Discussion Post I submitted for my Atlantic University TP5110 Course – July 9, 2020
My name is Craig Richardson, and I’m currently living in Northern Virginia, where I’ve been passing through for most of the last 35 years. Raised in Boston, I went to college in Maine, and my family still has a place in the N.E. Kingdom of Vermont close to the Canadian border. I have two sons, one who just finished at Clemson and another whose off to Auburn next month. I’ve worked in politics and communications for most of my career. I’m relocating to Maryville, TN, next year, where I plan to launch a photography, videography, and web design business.
Science and Spirituality is one of the final four classes I have remaining before I complete my A.U. coursework. Raised without a great deal of formal religion, I’ve been on quite the spiritual journey since 2000 when I joined the Catholic Church and received an M.A. in theology in 2006. I began questioning basic tenants of Church’s teachings in 2015, which led me on a path since then that’s included alchemy, hypnotherapy, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, mediumship, and ultimately Edgar Cayce and Atlantic University.
I have a limited background in hard science. I barely met my science requirements in high school when the teacher mercifully passed me. I never took any physics or chemistry, and I wasn’t required to take any science in college as we didn’t have any distribution requirements back then. I focused more on history, social studies, and political science, and left the rest to the folks in the white lab coats. My personal bias pushes me toward the religious/spirituality side of the equation. With my exposure to quantum physics through my A.U. Master’s, however, I am optimistic that the destructive relationship between faith and science that’s dominated much of the past 150 years might finally have a way out. People must let down their guards long enough to appreciate that it’s not an “either-or” but rather a “both.”
As Robin notes, the movie Contact powerfully depicts the fault lines between Science and Religion, with a healthy dose of politics thrown in for good measure! And that’s a good starting point for not only how the modern world treats religion and spirituality, but also how research that’s not “productive” or commercially applicable is wholly underfunded.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about the consequences of science getting too cozy with the federal government in his now-famous “Military-Industrial Complex Speech” as part of his Farewell Address in 1961. He said: “In this [technological] revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government” (Eisenhower, 1961). At the beginning of the film, we saw how David Drummonds pulls the funding for Ellie and her team’s “crazy” research because it wasn’t “useful.” Or once Ellie made the discovery of intelligent life on another planet, corporations, and world leaders lined up to give financial support in exchange for the rights to any future discoveries as a result of the contact.
I was attracted to Atlantic University and the Spiritualist Church I attend since this is one of the few places that I feel comfortable enough to let my hair down. I enjoy conversations about spirituality, alternative universes, the 5th dimension, and many other subjects that make most people roll their eyes. My life includes meditation, trips to energy healers, a belief in reincarnation and the continuity in life, and an innate power of manifesting my own futures, to name a few.
After her mission through a series of wormholes and encountering her father’s apparition, Ellie finds herself in a similar situation. Always the skeptic and the one who demands proof, the tables are turned. She is now in a very uncomfortable position having to face the same “scientific based” retorts she’s thrown at Palmer throughout the movie from a daunting Congressional panel and especially from an aggressive Michael Kitz (James Woods). She can’t quite bring herself to say it requires “faith” to believe that what she encountered was real. Yet, Ellie provides a very dramatic expression of her experience. She notes that she learned how “rare and precious we all are.” She adds that her vision enabled her to understand that “we are greater than ourselves…That none of us are alone.” (Bradshaw & Zemeckis, 1997).
A point made even more poignant considering Ellie was an orphan by nine, and that much of what drove her was a need to fill the giant void left by her deceased parents. The film powerfully brings this to life after her initial romantic tryst with Palmer and a discussion about her parents. She runs out of her own house, leaving him in bed. Palmer had touched a deep nerve and left her hyperventilating. Searching for intelligence life millions of light-years away was safe; intimacy with another human was not since in her case caused unmeasurable suffering. Her father’s apparition enlightens her that what she needs most is right in front of her: “See, in all the search, the only thing we found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.” (Bradshaw & Zemeckis, 1997)
These days, I find myself squarely in the camp of a third-way. I am not beholden anymore to the dogmas of formal religion. And I have a healthy skepticism of the materialist scientism that discounts anything that’s not measurable like consciousness and the Divine. I still have many questions, and I’m still searching, like others. What I ascribe to is what Palmer says at the end of the movie: “As a person of faith, I’m bond by a different covenant than Dr. Arroway but our goal is one in the same: the pursuit of truth.” (Bradshaw & Zemeckis, 1997).
References
Bradshaw, J. (Producer), & Zemeckis, R. Initials. (Director). (1997). Contact [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros.
Eisenhower, D. (1961, January 17). Farewell Address. Retrieved from https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
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