As a Whole: Connections with other books and further thoughts on the book
I notice that I didn’t make a summary of some chapters and that’s because I thought they were too extensive and not worth investing much time putting into detail each of those. Instead, I chose to write why this book is important to me and how I connected it with other parts of the curriculum. This was also very helpful for the outline of my final presentation of the 2nd term.
What this book is about
The Fire in the Equations (contents)
1. They buried him in Westminster abbey
2. Seeing things
3. Almost objective
4. Romancing the creation
5. The elusive mind of God
6. The God of Abraham and Jesus
7. Inadmissible Evidence
8. Theory of Everything… Mind of God
Encapsulates the arguments on science, religion and the search for God, putting over very complicated things very simply.
“A clear account of the ultimate question.”
- Stephen Hawking
Kitty Ferguson starts The Fire in the Equations by describing Darwin’s funeral. She introduces us to the environment after Darwin’s Origin of Species publication in 1859. Since then, many people have assumed that science and belief in God are irreconcilable. And now, more than a century and a half later, scientists themselves are divided as to whether belief in God can sit comfortable alongside scientific knowledge.
But is the conflict between modern science and religious belief inevitable? Must those who accept the theories of Einstein and Heisenberg reject the visions of Isaiah and Paul?
Now there are many advances in physics, biology, and other very interesting fields such as chaos and complexity theory. The question of whether belief in God conflicts with science is not a question only for scientists, phillosophers, and intellectuals, but for all of us. Questions such as can we find God or will a scientific theory erase the notion of God? Can we ever go as far as to reach answers for the ultimate of fundamental questions? Can human reason allow us that? Or must the answers lie partly in imagination, poetry, and metaphor, or come from evidence unavailable to science?
This is not," she writes, "a book designed to pit science against religion and come up with a winner."
One theme of Ferguson's book is a search for the First Cause of the universe. She presents three contenders for this role: God, Logical or Mathematical Consistency, and the Universe itself.
This book is a journey of exploration, as Ferguson says, through the main arguments that hold these positions, but it’s not an attempt to discover or forge reconciliation between science and religion, but more as an exploration for you to build your own opinion about the case. This book was not based on the assumption that reconciliation is lacking or needed. It goes into the areas the heart conflicts lie, in order to find out whether there is actually conflict. It’s an adventure through science, philosophy, theology, and grass-roots belief, where you draw your own conclusions from arguments and evidence presented fairly, straight-forwardly, simply and accurately as possible. She doesn’t tell us what to decide.
There is a further element of risk for anyone on a search for truth. You cannot start in a vacuum. You must begin by trusting some ideas about the universe that have never been proved, may never be proved, and might turn out to be wrong. To be simplistic about it, you have to assume that you exist and that you are sane. Those may not be such dif- ficult assumptions. Common sense supports them. Of course you have to believe they are true in order to trust your common sense. You see what sort of mental maze we get ourselves into!
Idea of why I chose The Fire in the Equations
One of the main reasons I chose The Fire in the Equations is because of the awakening to start questioning and asking the why of things. Why we exist, why life, the universe, planet Earth, other universes, how can this be different? It also gets deep into the question of whether science and religion are in conflict and how has this affected us in our conception of truth. Also, what is the role of religion in our life and in the progress of humanity? Why we do or don’t need religion and science? How can this be together?
- What did you love?
Me encantó que me hiciera pensar más acerca de las preguntas fundamentales. Muchas veces no nos detenemos a pensar en estas preguntas que consideramos que no tienen
How with a group of people we can create something new. I liked the book, but mostly I liked the idea behind it, that Ferguson is telling us implicitly. The importance of having this awakening in questioning everything in our world, the awakening of knowing the things around us.
That’s one of the most important things as a humans we are capable of and having the capacity to evolve and create something entirely new. Asking ourselves what is the reason of the things, why do we exist, what is life, why we are here, what is the universe, why planet earth, are there other universes, and if there is life out there. It makes an emphasis in the role of religion in our history and in science and how can we progress when there is a balance between these two and the reasons of why in some stages of our history of humanity there has been an increase and decrease of these two factors, why is this happening?
It’s an essential factor in our life to question everything that surrounds us, and just as the video of This is Water, is taking off this default state of mind and really trying to figure out what is happening and what is around us.
What has changed in me
It has changed in me in that I’m more aware of how we conceive knowledge. I’m not afraid of trying to answer the fundamental questions.
Why it’s important to the MPC and to life. Connections with curriculum.
How does the work fits into the curriculum? A. Does the work relate to other curricular areas? i. Other texts? ii. The MPC culture? Iii. Academic standards? Iv. Ethics of a learner? V. the guiding questions of the year? Trivium? Quadrivium?
Kitty Ferguson tries to model intellectual honesty and integrity. She teaches us how to take every question the human being has seriously, and no matter what your paradigms, knowledge, and opinions you have
Acknowledge the best arguments others have. How we should seek the truth, by grabbing the best arguments.
Main Topics of the Ultimate S2 Essay and their relation with TFITE
1. Truth: Search for truth and God. Will we ever going to reach it? What is reality?
2. Beauty: Is there such thing as beauty? What is beauty? Is there objective beauty? What is the role of beauty in the search for truth?
3. The mind and systems (AI): What is mind? Is it a formal or informal system? Can we ever replicate it; build AI? How does Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem apply?
4. Role of evolution: Search for pattern and the capacity to create concepts; isomorphism of reality. Power of observation.
5. Revolutions: The role of revolutions, specifically scientific revolutions. The change of paradigms and beliefs and how can this lead us to a different understanding of the world. How can one change somewhere affect other grounds and how this molds our civilization?
