"the passion to know the world on it's own terms" may be a unifying path that spiritually oriented and scientifically oriented people both share - Still, the path of inquiry for spirituality is so entirely different from the path of inquiry for science ...
To me spiritual practices are about finding or attributing meaning in life, it is one in which the truth is personal and felt and subjective and in which the unspoken agreement is that no one has the right to criticize your truth or your path to the truth. It's as if our personal truths have a sacredness to them. On the other hand with science, it is not about personal meaning or a truth being held sacred. It is the opposite. It is one where the scientist challenges his/her truth belief with experiments, statistics, double blind studies, etc - and if the truth belief survives these rigorous efforts, then your most brilliant colleagues are expected to challenge your findings. It doesn't matter how many years you dedicated to your belief or how much you cared. It is a fierce competition for the truthiest truth as each flawed truth falls by the wayside when it doesn't measure up to the scrutiny.
I deeply appreciate how this article heightened my awareness that the root of each path seems to share an important value - to discover and know the world as it is. That both entail awe, effort and observation is rich for me too. Yet acknowledging the magnitude of the differences between spirituality and science seems important in the context of talking about "truth."
On Apr 8, 2012 Sherry wrote :
To me spiritual practices are about finding or attributing meaning in life, it is one in which the truth is personal and felt and subjective and in which the unspoken agreement is that no one has the right to criticize your truth or your path to the truth. It's as if our personal truths have a sacredness to them. On the other hand with science, it is not about personal meaning or a truth being held sacred. It is the opposite. It is one where the scientist challenges his/her truth belief with experiments, statistics, double blind studies, etc - and if the truth belief survives these rigorous efforts, then your most brilliant colleagues are expected to challenge your findings. It doesn't matter how many years you dedicated to your belief or how much you cared. It is a fierce competition for the truthiest truth as each flawed truth falls by the wayside when it doesn't measure up to the scrutiny.
I deeply appreciate how this article heightened my awareness that the root of each path seems to share an important value - to discover and know the world as it is. That both entail awe, effort and observation is rich for me too. Yet acknowledging the magnitude of the differences between spirituality and science seems important in the context of talking about "truth."