Is God Energy? The Theology of Energy and the Doctrine of Materialism in harmony?

An interesting idea put forward in a book called Conversations with God by Neale Walsch is the notion that God can be characterised as energy and this idea links mainstream science with mainstream spirituality. Using string thing, it is quite possible to suggest that God present everywhere in the form of energy and in some cases that energy slows down to produce matter.

Before one dismisses this notion entirely on the grounds that science must have a more empirically sound answer, perhaps it is worth reflecting that physics does not have a proper simple definition for energy. The nearest to a clear definition that does exist says that energy is ‘the ability to do work’. There are cases however, where putting more energy into a system does not increase its ability to do work. Though I am not 100% sure about this example, one might think of an endothermic reaction, where heat is taken in by the system, but which may be made to occur more quickly by heating the substances. When the reaction occurs more quickly, the cooling effect is greater, which offsets the additional heat. Consequently heating the reaction actually causes the energy to be wasted and does not increase the potential work. In such a case putting more energy into the system does not enhance its ability to do work. So this definition is not entirely sound.

Most scientists (if not all) would have no problem in saying that energy is fundamental to the universe and is the basic constitute of everything. Funnily enough, many theologians might say exactly the same thing. If you substitute the word God for energy and theologians for scientists in the opening sentence of this paragraph, I think you will be struck by how plausible the statement has become as a work of religion not of science. The two are really not so different! Some people even suggest that energy cannot be defined – it is startling to think that many people say God cannot be defined.

Many materialist accounts of the creation of the universe fail because they cannot answer where the matter that caused the big bang came from. If you look at energy, however, the problem can go away. Energy was there to start with, and coalesced to form matter, which went on to form the big bang. This explanation contradicts neither mainstream science nor main stream spirituality, but rather only offends those at the margins who prefer to keep to their camps rather than seeking integration between religion and science.

I suggest then, that the future of religion and science is to explain more about energy and it works. Remember – you heard it here first!

A life swimming in petrol and coffee.

Today I spent some time over at my new place of work – the Sainsbury’s petrol station. Whilst I will sometimes be working over at the main store, from next Saturday most of my duties will be over at the filling station. I welcome this change as it is nice to get a change of scene.

The petrol station also has a nice atmosphere which is quite different from the main store. Being a small place, it is possible to get to know the staff quite well, which is simply not possible in the less personalised environment of the main store.

An additional advantage to the petrol station is that one may discretely consume a coffee whilst serving the customers. I have lately taken to the habit of a cup of coffee at the checkouts instead of water which is not endorsed by the checkouts. But at the petrol station however, there is no such discouragement and one may consume soft drinks to one heart (or stomach’s) content.

Consequently, I am looking forward to the move. I will let you know what interesting situations develop as and when they occur.

How we became rich but lost the ability to appreciate it.

It is through feelings (that is to say the way our consciousness experiences a change in its being) that we perceive our life. The pursuit of well being necessarily therefore, requires a person to become aware of their feelings, since without these feelings the experience if life becomes cloudy and meaningless at best. Consequently, in order to feel a high state of well being more of the time, we should look to our feelings.

Modern life, however, often encourages us to loose touch with the very feelings we seek dwell in most of the time. Jobs are often painful and discourage the sensation of pleasantness. Instead feelings of resentment, disempowerment, hopelessness and the like become people’s daily fare. Since one’s employment usually takes between 30-40 hours of the week and consequently it is the activity we (as adults) spend our time doing. In order to get large amounts of money, we often accept jobs that require us to do things that feel painful. This means that the effects of work can be felt not just whilst in the building but for many hours, days and even years after the event. Some of us say they will do anything for enough money…

Yet, once they have that money, then what? Many employees for example, spend hours ‘recovering from work’. This recovery is often facilitated with the help of drugs like alcohol. Alcohol of course, relieves the bad feelings which built up probably from work, but perhaps from other causes.

Once they have large amounts of money many people spend money on anti-depressants such as Prosaic in order to improve their feelings; they seek to blot out the memories of all the bad things they have had to do to get that money. They have so much baggage from the difficult tasks they have had to perform that it will take all their money to get over what they have been through; leaving them with a net gain of very little. The bills for the NHS for depression, for counselling through lost days at work must be enormous.

So what is the solution? I would suggest that modern work is completely overhauled with a new emphasis placed on feeling good in the work place and on making other people feel good. Improved well being would result. By improved well being I do not mean a hedonic ‘party now’ attitude, though I would not rule this out. Instead I wish to emphasise something deeper – the inner sensation that allows people to routinely feel ‘this is a job that I feel personally is worth doing and I am getting paid for doing it.’

The single biggest improvement that can be made to the current work patterns is for people to start paying for what they value. If employers value ethical and considerate behaviour to employees then there should be a bonus for treating others with respect. Conversely, those people who routine bully other people, especially in business should have their large amounts taken down. I value enterprise and initiative. I am convinced people with a good business plan should be encouraged to do all that they can.

