Convened at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine over three days, May 18th-May 20th 2001, the Prophets Conference featured leading spokespersons from the scientific, arts and spiritual communities. The conference intended to serve as a bridge between these communities and to explore the possibilities for the future. Central to the dialogue was a focus on the interpretation of realities to envision a deeper sense of our destiny and new ways of accomplishing change.
The participates included:
Huston Smith, a philosopher and scholor of religion. Author of The Religions of Man, the standard introduction to world's major religions, and his recent Why Religion Matters Smith believes that the principals of the different religions that are consistent with each other may serve as a map that can orient us wherever the future may bring.
We cannot know. All we can do is try to listen carefully and with full attention to each voice in turn as it addresses the divine. Such listening defines the highest adventure one can undertake. "The prophets uttered words that have not been forgotten. The prophetic principle comes down to the insistence on justice. Basically, that no society ridden by injustice is going to last."
books by Huston Smith
Gregg Braden, who as trained geologist observed many years ago the impact on the planet from pollution and contamination. Understanding that technology will fail to meet the challenges the world faces in the next 20 years, Braden urged a move into interdisciplinary science.
Braden believes that ancient traditions hold the answers. People of the earth had received the "wisdom of heaven" 6000 years ago and science is close to unraveling that ancient language. These texts remind us that we may use this language to "see the unseen, hear that which cannot be heard," and speak with creation through the "unspoken word". The world around us is what we have become from within, and the ancient language is one of unifying and linking human emotion into the blueprints of peace, cooperation and healing relationships that become the reality of our future.
Since graduating from Harvard in 1969, Michio Kaku has become one of the most prominent theoretical physicists in the world. A cofounder of the string field theory, Kaku continues the search for Einstein's unified field theory, the quest for "the theory of everything" or, as cosmologist Steven Hawking has said, "to read the mind of God."
For Kaku, the unified field theory may be what is called the 10th dimension, or hyperspace. Mystics and theologians have thought that hyperspace was the home of the spirits and now physicists realize that hyperspace may be the home of the unified field theory.
Nevertheless, in spite of the exciting opportunities offered by modern science, Kaku stresses that as human beings we have enormous powers for destruction. Without discovering our own meaning of life that will allow us to establish a planetary consciousness, there is a real possibility that the human beings on this planet will not be able to experience the present day revolutions of science.
books by Michio Kaku
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