1st Live Q&A With Rupert Sheldrake: The Big Questions in Science

Contemporary science is based on the claim that all reality is material or physical. There is no reality but material reality. Consciousness is a by-product of the physical activity of the brain. Matter is unconscious. Evolution is purposeless. This view is now undergoing a credibility crunch. The biggest problem of all for materialism is the existence of consciousness. In this course, Rupert Sheldrake shows the ways in which science is being constricted by assumptions that have, over the years, hardened into limiting dogmas.

According to these principles, all of reality is material or physical; the world is a machine, made up of inanimate matter; nature is purposeless; consciousness is nothing but the physical activity of the brain; free will is an illusion; God exists only as an idea in human minds, imprisoned within our skulls.

These beliefs are powerful not because most scientists think about them critically, but because they do not. The facts of science are real enough, and so are the techniques that scientists use, and so are the technologies based on them. But the belief system that governs conventional scientific thinking is an act of faith, grounded in a 19th-century ideology, or what Terence McKenna called ‘one free miracle’.

Together, these beliefs make up the philosophy or ideology of materialism, whose central assumption is that everything is essentially material or physical, even minds. Many scientists are unaware that materialism is an assumption.But should science be a belief-system, or a method of enquiry?

This session is one of two live Q&As to accompany the 12 weekly recorded video lectures, which constitute the main content of the course. During this session, you will have the opportunity to bring the questions you have after engaging with the material, resources, and participant discussions, to Rupert Sheldrake.