What I wish to argue is simply that we should start paying people for the behaviours we value, not discouraging them from having a good sense of well being through paying them more to do things that will cause long term damage. Imagine what a better place the world would be with this paradigm informing the world of work.

End of Term Rituals.

Today I had my last lecture of this academic year and indeed my whole course. For that reason, like many other students this week, I am taking a little time to reflect on the way of life coming to an end.

I am pretty pleased with my progress this term and that I have managed to stick this extremely intense course. Just to give you some idea of the work load, it aims to fit the “just enough” of the psychology second and third year degrees to pass both the Holloway exams and the exams for recognition by the BPS (British Psychological Society). That means about 1.5-2 times the normal work load – and in a subject that you have not studied before! Couple this with a student job (15 hours a week) and I think you’ll agree, I have been one busy bunny! Still, the real challenge now waits – exam preparation.

More generally, students all round me seem to be in one of three states: jubilant excitement, stressed owing to final deadlines and reflection because of their students days coming to an end. Last night for example, as I worked away in the computer centre, I heard outside the noise of a traffic bollard being played like a trumpet. Its majestic and triumphant and deep notes seemed a fitting end to the end of lectures.

Other students were running screaming various jubilatory things at one another and a few people were in the computer centre with anxious looks on their faces, trying to complete work before the deadline. Cans of Red Bull were at their sides, as were cans of the new drink Restless. Students talked with one another – trying to work out the best way to copy each other’s work without being caught, others, preferring their own input alone worked on as best they could in the hubbub. I would suggest that if the university wished to catch many of the plagiarists, members of staff could be posted (under cover) in the computer centre the night before the deadlines. This would do the job of sifting out the rogue agents more affectively than any computer programme. Such an intrusion would, however, verge on an invasion of privacy (in my opinion anyway).

The custom that sticks out most is that of queuing for the Summer Ball ticket, which is almost requirement in order to graduate properly (for the first degree anyway). I am choosing not to go this year. Firstly, I wish to save the extortionate £65 per ticket. Secondly, I feel that I have already had one send off with my year group and I don’t wish to spoil the happy memories of that wonderful night with something that can never be as good as that time. I have done it once before and most of the people I knew have now moved on.

I hope to be moving on myself to a master’s course at Leicester, though other universities may be able to dissuade me from that line of action. I will be applying to York and Sheffield. Watch this space for more details as they arrive and in the mean time good luck with your deadlines!

Positive Psychology (the abridged manifesto...)

I have just submitted an online application to the University of Leicester and I hope little more will be required to be accepted for study there next year.

I have applied for a master’s course in Psychology research methods. I did this because I think after only a year in psychology, I still have a few things to learn about running experiments – and the opportunity to gain some practical experience will also be helpful I am sure.

In my application I said I realised at the end of my history degree that psychology was the more natural subject for me to take, as it had more potential to impact positively in a tangible way on the world than the study of history. I believe this sincerely. One lecture at Royal Holloway once said ‘Psychology is philosophy – except you actually get to test your theories in real life.’ It might be added that once those theories are tested, they should inform new ways of doing things.

To talk about my pet subject, Positive Psychology presents a real life case where psychology could be a real force for good. Through learning more about the causes of happiness, a greater appreciation of what makes humans happy would allow people to levels of fulfilment previously attainable only to the very few. The pursuit of happiness is one of the few things I can think of that unites the political polar opposites of equality and liberty. Since, when you are happy you feel free but also more at one with fellow human beings than when you are depressed.

The American constitution, makes explicit reference to the God given right of individuals to pursue happiness. Yet what the constitution does not consider is whether people are knowledgeable about what happiness really is. How many people say they are happy, but are they really deluding themselves? Do people want to know how to improve their happiness? Tricky…

Am I deluding myself when I say I am happy? I don’t think so because I like to be truthful to the feelings I experience and I also believe that will power can affect mood over time. Happiness is not something that you are born with or born without, but instead something that may be enhanced through the application of behaviours and beliefs that work. Perhaps after getting a PHD in the subject though I will be able to give you a more elaborate answer than the preceding few sentences.

And this week's Personality is….

Welcome to Café Lumiere’s first Personality of the week competition. In this contest, people are considered for this prestigious prize on almost any grounds at all. It helps, however, if the contenders have done something remarkable.

Café Lumiere’s criteria for what remarkable consists of is flexible, but even if some people were to sometimes question our judgement, we are sure that this week’s personality will have tremendous support from our readers it is…

Mr. Jeremy Brett! Congratulations to you.

