The Light in the Woods

7/31/09 Reflections                  Science is wonderful; we owe so much to those who postulate, then research and prove along those lines. Through science we’ve consistently achieved a higher standard of living for everyone, and with new computer technologies the pace of discovery has quickened.

What we need to guard against is junk science – postulating and then manipulating technology to agree with the supposition the scientist wants to prove. As wonderful as the new technologies are for the scientific method, they also provide a false model when in the hands of someone with a personal agenda to forward. Science is no different than any other discipline; it must be true to itself in order to be valid, and we trust the scientist only so far as his methods are ethical.

The same standard applies to spirituality, no less because it’s an inexact process dependent on individual effect. The fact that it’s an individual acquisition makes it imperative that it be proven to the satisfaction of that individual. Only our inner virtues and spiritual peace prove what we suspect of the Creator. But spirituality can be pursued sloppily – we may think we’re communicating with God and purifying our spirits through virtue, but upon further introspection we find we may be fooling ourselves. That doesn’t mean that spiritual pursuit is folly; it means that when God’s presence is received properly we expect to accept God’s instruction through a faith that is studied and reasonable.

Science and spirituality are both research disciplines – it’s the way of measurement and study that is different, and the fact that in spirituality the search and the learning doesn’t end. For all the good that science does us, it can only be applied to the temporal universe. If that’s all you believe in, then science can suffice. But of all the things science can achieve, it cannot answer the end question — “Why?” When all the measurements are taken and theories proven, the very purpose of the existence of the subjects of scientific exploration, the universe and its inhabitants, cannot be discovered by scientific method. It cannot be discovered by spiritual pursuit either, but it can be glimpsed. This flicker of knowledge can develop faith, and faith itself generates more grace and more divine knowledge.

This knowledge of the Creator and His will can be just as true and clear to the individual as the answer to a math problem. But if this grace hasn’t happened to you, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened to someone else. It’s viable and useful to someone, and secular sneering born of the “Prove it!” school of reality can’t take that away.

Science and spirituality are not looking for the same thing – naturally the results will be foreign to each other. They are not speaking the same language or starting with the same hypothesis. They are not studying the same curriculum or aiming for the same goals. But both are extremely important. To demean one and revere the other is to rob oneself of the full range of the pursuit of knowledge.