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18
ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
modern era to search for the absolute reality. It contends that ultimate
reality can never be found through senses and scientific instruments.
According to Lyotard, scientific and rationalist discourses of the
modern era have lost their legitimacy during the post-modern times.
Quantum physics and chaos theory are some prime examples to
demonstrate that science cannot make reliable predictions. Truth and
reality transcend the obvious.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES IN SCIENCE AND SIKH RELIGION
Recent advances in both experimental and theoretical physics
have established that quantum theory supports the idea of a cosmic
spirit pervading the cosmos and inter-relationship of individuals in
world society (parts and wholes). Roger Penrose in his book, Shadows
of the Mind, has tried to establish the role of consciousness in new
physics which looks beyond quantum theory. In the chapter, Structure
of the Quantum World, he probes the limitations of the quantum theory
to describe physical reality. Earlier, EPR paradox brought into focus
the limitations of quantum theory : “The quantum-mechanical
description of reality given by the wave function is not complete or,
in other words, when the operators corresponding to two physical
quantities do not commute, the two quantities cannot have
simultaneous reality.” EPR paradox was explained by John Bell in his
famous theorem implying some hidden variables. Theoretical
predictions of Bell’s theorem have been verified by Aspect Experiments.
The implications of Bell’s theorem and its experimental findings are
staggering. They have established the interplay of consciousness and
the physical world and changed our world-view where the notion of
an objective world is in conflict with quantum theory. The inter-relation
of human consciousness and the observed world is obvious in Bell’s
theorem. What we call physical reality, the external world, is shaped
to some extent, by human thought. This train of thought was led
further by David Bohm who proposed that the information of the
entire universe is contained in each of its parts. For Bohm, order and
unity are spread throughout the universe in a way which escapes our
senses. We are living in a holographic universe. The world is an
indivisible whole.
Similar sentiments were expressed by John Donne, a mystic poet,