Why do scientists get bent out of shape when mystical interpretations of physics are brought up? [closed]

Question

Science typically refers people to Philosophy when such subjects are brought up. But yet they know that there are profound metaphysical implications of the physics of the last century, and since the spiritual interpretations don't conflict with the science, it doesn't quite seem in harmony with their otherwise neutral and inquisitive state of mind.

Answer 1

Richard Feynman summarized modern science with this statement:

In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.

Experimentation is the foundation of all modern science (particularly physics). It is the key difference that has allowed tremendous progress in science over the past few centuries compared to, eg, classical Greece. There were plenty of very intelligent people thinking about the physical world, but without that key mindset that experimentation must trump everything else, the progress was hindered.

By their nature, spiritual things are supernatural; therefore, they are outside the realm of experimentation. For this reason, there is no place in modern science for spiritual explanations.

Answer 2

Why do we get angry about anything? We could say that many times it is because we have personal issues related to the event or subject in question.

In the case of physicists, that also may or may not apply.

But in my experience, even if the above is the case, it is usually justified. People tend to distort or misinterpret physics claims in order to fit their own beliefs. Specially with modern physics, that has a lot of out-of-the-ordinary consequences, many people take a superficial view and use that as an "explanation" for spiritual stances.

Ken Wilber has an audio conversation entitled "Does Quantum Physics Prove God?" in which he says that it does not, and that those claims come from misunderstandings. The interesting thing is that Wilber himself is a "spiritualist" (whatever that may mean), but he says that that kind of mix of physics and spirituality is both bad physics and bad mysticism.

So when a physicist gets aggro about that, I would consider that it is because so many people has misused physics without really understanding it, simply trying to transfer some of physics knowledge's strength to the "spiritual".

Answer 3

This reaction is a natural (unconscious) adaptation to preserve a boundary between subject and object. When this boundary is broken without control, it's called schizophrenia.