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Please note, all the Freedom Essays are listed at the end of this essay, and they can also be accessed on our homepage at www.humancondition.com*.— You can read, print, download, share or listen to (as a podcast) this essay by clicking on (or if viewing a printed version by typing in) this link: www.humancondition.com/freedom-essays/is-sciences-scorn-religion-legitimate*. Obviously to access any links* (indicated by asterix) you need to go to the online version.

This is Freedom Essay 41

Is science’s scorn of religion legitimate?Written by Jeremy Griffith, 2017

Many scientists scorn religion. But as the three previous Freedom Essays (38*, 39* & 40*) showed, now that we have the scientific explanation of the human condition (see Video/ F. Essay 3*), we can see how extraordinarily insightful some religious metaphors are.

For example, now that we understand that our angry, egocentric and alienated state was the result of a clash between our emerging consciousness (see F. Essay 24*) and our pre-established, loving instincts (see F. Essay 21*), we can appreciate just how accurate the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, Moses’s 3,500-year-old, pre-scientific description of the human condition, is.

Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526

Adam and Eve cast out of Paradise, from OldTestament Stories, pub. Society for Promoting

Christian Knowledge, London, c.1880

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World Transformation Movement

The book of Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden describes the primary situation involved in our human condition of the psychologically upsetting battle that emerged between our instincts and our conscious intellect’s search for knowledge. It says Adam and Eve/ we were ‘created… in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:27), obviously meaning we once lived in a pre-human-condition-afflicted state of original innocence where we were perfectly instinctively orientated to the cooperative, selfless, loving, integrative, ‘Godly’ ideals of life (‘God’ being explained in F. Essay 23* as being the integrative meaning of life). The Genesis story then says that Adam and Eve were ‘disobedient’ (the

term widely used in descriptions of Gen. 3) and ate the ‘fruit’ (Gen. 3:3) ‘from the tree of knowledge of good and evil’ (Gen. 2:9, 17) because it was ‘desirable for gaining wisdom’ (Gen. 3:6). In other words, we developed a conscious mind and free will. The story then says Adam and Eve (i.e. we fully conscious humans) then became perpetrators of ‘sin’ (Gen. 4:7) and were regarded as ‘evil’ (Gen. 3:22), and as a result were ‘banished… from the Garden of Eden’ (Gen. 3:23) of our species’ original Edenic state of innocence (the dictionary definition of ‘Edenic’ being ‘the first home of Adam and Eve… a state of innocence, bliss, or ultimate happiness’ (The Free Dictionary)). So the story recognised that our ‘fallen’ (derived from the title of Gen. 3, ‘The

Fall of Man’), corrupted angry, egocentric and alienated, psychologically upset, human-condition-stricken state developed, which then, through ‘gaining wisdom’, had to be understood in order for us to become ‘like God, knowing good and evil’ (Gen. 3:3), a state of psychologically relieving and rehabilitating understanding that has now arrived and is presented in FREEDOM.

We can see that Moses’s account of the origins or ‘Genesis’ of the human condition recognises the elements of an original instinctive orientation which then came into conflict with a conscious mind. All Moses lacked to fully explain the human condition was the scientific explanation of the difference between genes and nerves, which defends our ‘disobedience’. It is this explanation that is presented in FREEDOM (and Video/ F. Essay 3*) that finally allows us to understand that even though we became immensely psychologically upset sufferers of anger, egocentricity and alienation for participating in humanity’s search for knowledge, we weren’t ‘evil’; in fact, we are the heroes of the story of life on Earth! However, this redeeming insight, that Moses lacked the scientific knowledge to be able to explain, was to take a further 3,500 years to discover!

It is of some significance that while Moses’s account is perhaps the most widely recognised, virtually all religions contain a metaphor about the rise of consciousness corrupting an innocent state—as the author Richard Heinberg notes in his book Memories & Visions of Paradise (see F. Essay 53* for more from Heinberg, along with examples from mythology):

Every religion begins with the recognition that human consciousness has been separated from the divine Source, that a former sense of oneness…

has been lost… everywhere in religion and myth there is an acknowledgment that we have departed from an original… innocence and can return to it only through the resolution of some profound inner discord… the cause of the Fall is described variously as disobedience, as the eating of a forbidden fruit [from the tree of knowledge], and as spiritual amnesia [forgetting, blocking out, alienation/ psychosis].

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F. Essay 41 — Is science’s scorn of religion legitimate?

So despite the scorn prominent mechanistic scientists have been pouring on religion recently—for example (and you can read more in the previous F. Essay 40*), evolutionary biologist, and famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, has said ‘faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness’ (The Selfish Gene, new edition, 1989, p.330 of 352), and ‘Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus, but harder to eradicate. The whole subject of God is a bore”… those who teach religion to small children are guilty of “child abuse”’ (see par. 938 of

FREEDOM*); and the founder of sociobiology, E.O. Wilson, has said ‘What’s dragging us down is religious faith… I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faith’ (see par. 938 of FREEDOM*)—it turns out that the scientific explanation of the human condition, now that it has arrived, is in accord with the religious one. Which should come as no surprise really, because as the Nobel prize-winning physicist Charles H. Townes said,

They [science and religion] both represent man’s efforts to understand his universe and must ultimately be dealing with the same substance. As we

understand more in each realm, the two must grow together… converge they must. (See par. 327 of FREEDOM*)

Charles H. Townes Sir James Darling

My headmaster at Geelong Grammar School and great denial-free thinking prophet (see F. Essay 39* for an explanation of prophets), Sir James Darling, similarly spoke the truth when he said that,

The scientist can no more deny or devaluate the truths of spiritual experience than the theologian can neglect the truths of science: and the

two truths must be reconcilable, and it must be of importance to each of us that they should be reconciled. (See par. 327 of FREEDOM*)

How right Townes and Darling were. Now that we have the true, human-condition-confronting scientific explanation of the human condition we can appreciate just how profound religious descriptions of the human condition were, as all four of these ‘Religion deciphered’ essays (F. Essays 38*, 39*, 40* & 41) evidence.

