Science Vs. Magic: The World We Think We Know, We Don't

 
 Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Lawrence

Science is a way of looking at the world. It involves making hypotheses and testing those hypotheses and then observing their outcomes and relationships. Scientists want to see if experiments or observations can be replicated and if so, how often. If outcomes happen often enough, well beyond statistical chance, then we say there is likely cause and effect or a relationship between events.

The scientific method is just a method used to understand some aspect of our world. It tells us about probabilities and possible causes and relationships but it doesn't give us a complete picture. It is based on empiricism, or knowledge derived from sense data. The knowledge science provides is limited and will always be, but we are made to believe our new God (Scientism) will eventually reveal everything and tell us everything. 

But there is another way of looking at the world. We can view the world as magic. We can see the things that we think exist as not "things" but as relationships manifesting to us for a time from an interconnected web of life. Science only gives us a small understanding of an aspect of this web but magic gives us a profound appreciation for all of it. Viewing the world as magic, doesn't deny that many relationships manifest events as strong probabilities and nearly always yield the same results. But there are also relationships between unseen forces (not sensed or measured) that manifest events well beyond our expectations or understanding based on past experiences (observations, measurements).

The world we think we know, we don't. It is influenced by forces and interactions of not only physical but mental/emotional/spiritual phenomenon. Our consciousness is alternating between various states and this influences not only our perceptions but also our experiences. This vast web of interconnected being can never fully understood by any system of thought. But it can be appreciated as an astounding play of relationships producing all manner of  miracles, whether expected or unexpected.

Today quantum physics has shown us that what we think of as solid physical matter is virtually empty. That measurements or observations of matter respond in some way to the observer (the observer effect). That information can travel instantaneously between entangled quantum states (nonlocality), and that we can only know events as probabilities and not as certainties.

If scientists centuries ago were told a little of quantum physics, they would dismiss it as magic. They would be right.

The deeper science penetrates into the world, magic emerges as a better explanation. In the quantum world, science can observe but offer no rational explanation for what is occurring. That is because science is just one limited way we use to know about our world. Magic is a broader way of appreciation and understanding the way hidden variables (forces) interact on an interconnected web of life in ways that cannot be fully known, but certainly appreciated. Magic includes mysticism (another way of viewing and understanding the world) and in that way it is more profound and reveals a broader truth than science can ever hope to bring us.

Grant