Bridging the Gap Between Science and Spirituality

[Miss Hepburn]

This gang may enjoy this interview with an Oxford physicist:
The Universe is a hologram....
I like her and often listen to this interviewer. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAPbrHQqofs

If in a rush go to about 26 min in.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by johnsonava

'm curious to hear your thoughts on how science and spirituality can coexist and even complement each other. Are there scientific theories or discoveries that have resonated with your spiritual beliefs? How do you navigate the potential conflicts or tensions between these two realms?

Science deals with axioms , theorems , principles which explains various cause effect relations in material (like physics,chemistry,astronomy etc) and less-material world (subjective fields like politics ,economics , psychology etc) .
Spirituality too deals with axioms and principles which can be more abstract than other sciences and which work over periods / area which may be be very long and wider. In that sense Spirituality too is science (though more abstract ) .

The reason why science and spirituality may look at odds is that in European history some so-called spiritual people have pestered some genuine scientists for their vested interests and in that conflict genuine scientists won finally . So spirituality or religion is looked upon with suspicion . But looking at big picture , discarding spirituality for such a period in history will be a big mistake. Of course foolish/sellfish/fraudulent spirituality should be vanquished at all cost like it has done in the past. But genuine spirituality devoid of such attributes deserves respect .

To the best of my knowledge most scientists were not against spirituality . In fact many of them came from humble backgrounds with foundation of religious beliefs . Albert Einstein , alexander fleming , michael faraday all had some spiritual beliefs despite being good scientists. So increasingly people view science and spirituality as complementary and NOT conflicting .

[Gem]

I think people want it to fit together, but science is method of proving laws, and there's only two factors, the observation, the hypothesis and the experiment. If a scientist happens to be religious or likes meditation or takes a more philosophical, that's all a different practice to scientific practice, so when it comes to science I care nothing about the religion or the spirituality of the scientist, and when it comes to spirituality, I don't care if a teacher has no scientific knowledge. One in no way implies the other, at all.

I think the bridge that they have in common should be reason. Sometimes in spiritualism people just talk about faith and mystical hokum, which is fine and I sometimes get into that a but as well, but I like it when a spiritual discourse is reasoned, structured, makes sense and you can join the dots.

In spiritualism mainly studied Buddhist philosophy, and if you just take the Pali Cannon, it's a pretty sensible discourse, though because it's 'set in stone' the commentaries are tied to its tenets rather than expressions of insight... However, depending on the sect, traditions have add-ons that usually conflict with each other. Because it's a spiritual practice people are fine with that and don't care if it makes no sense, but I do. I'm like, this part and the other part directly contradict each other, and I have to reject parts that don't add up. Then again, that sort of discernment is the proper way to approach Buddhist philosophy since it is not actually a religious belief. This doesn't prevent people from treating it as a religion. Some are fanatical dogmatists as you'd find in any religion. Hence I practice spirituality through reason and discernment, which is more scientific, and the investigation is still the discovery of the truth about nature. The difference with spirituality is, you can't prove it 'out there' with measurements and equations that accurately predict outcomes. You have to realise it 'in here' as your own insight.