6. Universe: What is the universe? What is the beginning and end? What is the First Cause? What is life and where does it come from? What is matter?
7. Dialogue: What is the dialogue between nature and scientists? What is the role of dialogue in creating something new, in common?
What this book is about
The Fire in the Equations (contents)
1. They buried him in Westminster abbey
2. Seeing things
3. Almost objective
4. Romancing the creation
5. The elusive mind of God
6. The God of Abraham and Jesus
7. Inadmissible Evidence
8. Theory of Everything… Mind of God
Encapsulates the arguments on science, religion and the search for God, putting over very complicated things very simply.
“A clear account of the ultimate question.”
- Stephen Hawking
Kitty Ferguson starts The Fire in the Equations by describing Darwin’s funeral. She introduces us to the environment after Darwin’s Origin of Species publication in 1859. Since then, many people have assumed that science and belief in God are irreconcilable. And now, more than a century and a half later, scientists themselves are divided as to whether belief in God can sit comfortable alongside scientific knowledge.
But is the conflict between modern science and religious belief inevitable? Must those who accept the theories of Einstein and Heisenberg reject the visions of Isaiah and Paul?
Now there are many advances in physics, biology, and other very interesting fields such as chaos and complexity theory. The question of whether belief in God conflicts with science is not a question only for scientists, phillosophers, and intellectuals, but for all of us. Questions such as can we find God or will a scientific theory erase the notion of God? Can we ever go as far as to reach answers for the ultimate of fundamental questions? Can human reason allow us that? Or must the answers lie partly in imagination, poetry, and metaphor, or come from evidence unavailable to science?
This is not," she writes, "a book designed to pit science against religion and come up with a winner."
One theme of Ferguson's book is a search for the First Cause of the universe. She presents three contenders for this role: God, Logical or Mathematical Consistency, and the Universe itself.
This book is a journey of exploration, as Ferguson says, through the main arguments that hold these positions, but it’s not an attempt to discover or forge reconciliation between science and religion, but more as an exploration for you to build your own opinion about the case. This book was not based on the assumption that reconciliation is lacking or needed. It goes into the areas the heart conflicts lie, in order to find out whether there is actually conflict. It’s an adventure through science, philosophy, theology, and grass-roots belief, where you draw your own conclusions from arguments and evidence presented fairly, straight-forwardly, simply and accurately as possible. She doesn’t tell us what to decide.
There is a further element of risk for anyone on a search for truth. You cannot start in a vacuum. You must begin by trusting some ideas about the universe that have never been proved, may never be proved, and might turn out to be wrong. To be simplistic about it, you have to assume that you exist and that you are sane. Those may not be such dif- ficult assumptions. Common sense supports them. Of course you have to believe they are true in order to trust your common sense. You see what sort of mental maze we get ourselves into!
Idea of why I chose The Fire in the Equations
One of the main reasons I chose The Fire in the Equations is because of the awakening to start questioning and asking the why of things. Why we exist, why life, the universe, planet Earth, other universes, how can this be different? It also gets deep into the question of whether science and religion are in conflict and how has this affected us in our conception of truth. Also, what is the role of religion in our life and in the progress of humanity? Why we do or don’t need religion and science? How can this be together?
- What did you love?
Me encantó que me hiciera pensar más acerca de las preguntas fundamentales. Muchas veces no nos detenemos a pensar en estas preguntas que consideramos que no tienen
How with a group of people we can create something new. I liked the book, but mostly I liked the idea behind it, that Ferguson is telling us implicitly. The importance of having this awakening in questioning everything in our world, the awakening of knowing the things around us.
That’s one of the most important things as a humans we are capable of and having the capacity to evolve and create something entirely new. Asking ourselves what is the reason of the things, why do we exist, what is life, why we are here, what is the universe, why planet earth, are there other universes, and if there is life out there. It makes an emphasis in the role of religion in our history and in science and how can we progress when there is a balance between these two and the reasons of why in some stages of our history of humanity there has been an increase and decrease of these two factors, why is this happening?
It’s an essential factor in our life to question everything that surrounds us, and just as the video of This is Water, is taking off this default state of mind and really trying to figure out what is happening and what is around us.
What has changed in me
It has changed in me in that I’m more aware of how we conceive knowledge. I’m not afraid of trying to answer the fundamental questions.
Why it’s important to the MPC and to life. Connections with curriculum.
How does the work fits into the curriculum? A. Does the work relate to other curricular areas? i. Other texts? ii. The MPC culture? Iii. Academic standards? Iv. Ethics of a learner? V. the guiding questions of the year? Trivium? Quadrivium?
Kitty Ferguson tries to model intellectual honesty and integrity. She teaches us how to take every question the human being has seriously, and no matter what your paradigms, knowledge, and opinions you have
Acknowledge the best arguments others have. How we should seek the truth, by grabbing the best arguments.
Main Topics of the Ultimate S2 Essay and their relation with TFITE
1. Truth: Search for truth and God. Will we ever going to reach it? What is reality?
2. Beauty: Is there such thing as beauty? What is beauty? Is there objective beauty? What is the role of beauty in the search for truth?
3. The mind and systems (AI): What is mind? Is it a formal or informal system? Can we ever replicate it; build AI? How does Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem apply?
4. Role of evolution: Search for pattern and the capacity to create concepts; isomorphism of reality. Power of observation.
5. Revolutions: The role of revolutions, specifically scientific revolutions. The change of paradigms and beliefs and how can this lead us to a different understanding of the world. How can one change somewhere affect other grounds and how this molds our civilization?
6. Universe: What is the universe? What is the beginning and end? What is the First Cause? What is life and where does it come from? What is matter?
7. Dialogue: What is the dialogue between nature and scientists? What is the role of dialogue in creating something new, in common?