Jeremy Brett, was born Peter Jeremy William Huggins and was born at Berkswell Grange in Warwickshire. Though he attended the prestigious Eton College, he did not excel academically and it was not until his mid life that he began to receive the attention due to him. Jeremy Brett may very well be known to you through his masterly portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the 1980s and early 1990s, though you might also recognise him from My Fair Lady. Brett gained a reputation for his seminal portrayal of Holmes through all manner of ways. His speech patterns and diction were wonderful – allegedly he practiced voice exercises every day to produce that high standard. His body language was impeccable in the role.

Brett also captured the detective at work running about having deduced some complex solution to a devious mystery. In the Devils Foot and Three Glasses for example, Brett keeps a low and sincere voice throughout. Never does one get the impression that Brett is anyone other than Sherlock Holmes. Imagine Hugh Grant playing Sherlock Holmes, would he loose his sense of self on screen? I wonder….

Brett’s portrayal also captures some of the edginess which makes Conan Doyle’s character more interesting than some more banal heroes. Brett, for example, gives due weight to Holmes’s dislike of women (the Greek ambassador), his heroine problem (Devil’s foot amongst others) and some of Holmes’s put downs for Watson (His Final Bow and others).

Sadly, Brett passed away in 1995 but his legacy of wonderful acting lives on. It is therefore as a tribute to the man and his work that he is awarded this week’s Personality of the Week.

(thank you to Wikipedia for the use of the image).

A good day for Mathematics and Me.

Today I was delighted to receive 61% for a statistics exam I sat a couple of months ago. I am particularly pleased with this result because it proves (to myself as much as anyone else) that I can do maths given sufficient support and time. I last brushed shoulders with maths during my GCSEs. Over the course of my history degree I am sure no one would have described me as a ‘statistician at heart.’ So statistics is something I have only recently come back to and I am so pleased the exam went this well.

Let’s hope for more like it!

Perhaps you have had an experience with a maths exam? Why not leave your opinions on the topic below?

Captain Retribution…

Have you ever seen an obvious, if minor, abuse of social justice you just wanted to do something about? Perhaps people who park in disabled parking spaces who just tell you to get lost when you suggest they are rather selfish? Now you can do something about these kind of people! All you have to do is call on the name of Captain Retribution and he will ‘fix it for you’.

Captain Retribution is a super hero, brother to Banana Man and a first cousin of Superman. Captain Retribution rights social wrongs. When he sees able bodied people parking in disabled spaces, he does not flinch from his duty. He tells the person in question politely to move their car; if they refuse he enters his well known routine…

He says ‘no problem’ then breaks both the person’s knees, so they will be wheel chair bound for 2 weeks. He then says ‘now you really are disabled and you can park in any parking space you like! Don’t thank me sir, I am just doing my job!’

They rarely thank him. Being a superhero however, he does let this affect his performance.

He is a one band at present, so don’t be surprised if he does not always respond to your requests immediately since he is very busy. Nevertheless, he will hear you and attend to the problem as soon as he can! He is particularly fond of using speed cameras and flat tires on motorists. Fair minded people have no fear, Captain Retribution just looks out for selfish individuals (such as BMWs drivers who tail gate you for driving below 120 mph).

Is that an electric van I see before me?!

Whilst visiting London on Monday, I was sure I saw an electric delivery van belonging to Pret, the food company. If this was so, I am very impressed that they have taken this forward thinking stance. I believe that the future of modern transport is in finding green vehicles – not in making everyone take public transport or tax them to high heaven.
People will not give up their cars, modern life makes the ability to get from a to b quickly and independently essential. Many individuals will, I predict, be happy to go for electric (or green cars) when reliable cheap vehicles come on the market. This van would seem to be the first move towards that so well done Pret!


You have my coffee vote for your transporting innovation!

A Day at Sainsbury Head Office.

Today I visited Sainsbury Head Office for a training day. I wish to mention some points of interest that occurred over the course of the event, but mainly praise the building’s interior which was rather impressive. There is also a short story about lifts to report.

Head Office is a very large glass building which takes open plan design to previously uncharted areas. For example, as you pass the edifice whilst walking around Holborn, you notice that the lifts are on the outside of the building so you can see them ascend and descend. They are also made of glass (above ground level) so users get a pleasant view.

The training day I attended took place downstairs in what is best described as a cinema come lecture hall. It was a cinema in the sense there was a man behind a screen who operated films when requested by the instructor. It was a lecture hall because of the capacity was around 150 and the room was microphoned to allow the co-ordinator to be heard.

Owing to my colleagues extreme dislike of lifts we only used one once when first went in. Since this was a (relatively) harrowing experience for the other person with me, we asked to take the stairs on the second occasion – which resulted in being sent around four (separate) flights of stairs and through a security barrier. If I had not been fortified by a free ham sandwich, I might not have made it through the great ordeal!

How confident are you about science?

