in the time-space complex of ideas. A black egg represents this fifth level, the world
of ideas and understanding. In the fifth level the understanding develops that the whole
universe is hatched from the egg of the world of ideas. The egg is black to represent
emptiness because the universe has no objective existence but exists only as a development of
the ideas that are realized in the development of the fifth level.
To avoid confusion the point must be made of the difference here between thoughts and ideas.
Thoughts are little, ephemeral bursts of consciousness usually sparked by contact with the
sense ideas. Ideas are the stable realities behind the appearances in the phenomenal universe.
Awareness of ideas generally precludes the activity of thought. The unfortunate marriage of
science to thought hijacks it from any direct purpose or ability to understand nature.
The next level in the development of the human being no longer involves any kind of greater
involvement into the confines of the time-space play of ideas and so in the map is above the
inverted triangle. In this aspect of the person, having already grasped the ideas that create
the apparent separation between souls, she realizes or experiences all life as the same
continuous life of her self regardless of the idea of the form it is associated with through
the play of ideas in the time-space complex. An apt symbol for this level is a white sphere
with two petals or wings. The two petals represent the two poles merging in the sphere of
unity. White is the union of all colors and a further symbol of unity. Alternately the two
wings represent the embracing of all life.
The idea of being a separate individuality cannot be completely relinquished or neutralized if
there remains some hope that is not satisfied, some expectation that is not fulfilled. The
seventh and last transitional stage before total freedom from the time-space play of ideas
could be called the seventh heaven, for here one finds the satisfaction of all desires and the
peace of perfect fulfillment.
Finally comes complete realization of the true nature of the Self in the point at the top of
the second triangle where the time-space complex of ideas no longer exists and one is totally
freed from bondage to laws and limitations within the ideas of time, space, and causality.
This is the Reality. Here is freedom. Here is the source of all value and meaning. The point
at the bottom of the first triangle is the basis of individuality, of expression. The point at
the top of the second triangle is the basis of life, of being. When a person incorporates this
life, this transcendental being, into her consciousness everything becomes sacred, all
expressions become saturated with divinity. Everything has meaning when one connects with this
spiritual dimension of the human universe.
This is the big picture. With this map of the human being in mind it is now possible to look
objectively at science, its nature, and scope.
To understand just how science relates to the human being it is helpful to first create a map
of the human being. Mapping the human person helps to understand what a human is, what human
consciousness is based on, and what direction the evolution of consciousness should be headed.
Then we can see how and where science fits in and what it has to offer and what it cannot
offer. Our culture believes in science to provide things that are out of the scope of science,
hings it has no power to provide. 
By osmosis the students will adopt the scientific attitude of disrespect for feelings. Research
is to be decided with logic, to be conducted only with logic, and to be interpreted only with
logic. A good scientist does not let feelings enter into scientific research. Science is the
most wonderful thing, and has made us the greatest civilization ever to grace this earth. And
if science continues its war on feelings and its prejudice against right brain functions and
ways of being it will soon be the last civilization to grace this earth. 
How do the students of Earth Science study the earth? Do they go different places in nature
and try to feel the earth with their hearts? Can they not feel the mood of the earth at dawn?
Can they not feel the mood of the earth at sunset? How has this "civilization" been able to
cultivate such unawareness of feelings that they can miss the feelings of the earth? The earth
is alive and has feelings. This is obvious to anyone who has not had their heart mutilated with
the scientific indoctrination that has no place for the irrationality of feelings.