Xarker Manifesto: Science

Science and the world around us

1. The more we learn about the world, the more beautiful and surprising it becomes.
2. What we learn about one thing changes the way we think about other things. Werner Heisenberg was simply trying to explain the behavior of electrons when he advanced his uncertainty principle in 1927. He had no idea that his observation would challenge the authority of mechanistic, top-down political and cultural thinking for decades to come.
3. Science is an effective way of looking at the world. But it isn't the only effective way of looking at the world.
4. The more we learn about physics, the more mysterious the structure of reality becomes.
5. The more we examine that structure, the more echoes we hear of our mystical past: Lao Tzu, the Vedas, Druids,  Jesus, Hafiz ...
6. Human beings who are in love with the mystery and experience of life acknowledge the limits of science but love it for the things it reveals. On the other hand, human beings who fear mystery and cling to the ever-eroding certainty of dogma despise discovery of any kind. Science is the enemy of the religionist and the totalitarian because it represents an independent source of authority.
7. No single authority, or way of thinking, or means of expression will ever give us the full picture.
8. And so we xark.

Editor's Note: The original Xarker Manifesto was published on this site on June 29, 2005. Subsequent changes and additions appear with a date attached.

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