Mapping Reality is a critical perspective on science and religion, and specifically on faith (religion and science) and rational thought (science). Science gives us scientific ‘facts’, and religion supply us with religious ‘truths’- however what can we accept confidently as ‘really’ true. Mapping Reality is an endeavour to illustrate (by means of examples) how inadequate human thought and senses are, and how humans never truly can understand reality. Absolutely everything we know is based on faith. We must clearly distinguish between reality (the territory), and what we perceive to be reality (the map of the territory)! In our journey through life, we need something to guide us, to give us reassurance that we are on the right tract. Modern science has done its best to take that reassurance away from us; telling us that there is no destination, no purpose in life; that our lives are an accident of ‘Nature’. Organised religion is also not helping anymore; it has become dogmatic, sectarian, and self-serving. We have lost the core, the real message, of religion, but we still need true spirituality; we need a map to the Truth.
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The more you know the less you have to believe. Do not believe everything that you hear or read, especially things that are proven ‘rationally’. It does not matter who you are; you are indoctrinated by other people from the day you are born. Will you ever start to question everything you know and particularly ‘authorities’? Define precisely what you mean; that is all words, concepts, et cetera. Test everything for yourself if you can. Listen to your own instincts and intuition. However, do not be like Rene Descartes – there will be enough said about him later!There is a huge amount of knowledge, facts, information, et cetera, available in the world. At present it is easier to access this treasure trove than ever before in our history. What is tougher, however, is how to distinguish between what is useful, accurate, and relevant, and what is not. What is theory, what is fact, and of course, what is plain nonsense.
Excerpt
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The Big Bang, black holes, the origins of life (abiogenesis), neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, ‘gravity’, et cetera, are all part (and parcel) of this very self-evident level of scientific confusion (bad cartography). You do not need a PhD in physical science to witness this confusion for yourself!
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We all yearn for relevance and meaning in our lives and science can never fill that empty place in a human soul. You can but only look and see how people move from one religion, sect, or fad, to another in their search for the emptiness in their lives. Many try alcohol or drugs to dull or to make sense of the pain, frustration, and emptiness they find in their lives. What can we do? To make sense of our lives we need something substantial, something personal; we need to know where we are and where we are going; we need personal maps of reality, recipes of life, and we must know the tools in our toolkits. Eventually we will all carry our personal maps of reality etched into our faces.
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Professional Reviews
Extract from Foreword.
“In this amazingly comprehensive and thoroughgoing work, Dr Willie Maartens has produced a remarkable piece of work and I applaud his insights. He has certainly adjusted my own map of reality, or shall I say adjusted my perspective of it! Indeed, the major contribution to learning by Dr Maartens’ book is that it tells us not to confuse our own personal maps of reality with the actual world, or reality, in which we live, move, and have our being. If anything, this book takes off one’s blinkers — or at least makes one seriously think about taking them off and re-adjusting one’s perspectives.”
Quoted from the foreword to Mapping Reality by:
Dr. Charles Muller, MA (Wales), PhD (Lond), DLitt (OFS), DEd (SA)
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Reviews for "Mapping Reality: A Critical Perspective on Science and Religion"
An axiom is a universal truth, a principle is a thing believed generally to be true, a theorem is a potential truth needing to be proven. When you throw in the mix the ingredient of spirituality, truth becomes problematic, depending on the depth of one's perception and the maturity of the soul. The mature soul sees the truth as it was intended, to be accepted since it needs no proof. D. Kenneth Ross
I have not read the book and am unlikely to since I find talk about souls and spirit unintelligible. I certainly don't understand what is meant by the instruction: 'We must navigate our own way back to real spirituality.' Why must we? Do you, like Plato, assume that we have somehow strayed from a Golden Age? And is there such a thing as unreal spirituality?
Reviewed by Rhonda Drogo
8/23/2006
I wonder if you mean take off one's blinders rather than blinkers? I hope your book gets more people to take a good look at their blind faith. Although, many have found the map and are given tools when they have made it the most important goal in their life. They are just hidden very well. Good luck with your book! R.
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