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21. Intellectual Atheism and The God Problem Among Scientists
In Section 1 of this essay, materialism was defined, its origin was
placed in the 18th Century, and it was said to inspire two kinds of
atheism, "intellectual atheism" and "business atheism."
Intellectual atheism is the common stance of leaders in the natural
sciences. When lesser scientists are asked about scientific evidence for
God, they often refer the question to physicists. As a physicist who has
studied scientists' beliefs, I have found that most physicists at the
top of their profession prefer to believe in materialism, even though
(because one cannot logically prove its negative assumption) there is no
evidence to support it. One possible reason for this mass negative
belief is that it absolves physicists, as well as all other humans, of
any moral responsibility for the well-being of fellow humans.
If physicists are asked why they believe that there is nothing outside
of physics, they will tell you that, beginning several generations ago,
the most competent physicists have examined and rejected the possibility
that there might be more. When asked why they disregard the contrary
opinion of many people, they point to the irrational behavior of
exuberant Christian evangelists and say that such foolishness proves
that there is no truth in religion. When asked to explain the numerous
seriously intended accounts of psychic premonitions and distant visions,
by eminent people of the past and ordinary people of today, physicists
say that any experience not repeatable upon demand is only hearsay
evidence. When asked to explain why they will not look at the laboratory
evidence for ESP, physicists say that they have a friend who looked into
ESP and found the experiments riddled with uncertainties.
As summarized in the above paragraph, as illustrated in the essay "An
Atheist Tells Why He Rejects ESP", and as documented at length in my
book, God.org Are You There?, the position taken explicitly by some
eminent scientists today against the possible existence of a nonphysical
realm is indefensible. Indeed, the only eminent opposition to the
reality of psychic phenomena, for example, comes from a few aging
biologists and physicists who are bent upon verifying Max Planck's
biographical complaint concerning his discovery of the quantum nature of
light. ("a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its
opponents and making them see the light but rather because its opponents
eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it").
Opposition to ESP also comes from psychologists who know, at least
subconsciously, that, as explained elsewhere, (God.org Are You There?,
p. 22), "Experimental psychology as now practiced will be destroyed as a
scientific enterprise" by the acceptance of psychic phenomena.
The "God Problem Among Scientists" cannot be solved until there are
competent scientists willing to discuss it publicly before a scientific
audience under impeccably neutral auspices. There are competent
scientists who admit privately that they accept ESP or consider its
occurrence to be likely but who cannot take the time to become
sufficiently familiar with the field to discuss it with a hostile
audience. Those other few who have conscientiously informed themselves
and then declared publicly their conviction of the reality of psychic
phenomena are belittled or ignored, but their reasoning is not
discussed. This is a strange situation.
22. Business Atheism and the Globalization of the Economy
On the one hand, atheism is taboo as a subject for discussion in
American society. On the other, atheism is an unspoken conceit among
scientists, a truism among intellectuals, and an absurdity among those
who believe in God. Its corollary, namely, that one has no obligation
for the well being of fellow humans except as assumed for one's own
satisfaction, is overlooked by most people, but is axiomatic for those
at the top.
How, despite its taboo status, atheism became the policy of business,
acting through the façade of the corporation, is an interesting story.
History of the Public Corporation
To obtain capital to start a business, one might form a corporation
to sell stock certificates that promise a share of future profits, if
any. The stockholder is called an "owner" but, as a rule, has little to
say about the operation of the corporation. The chief executive officer
and his board of directors operate the business, setting their own
salaries and special incentives (e.g., stock shares, stock options,
performance bonuses, and severance pay) with little or no interference
from the owners. This is the situation as it has existed until today. It
is legally right by the doctrine of materialism, but, as we shall see,
it is morally wrong because of its consequences for civilization.
A century ago, except for a few natural monopolies that were
geographically spread out or that needed large minimum capitalization
(e.g., oil, railroads, steel), most corporations were small and were
restricted in their behavior by competitive pricing from other, local or
distant firms. Indeed, until World War II, the industrial development of
the nation had proceeded rapidly and efficiently, while retail prices,
generally, remained under the control of competition.
The gravest end result of that past era is that it legitimized the
principle of unlimited corporate greed, subject only to some minimal
governmental restrictions that were adequate at the time. Under today's
different conditions, the principle of unlimited corporate greed is
destroying Western Civilization.