In modern Britain, it is common for many people to look first to science to answer all manner of questions they may have. Rarely, however, do people stop and consider how confident they really are when they are told that the answer was ‘scientifically’ proven – even fewer consider some of the possible limitations even with professional and competent science papers.

Though books have been written about the philosophy of science, I will confine myself here to just two thoughts: one is flippant the other is more serious. You, dear reader, will have to choose for yourself which I meant as the flippant one. There are, of course, proper scientists conducted in genuine research and there are people conducting bad experiments because of vested interest in not finding anything. I refer below to limitations that genuine scientists may face.

1. Many scientists use measurements as a way of learning about the properties of something under investigation. For example, a cupboard in one room might be measured against a cupboard in another room using a ruler. If the first cupboard was found to be 1 metre high and the other 1.2 metres high scientist would normally infer that one cupboard was taller than the other. I suggest, however, that their analysis might equally say that they could not be sure there was not a ‘kink’ (a warp) in space time, which made the ruler and one cupboard alter dramatically in size. Therefore the cupboards might actually be the same size in terms of the spread of material over space when they are in separate locations, but there would be of knowing. When you take the ruler between the two rooms it would be affected by the space/time warp. So, unless you could take your ruler out of space and time - which no one yet knows how to do – your results hold that assumption and it should be stated.

2. Scientists rarely, if ever, consider the beliefs, emotions and conscious states of the researcher carrying out the investigation they write about. However, a study by Radin and Nelson (1989) found that based on 600 experiments which looked into Pychokinesis (the ability to move objects through will power) there was a small but consistent effect which correlated with what people were asked to think ‘will’ to happen. The analysis was based on studies which used techniques such as willing a dice to show a certain number or the ability to bend metals. One can only wonder about what effects they might have found when people actually cared about the subjects they willed to happen.

How convinced am I about science? I would say 85%. If a good scientist says something has been proven, I am inclined to believe it. However, knowing about some of the limitations of science (of which more anon) I am rarely entirely convinced.

Roy Baumeister – I salute you!

I recently had the pleasure of reading a paper by Roy. F. Baumeister on the changing nature of self definition (Baumeister, 1987). Unusually for a psychologist, his analysis took a historical perspective; starting in the Middle Ages and concluding in the present day. He suggests at the end of the paper that modern ideas of self are based on an uneasy compromise between taking values from society, but also seeing ourselves as private individuals who operate outside society. His paper is dazzlingly perspicacious and stimulating.

His most interesting suggestion was that the Protestant Revolution took place only because of the Catholic Church’s emphasis on the final day of judgement. Although this notion had been present in doctrine well before the Twelfth Century, it was only at that time it received particular emphasis, according to Baumeister. Inevitably, when people started to consider the final day of judgement, and to reflect upon their chances of getting into heaven, they also thought about their actions during their lives. Once they started to do that, they were only a short step away from asserting they were better placed to judge their own lives better than any priest. From this germ the Protestant Revolution was born. Unusual to put this down in a Psychology article don’t you think?

Having read this paper, I wanted to read it again. Very rarely does an academic paper sum up a period of 500 years of development in a readable way - it is even rarer to find it in a Psychology article. If I could end up doing research like this, I would indeed be a happy man.

There is just one problem with the article – what is the self the paper talks about? No definition is provided, although he does allude to internal drives as a key part of conceptions of the self in discussions on the matter. Nevertheless, Baumeister’s paper is still readable despite this omission. The lack of a definition really reflects that no two psychologists agree what the self is.

Baumeister keep them coming!

In Praise of 'The ShawShank Redemption'

It is rare to find a film as inspiring and gripping as The Shawshank Redemption and for this reason it is deserving of praise. Featuring a man who is wrongly found guilty of committing a murder, the protagonist is sent to jail with a life sentence. During his stay behind bars he takes to the habit of helping others (most of the time) and through this he is able to get through an otherwise horrific life. This is not to say that his acts are always entirely Lily White, for during his spell in Prison he gets involved in various tax evasion scams and other dubious dealings. Two things remain consistent in his approach to prison, hope and dignity. In portraying these two virtues in a gripping way and novel way, the film makers have a difficult task.

Film makers, it would seem, find it easy to make movies that dwell on the dark side of people and win praise for so doing. Others, produce romantic comedy, which is great in its way, but often lacks impact and insight. For these reasons, it is rare to find a positive film which also provides insight and meaning, but Shawshank does manage to do this. I therefore recommend you watch it, and as you can buy the DVD for about £3 from Woolworth's it is also cheap entertainment. What more could one ask for?

Beginnings...

A big Hello to you all!

Welcome to Café Lumière home of many good things! Located somewhere between intellectualism and emotionalism Café Lumière remains open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Café is a Mecca for experiences, ideas and appealing things of all kinds. Liberal amounts of coffee and refreshment are also available...

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