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It is up to the reader to determine which, if any,
of the paradoxes listed in Appendix I are false. A paradox is not included in
this book, if it appears to be a false proposition.
Religious texts and scriptures are not typically considered data.
If there is to be any reconciliation of the matrix, there needs to be common axes.
All religions are based on their individual books of scripture. Reading, studying, pondering,
fasting, and praying about these words of scripture is the basis for understanding the religion.
So if each you who read this, with all of your different belief systems, can start with the
premise that the data you build your belief system on are your religious texts, I expect you
will be able to come to a reconciliation of many of the tears in
the science - religion matrix.
This concept can be summarized by pointing out the fact each religion
is different from any other religion, and yet all well established religions are built upon a
similar basis.12
Science includes astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, computers,
geology, geophysics, mathematics, medicine, physics, zoology and thousands of subdivisions of
these basic areas of study. Each science has unique types of data,
unique ways of collecting data, and unique processes for understanding and gaining new insights
and context from the data. Although data collection, processing, and interpretation processes
are different for different sciences, they are also
similar.13
Data are instances of specific meanings occurring in the real world
(Figure 8). The raw data might be alpha-numeric characters, a drawing,
or a photograph. The instances of interest might be a zip code or a face, and the associated
meaning a city or a name. Data are the scientific equivalent to what the scriptures mean to a
person of faith. When scientists work with data, we get to know our data backwards and forward.
It becomes an extension of our mind. We identify gaps, inconsistencies, confirmations, patterns,
and from all of this we come to conclusions.
The past 30 years of working as a
geophysicist has been exciting, fulfilling, and fun. I have
come to recognize a key reason is the integrity of those I work
with. Bringing up the word integrity introduces one of the
sub-theames of this book: values.
The top-left blue bar on each page goes to a list of key values,
starting with integrity, which are an integral part of unifying
the science-religion matrix.
Exploration geophysicists basically spend their time acquiring,
processing, or interpreting data (mostly seismic data). The data creates a culture of integrity.
In seismic acquisition, if you don't set up the receiver arrays to cancel air waves and ground
roll emanating from the seismic source, the collected data will not be useful. The noise will
contaminate the useful data. If inappropriate filters, velocity fields, or other out-of-range
parameters are used in seismic processing, the useful data are destroyed. Acquiring and
processing useful data requires integrity, which carries over into the other aspects of
life.
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paradoxes