Discussion Post I submitted for my Atlantic University TP5110 Course – September 10, 2020
The Ken Wilber chapter we read this week provides a significant angle to consider in our semester study of the battle between the religious or spiritual and science. In describing Plato’s teaching, we see that there are not one but two paths working simultaneously, which are described as the Good and the Goodness. Wilber says, “The path of Ascent is the path of the Good; the path of Descent is the path of Goodness” (1995, p. 336). Relying on various Eastern and Western philosophies, he notes that our “returning to embracing the One is Good, and is known as wisdom,” and “the One returning and embracing the Many is Goodness, and is known as compassion” (1995, p. 337).
Wilber notes that this ascending and descending path is a unified path and works in synch. “[T]he integration of Ascent and Descent is in the union of wisdom (which sees that Many is One) and compassion (which sees that One is Many)” (1995, p. 337). As we’ve learned, since Descartes, Darwin, and others, we’ve experienced a dichotomy or split between religion and science, which is anything but integrated. Science seeks to reduce everything to what we experience through our five senses, thus putting up a roadblock in our ascent toward the One. Religion’s traditional yet seemingly growing implausible explanations of God and our natural world had no counter to the exciting scientific discoveries. Thus we’ve experienced a protracted Cold War between the two for over a century now.
Yet, Wilbur notes “that either the Ascending or Descending path, taken in and by itself is catastrophic” (1995, p. 338). This dichotomy or Cold War between two very different and distinct ways of understanding, perceiving, and experiencing the Good and the Goodness in practice severed the “integration of Ascent and Descent” that Wilbur describes, and the results are catastrophic.
There is undoubtedly a place in both the Ascent and Descent for a rational, logical mind. As the earlier scientists before the split believed, and even those after like Einstein and other early 20th Century’s physicists, learning God’s laws and the perfection behind our natural world was a mystical experience for these great minds. As scientist Walter Kohn puts it, in contemplating the world, there “is a sense of awe, a sense of reverence, and a sense of great mystery” (Kohn, 2001). Albert Einstein adds that the “most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious” (Einstein, 1931).
Even for those more inclined to the religious or spiritual worldview, empirical evidence aids faith greatly, particularly when experiencing a culture that is overflowing with skepticism. My earlier conversion was greatly aided by studying the Shroud of Turin, for example, or the 1917 “Miracle of the Sun” in Fatima when 70,000 people witnessed “‘The silver sun … [which] was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds,’ reported the newspaper of Lisbon, Portugal” (Hoopes, 2017). Our logical minds can also discern patterns and symbols everywhere in nature and the cosmos, and this ensures us that a Universal Watchmaker must exist. There must be an order and a plan for our environment and ourselves. As Robin notes in this week’s write-up, “The perennial philosophy and the Great Chain give an account…of both the order of the cosmos, and of the process of creation and evolution” (Weeks, Week 10).
While science often paints itself as being in service for humanity, and therefore, compassionate at its roots, the evidence is mixed at best. As we’ve discussed throughout this course, the use of two atomic bombs over Japan to end War World II, human testing (e.g., the Tuskegee experiment), endless animal testing still prevalent today, and an over-reliance on pharmaceuticals for profits, as examples, certainly paints a far different and dark picture of science’s morality. It’s not surprising given the field’s and our modern worldview’s acceptance of Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fitness. A far cry from Jesus’s teaching that “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
There are signs of a detente between the scientific and religious war, mainly because people are awaking. Many see that neither the cold and logical scientific worldview nor the dogma of traditional religions provides a road to Good and the Goodness. As independent creatures endowed with free will, we seek our own paths as the 21st Century unfolds. A science that embraces consciousness and the other “woo woo” topics previously forbidden is more prevalent and accessible, thanks largely to the Internet. Spirituality can also relate to this notion of consciousness and a sense of connectedness and unity, underscored by great scientific minds like Nicole Tesla, who, over a century ago, understood that energy is everywhere.
As Einstein said, the “religion of the future will be a cosmic religion…Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity” (Einstein, 1954). A “uniting” of “wisdom and compassion in every moment of perception,” as Wilber notes (1995, p. 338), can finally get us back on our path of ascending and descending.
References
Einstein, A. (1931), “Living philosophies,” New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Retrieved from https://sciphilos.info/docs_pages/docs_Einstein_fulltext_css.html
Einstein, A. (1954), The human side, edited by H. Dukas & B. Hoffman (Eds.), Princeton, PA: Princeton University Press
Hoopes, T. (2017, Oct. 13), “Fatima: 4 great lessons from the ‘Miracle of the Sun’,” Aleteia. Retrieved from https://aleteia.org/2017/10/13/october-13-in-fatima-the-day-god-shouted/
Kohn, W. (2001, July 26), “Dr. Walter Kohn: science, religion, and the human experience,” The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved from https://todayinsci.com/K/Kohn_Walter/KohnWalter-Quotations.htm
Wilbur, K. (1995), Sex, ecology, spirituality: the spirit of evolution, Book 2, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications
Weeks, R. (2020), Science & spirituality, Week 10, Atlantic University. Retrieved from https://moodle.atlanticuniv.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=41085.