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World Transformation Movement

Finally, it should be pointed out that not only ancient thinkers like Moses recognised the true ‘instinct vs intellect’ elements involved in the human condition, but also many contemporary thinkers, whose work you can read about in F. Essay 53*.

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Watch Jeremy Griffith’s breakthrough redeeming explanation of the human condition in Video/ F. Essay 3*, or read chapter 1 of FREEDOM*. You can also read more about the relationship between science and religion while the journey to find understanding was underway in chapter 4 of FREEDOM*, specifically paragraphs 326-328*.

Please Note, if you are online you can read, print, download or listen to (as a podcast) any of the following Freedom Essays by clicking on them, or you can find them all at www.humancondition.com*.

INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLANATION & RESOLUTION OF THE HUMAN CONDITION: Freedom Essay 1 Your block to the most wonderful of all gifts* | 2 The false ‘savage instincts’ excuse* | 3 THE EXPLANATION of the human condition* | 4 The ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation is obvious – short* | 5 The transformation of the human race* | 6 Wonderfully illuminating discussion* | 7 Praise from Prof. Prosen* | 8 “How this liberated me from racism”* | 9 “This is the real liberation of women”* | 10 What exactly is the human condition?* | 11 The difficulty of reading FREEDOM and the solution* | 12 One hour summarising talk* | 13 The WTM Deaf Effect Course* | 14 Savage instincts excuse leads to human extinction* | 15 How your life can immediately be transformed* | 16 WTM Centres opening everywhere* | THE BOOKS: 17 Commendations* | 18 FREEDOM chapter synopses* | 19 FREEDOM’s significance by Prof. Prosen* | 20 The genius of Transform Your Life* | THE OTHER KEY BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS: 21 How did we humans acquire our altruistic moral conscience?* | 22 Fossil discoveries evidence our nurtured origins* | 23 Integrative Meaning or ‘God’* | 24 How did consciousness emerge in humans?* | 25 The truthful biology of life* | • Survey seeking feedback* | MEN & WOMEN RECONCILED: 26 Men and women reconciled* | 27 Human sex and relationships explained* | THE END OF RACISM: 28 The end of racism* | 29 Can conflict ever end?* | RESIGNATION: 30 Resignation* | 31 Wordsworth’s all-revealing great poem* | MORE ON THE TRANSFORMATION: 32 More on the Transformation* | 33 Jeremy on how to become transformed* | THE END OF POLITICS: 34 This understanding ends the polarised world of politics* | 35 Left-wing politics leads to death of the human race* | 36 Saving Western civilisation from left-wing dogma* | 37 The meaning of superhero and disaster films* | RELIGION DECIPHERED: 38 Noah’s Ark explained* | 39 Christ explained* | 40 Judgment Day finally explained* | 41 Science’s scorn of religion* | MEANING OF ART & CULTURE: 42 Cave paintings* | 43 Ceremonial masks explained* | 44 Art makes the invisible visible* | • Second survey seeking feedback* | 45 Prophetic songs* | 46 Anne Frank’s faith in human goodness fulfilled* | 47 Humour and swearing explained* | 48 R.D. Laing’s fearless honesty* |

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F. Essay 41 — Is science’s scorn of religion legitimate?

ABOUT BIOLOGIST JEREMY GRIFFITH: 49 Jeremy’s biography* | 50 Australia’s role* | 51 Sir Laurens van der Post’s fabulous vision* | 52 Jeremy’s children’s book A Perfect Life* | 53 The ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation is obvious – long* | 54 The accusation of hubris* | DO WE FAIL OR DO WE MAKE IT? 55 Endgame for the human race* | 56 Why there have been ferocious attacks on the WTM* | 57 Magnificence of the Transformed State – video 1* | 58 Magnificence of the Transformed State – video 2* | MARKETING: 59 Shouldn’t the WTM’s website be toned down?* | 60 The crime of ‘ships at sea’ ‘pocketing the win’* | GENERAL DISCUSSIONS BY JEREMY: 61 General Discussion by Jeremy Aug. 2018* | 62 Jeremy’s Masterpiece Presentation Feb. 2019* | HEALTH & HEALING: 63 Pseudo therapy/healing* | 64 Real therapy/healing* | From here on are Transformation Affirmations and More Good Info Emails*

These essays were created in 2017-2019 by Jeremy Griffith, Damon Isherwood, Fiona Cullen-Ward, Brony FitzGerald & Lee Jones of the Sydney WTM Centre. All filming and

editing of the videos was carried out by Sydney WTM members James Press & Tess Watson during 2017-2019. Other members of the Sydney WTM Centre are responsible for the distribution and marketing of the videos/ essays, and for providing subscriber support.

Published by WTM Publishing and Communications Pty Ltd (ACN 103 136 778)All inquiries to: WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT® (WTM®)GPO Box 5095, Sydney NSW 2001, AustraliaPhone: + 61 2 9279 4060Email: info@worldtransformation.com Website: www.humancondition.com COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This document is protected by Australian copyright laws and international copyright treaty provisions. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the copyright owner. The moral rights of the authors are asserted.

Copyright © Fedmex Pty Ltd (ACN 096 099 286) 2019.The drawings and charts by Jeremy Griffith, copyright © Fedmex Pty Ltd (ACN 096 099 286) 1960-2019.