Prologue

A NEW JOURNEY FOR SPACESHIP EARTH

Imagine that you are a passenger on a rocket ship hurting through outer space. Commanding the ship are scientists and religious leaders who have assumed the responsibility of flying the rocket to a new homeland. One day you wake up, look out the window, and wonder whether the pilots are heading the ship in the right direction. You begin to doubt whether you have paid enough attention to the route they have taken and you slowly get up the courage to enter the pilot's cabin and ask them a few questions about where exactly the ship is heading. After all, you only have one chance to make it home.

Today we all ride a rocketship: the planet Earth. The journey we are on is called life. Like the rocket ship, the leaders of science and religion direct the way we carry out our lives, and we rely upon those leaders to take us to a better place, whether we call it the promised land, heaven, or simply a land of peace and prosperity.

For most of the voyage, we have sat quietly in the back of the ship as we have let others, whom we believe to be smarter than we are, guide us along this journey. But like the passengers on the rocket ship, many of us are beginning to realize that because we only have one life to lead, we should start asking a few questions about our route and destination.

The group commanding our own rocket ship follows a system of belief called scientific materialism. In this view of the world, matter is the ultimate reality; the universe (or universes) arose from a random, purposeless explosion; and God is dead. We may not know it--since we are sititng in the back of the ship and not paying much attention--but this mind-set is controlling the flight of the ship, permeating our culture and society. We are clearly not heading toward any sort of promised land.

Materialism separates us from Mother Nature, other people, and God. It fixes us into categories--race, religion, nationalities, political parties--that mask the fundamental unity of all humankind.

It is time to set spaceship Earth on a new journey. It is time to challenge the thought leaders who have set the ship's guidance system following the methods of materialism, and who are heading this planet toward disaster.

So hold on to your seats as we challenge the core principles of scientific materialism and show that we can take another, more sensible route. We can instead steer this great ship towards a place that does not separate us, but unites us; that turns the mystical belief that we are One into a scientific truth; and that fulfills both the visions of science and the dreams of God.