I think I can help with the weird "dance" thing - he says "you're creating matter" but what I think he means is that this is a physical dance that represents what happens (theoretically) when matter is created
Yeah, that's about what I would guess too, although I feel that an ordinary honest person trying to explain something, if asked the question he was asked at the end, would have just said "no, I'm not *actually* creating matter with the dance right this minute, but I'm representing how it was done in the early universe." All he had to say was something like that, but instead he chose to evade the question. It gives the impression that he knows better, yet he wants the gullible in the audience to continue interpreting what he's saying differently.
Also, he made such a big deal about their being a connection between this Sufi dance and the matter creation at the beginning of the universe, that it makes you wonder if he really thinks that somehow, God inspired the people who created the religion to put elements into the dance representing matter creation which only God could have known about. Perhaps this is his thesis? But then why doesn't he spell that out, instead he just makes very vague statements presumably intended to lead people to certain bizarre conclusions without actually saying it himself and therefore opening himself up to attack by critics who could shoot down his arguments, whatever they may be.
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I think I can help with the weird "dance" thing - he says "you're creating matter" but what I think he means is that this is a physical dance that represents what happens (theoretically) when matter is created
Yeah, that's about what I would guess too, although I feel that an ordinary honest person trying to explain something, if asked the question he was asked at the end, would have just said "no, I'm not *actually* creating matter with the dance right this minute, but I'm representing how it was done in the early universe." All he had to say was something like that, but instead he chose to evade the question. It gives the impression that he knows better, yet he wants the gullible in the audience to continue interpreting what he's saying differently.
Also, he made such a big deal about their being a connection between this Sufi dance and the matter creation at the beginning of the universe, that it makes you wonder if he really thinks that somehow, God inspired the people who created the religion to put elements into the dance representing matter creation which only God could have known about. Perhaps this is his thesis? But then why doesn't he spell that out, instead he just makes very vague statements presumably intended to lead people to certain bizarre conclusions without actually saying it himself and therefore opening himself up to attack by critics who could shoot down his arguments, whatever they may be.