Title: Sun of gOd: Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness That Underlies Everything
Author: Hancock, Graham
Gregory Sams
Rating: ***1/2
Tags: animism, sun, religion, science, intelligence
This book is a perfect example of the dilemma between science and religion that so many people have, though it is an unusual form of religion that Sams advocates. He wrote the book to advocate our seeing the Sun as an organized intelligence, a God, worthy of our thanks and respect. In essence, he is an animist, seeing some intelligence in all things, and seems to believe that elementary particles are intelligent and that as particles get together in greater mass they exhibit more organized intelligence.
He actually explains a lot about modern science, particularly astronomy and particle physics, and I don't know enough about these sciences to know if his explanations are accurate. But then he makes the leap beyond science of ascribing intelligence to things science considers inanimate, and berates scientists for not taking the leap with him. And this becomes part of the central religion/science tension... when is something by definition supernatural, and thus not explainable by the scientific method? Are there ways that science could study the concept of intelligence in inanimate objects?
It is an interesting question. Sams' views fit well into modern Paganism so the book resonates in part with me. The modern rationalist in me wants scientific proof. Hence my saying that the book illustrates the modern problem of what science and religion can meaningfully say to each other.
It is an interesting book, and I'm quite taken with the idea of intelligence being particle-level and gradually increasing in complexity. If Sun is sentient, what sort of intelligence is it? What does Sun think about? Fascinating question....
Other authors
Hancock, Graham
Foreword – Hancock, Graham
Publication Weiser Books (2009), Paperback, 256 pages
Publication date 2009
ISBN 1578634547 / 9781578634545
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