“First, some physicists insist that quantum mechanics cannot be formulated without taking into account the minds of observers. They argue that minds cannot be reduced to physics because physics presupposes the minds of physicists”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“Strategic thinking requires the ability to contemplate possibilities that are not immediately present.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“It’s almost as if science said, 'Give me one free miracle, and from there the entire thing will proceed with a seamless, causal explanation.’The one free miracle was the sudden appearance of all the matter and energy in the universe, with all the laws that govern it.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“I am all in favour of science and reason if they are scientific and reasonable. But I am against granting scientists and the materialist worldview an exemption from critical thinking and sceptical investigation. We need an enlightenment of the Enlightenment.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“Modern physics has definitely decided for Plato. For the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word: they are forms, structures, or – in Plato’s sense – Ideas, which can be unambiguously spoken of only in the language of mathematics.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“The sudden appearance of all the Laws of Nature is as untestable as Platonic metaphysics or theology. Why should we assume that all the Laws of Nature were already present at the instant of the Big Bang, like a cosmic Napoleonic code? Perhaps some of them, such as those that govern protein crystals, or brains, came into being when protein crystals or brains first arose. The preexistence of these laws cannot possibly be tested before the emergence of the phenomena they govern.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
“In ancient Rome, money was minted in the temple of Juno Moneta, the Great Mother in her aspect of adviser and admonisher. She is the source of our words money and monetary.”
― Rupert Sheldrake
"The universe is not in a steady state; there's an ongoing creative principle in nature, which is driving things onwards."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality in principle, leaving only the details to be filled in."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"The assumption that the laws of nature are eternal is a vestige of the Christian belief system that informed the early postulates of modern science in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the laws of nature have actually evolved along with nature itself, and perhaps they are still evolving. Or perhaps they are not laws at all, but more like habits."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"The cumulative nature of the evolutionary process, the fact that memory is preserved, means that life grows not just through a random proliferation of new forms, but there's a kind of cumulative quality."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"The facts of science are real enough, and so are the techniques that scientists use, and so are the technologies based on them. But the belief system that governs conventional scientific thinking is an act of faith."
― Rupert Sheldrake
"In both religion and science, some people are dishonest, exploitative, incompetent and exhibit other human failings."
― Rupert Sheldrake