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The last chapter, a personal statement of faith, is the
only section of the book focused on my specific religions background and traditions.
Throughout the book, the effort is to quote from Catholic and Protestant, Jewish,
Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam, Buddhist and Confucius, Hindu, American Indian,
and other religious traditions, with which I am at least superficially acquainted.
From my studies, I have concluded most religions have
a common origin. Likewise most religions provide benefit to adherents through an
increased dedication to God, a strong moral base, as well as encouraging consideration
and respect for others. As occurs whenever writing about personal things, personal
experiences will be in scattered throughout the text. In my case, the scientific
side of these personal experiences revolve around geology, geophysics, and exploration
for hydrocarbons. The spiritual side of my personal experiences are based on the
writings about and by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Please accept my personal experiences as simply one instantiation of the science
and faith paradox. The hope is to encourage you, the reader, to use these words
and experiences as a springboard for reconciling your personal integration of the
physical world with your spiritual world.
To encourage personalization of the comments contained
herein, this book is prepared as an ELDO (ELectronic DOcument, or God's Word,
where EL is the singular tense of the Hebrew word Elohim, [generally interpreted
to denote plentitude of mightP2] and DO means: to perform; to execute; to accomplish;
to finish; to complete; to put forth, the cause of, to render, to deal with, to travel,
to serve, to approve, to prepare, to serve, to create, to translate into, to study, to explore,P3 and DO also is short for "document" which means evidence, proof, reference,
citations, etc. P4). The only radio program I regularly listen to is "The Engines of
our Ingenuity," by Dr. John Lienhard at the University of Houston. Episode 877P5 is
about the difference between Books (mentors, parents, where the author presents an
opinion) and Computers (servants, children, where the reader controls the story).
As I listened to a replay of this program, I realized by supplying the text and key
databases referenced in "An Open Mind" as an ELDO (initially a website hypertext
document,P6 then a searchable CD with the hardcopy printing of the book, and
eventually a solar-powered electronic hyperjournal or a portable electronic
replacement for the book), it empowers readers to take control of the context
and to tie in content from their own spiritual traditions. The idea is to provide
a mechanism for documenting and sharing different spiritual context in order to
more universally show the relationship between science and religion.
The Internet has certainly shown us that everyone is smarter than
anyone,P7 The world
will be a better place when everyone helps to define how true science
and true religion intersect.
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paradoxes