The Effects of Science and Technology
The main areas of technical and scientific advance since World War
II were the following:
Chemical and biological knowledge.
Medical knowledge and technology.
Information theory.
Microwave technology, including radar.
Solid-state technology, starting with the transistor.
Satellite technology.
Robotics and production-line technology.
Just-in-time inventory.
The analog-to-digital transition.
The personal computer.
The Internet.
Efficient air travel and shipment.
Television.
The dominant feature of the sci-tech advances since World War II is
that, taken together, they have collapsed the world to the size of a
city. The movement of information, people, and freight has become faster
and cheaper, causing an order-of-magnitude increase in the speed and
efficiency with which things can happen.
Because of the new communication advances, it has become technically
feasible for profit-hungry corporations to buy and manage from afar
other corporations, either to create a monopoly position or simply to
control the assets of a corporation that is undervalued in terms of the
market's current price/earnings ratio.
The Public Corporation Principle
As conceived today, the public corporation has only one purpose,
namely, to grow. This might be called its "growth principle" or "greed
principle."
The CEO and his directors are considered successful and are rewarded
only if the stock price this year, as supported by profits or the
prospect of profits, is greater than last year.
Nothing can grow forever. That is true of any single corporation and of
the sum of all corporations. An innocent layman might suppose that it
would be wise to ask when a growing economy will reach its maximum, but
that is exactly what every corporation and all of our economic planners
refuse to do. Their inaction sounds contrary to common sense, and so it
is. What happens instead, is the following.
In the media, in good times and bad, a stock market rise is always
"good" and a price fall is "bad." While a stock bubble is growing, the
media report, with approval, high employment, luxurious living, and
business expansions, as one might expect. When the bubble bursts, the
news media focus on bankruptcies, layoffs, and personal misfortune,
again as one might expect. But they focus also upon the maneuvers, both
legal and illegal, by which financiers personally profit from, or in
spite of, the economic downturn. The financiers are, in effect, blamed
for the bubble burst. Meanwhile, the public is assured that the bubble
will reform and continue to grow if they, the public, will have faith
and will begin spending their remaining savings, or go more deeply into
debt, as the case may be.
The foolish activities described in the preceding paragraph are what the
news media feed to the public, but it is all a combination of what is
either totally untrue or irrelevant. For example, the fact that billions
were stolen by criminals or financiers either directly from, or through
the auspices of, specific corporations, and that much suffering has been
imposed upon innocent people, is irrelevant to understanding the
economic process.
What is not explained to the public by the news media is that
bankruptcies are made by financiers who have more money than they need
and who will profit from transactions by squeezing a purchased operation
in situ, or by moving it to a place where the workers are paid less for
doing the same job. What we are not told is: "Who made money by this
transaction and what did he, or they, do with the money?"
The point is soon reached in this Ponzi-scheme process where, to make a
profit, the financiers become globalists in their ambitions and
operations. For this to happen, Congress must be willing to yield U.S.
sovereignty to the financiers. This is done by passing free-trade laws
that allow Third World countries to compete with the USA and by passing
immigration laws to allow Third World immigrants to underbid the workers
in the rest of the USA.
Congress accommodates the Globalists because elections in the USA
require enormous sums of money, which are available only from "business
interests."
From the popular press one might infer that "globalization" means only
the illicit accumulation of billions of dollars by a few people. Its
other damning features are its impoverishment of the middle and lower
classes, its requirement of unlimited population growth and free
migration, its waste of irreplaceable natural resources, its destruction
of stable native cultures and the creation of associated social unrest,
its pollution of the environment, and its refusal, generally, to look to
the future and ultimately to the collapse of the world economy implied
by its trade policies. 1
23. Crash of the World Economy
It appears probable that the world economy will crash within three
years under the economic stress of Islamic terrorism and corporate
capitalism's unlimited greed. The latter is rationalized by denying two
realities: (1) Civilization is a cooperative enterprise requiring a
balanced population ranging upward from some minimum level of ability,
i.e., we are logically obligated to care for the well being of all
needed members of society. (2) Earth has already exceeded its
sustainable human carrying capacity.
It is difficult to imagine an orderly economic recovery unless
materialism's intellectual elitism is formally abandoned in favor of
some kind of philosophic dualism for three purposes: (1) to end the
economic and moral monstrosity of unfettered capitalism, (2) to
accommodate the spiritual needs of both Muslims and Christians, and (3)
to conform to the empirical realities of parapsychology. |
