Rick,
I don't really understand why many people feel that science and spirituality are mutually exclusive, or that attention paid to one must diminish attention paid to the other. They both spring from the same impulse - a desire to understand the universe around us. Primitive individuals turned to the spiritual to explain certain phenomena they did not understand. As understanding increased, this became less and less necessary. Increased understanding also brought with it a steadily increasing quality of life - if you doubt it, try living for a few months in the bush, with aboriginals. We rely on science more than spirituality because we have found that it solves problems. We can cure sick children, instead of praying over them as they die. We can predict storms and prepare for them, instead of imploring deities to send them elsewhere. And on, and on. Granted, science hasn't solved all our problems, but we often take for granted the solutions that it has provided.
The search for meaning is, of course, important, but I don't see any real search for meaning in the conventional religions that masquerade as spirituality. If we want to find meaning we must look for it inside ourselves and each other, and we must look with full freedom of inquiry. I don't believe that meaning can be spoonfed, or found in a book, or a sermon.
Many people who consider themselves spiritual distrust science because it provides physical explanations for phenomena which they are accustomed to explaining spiritually (the evolution/creation debate is a classic example). But how can any search for meaning be enhanced by denying or ignoring the evidence provided by the world around us?
Steve |
