How do we become un-enlightened?

Question

I'm just curious as to how it is possible for so many people to continue to be religious or claim to be religious, using God or a higher power to explain every aspect of natural life. Several hundred years have passed since the world was "Enlightened", yet so many people, especially the Christian right in America, have chosen a path of darkness, only veering from it when it becomes convenient to them. Science is the answer to everything in the world, not simply some esoteric interest of a select few.

Answer 1

to become un-enlightened is to close your mind back up....but like tootpaste in a tube, once it's out there -- it just won't go back. only the open-minded can claim true enlightenment. I dare say that most that claim to be so (the christian religious right) are still not there.

Answer 2

Unfortunately you start out presupposing that only one group of people in the US is particularly un-enlightened and leads me to believe you want a confirmation of your assertion rather than a genuine answer to your question, but I'll answer anyways.

First, science is unable to answer everything in the world. This supposition is dangerous; pre-supposing that you can be instrumentally rational on a global level tends towards totalitarianism and led to socialism. These two "ism's" were responsible for a genuine period of darkness in the early and mid-twentieth century and continue in some places to this day.

Science has some rather embarrassing failures; see broken Mirror-symmetry at the quantum level or the Dark Matter / Dark Energy cosmology problem. Is it a choice then between faith in a higher power or a faith in science? Are they indeed mutually exclusive? The answer, I hope, would be no, indeed the idea that there is a 'natural order' that can be discovered through the scientific method was an outgrowth of the belief that God created the universe according to certain rules that are always followed. This was a western (and indeed Judeo-Christian) concept, best illustrated by a verse from the Koran 5:64:

"The Jews say, 'God's hand is fettered;' their hands are fettered and they are cursed for what they said; nay! His hands are outspread, He expends how He pleases! and that which has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in their rebellion and misbelief, for we have cast amongst them enmity and hatred till the resurrection day. Whenever they light a fire for war, God puts it out; they strive for corruption in the earth, but God loves not the corrupt."

The idea that God's hands were unchained meant that even to call God good we be to restrict his ability to act and thus his absolute freedom. This same idea is why science has languished in the Islamic world and prospered in the West. You should understand that the triumph of Western society derived directly from our (quite) pious ancestors. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't necessarily make them less enlightened to you, and in fact that is not a very enlightened mind-set.

Answer 3

'Enlightened' in this context means seeing truth revealed to us by 'light' in some form. If we shine our best flashlight on our flat tire but say everything is OK, we are not enlightened. If we acknowledge the evidence that the earth is not flat, we are enlightened. If we refuse to acknowledge that a Creator has the right to define moral standards simply because we don't want to be accountable, we are not enlightened. Science can't tell us how we came into existence. Perhaps someday it will. But it can't tell us why. As much as I love science, it is far from the answer to everything in the world. You will be sorely disappointed.

Answer 4

Elightenment belongs to the mind. To get unenlightened one has to go beyond mind. The only method is to shut the mind but still remain conscious of this state. I have come across a few who could do this. If you are very obsessed with science read the book "Code Name God" by none other than the famous and richest physicist Mani Baumik (the inventor of LASER for Myopic corrections)

Answer 5

They glow ;) Objectively (relatively), you will no longer exchange after transforming into "enlightened". Your attitude of commentary would exchange, yet your actual life isn't altered. in case you come back to a call that artwork and duty at the instant are not any extra issues to value, you may exchange into homeless. "consists of" is the ingenious annoying of "carry", no longer "carry's". "Truths" is the plural of "certainty", no longer "certainty's". There are countless different grammatical blunders; possibly concentration on your communique skills before disturbing approximately philosophy.

Answer 6

I don't think any specific person is smart enough nor ever was to be able to figure out some absolute truth to the universe...

If we ever find an ultimate truth it will be coincidence.