Final Paper I submitted for my Atlantic University TP5110 Course – September 24, 2020
Approximately 150 years ago, a divorce occurred between science and spirituality or religion, which still impacts us today. What transpired initially was an uneasy truce between the two that attempted to split the baby.
As Ken Wilber says, “Science is clearly one of the most profound methods that humans have yet devised for discovering truth, while religion remains the single greatest force for generating meaning” (1993, p. 3). Richard Tarnas adds, “With both science and religion simultaneously vital yet discrepant, the culture’s world view was by necessity bifurcated, reflecting a metaphysical schism that existed as much with the individual as within the larger society” (1991, p. 302).
On one side of the bifurcated chasm was a field that completely transformed our world and brought us to technological advancements that were beyond comprehension even 75 years ago. The scientific and technological revolution delivered us the miracles of modern medicine. Objects as large as the cosmos itself and as small as subatomic particles – and everything in between – were now within reach of scientific study. They developed extremely sophisticated measuring devices, which they believed could measure anything and everything.
It’s hard to argue with their success. As Tarnas notes, “Science achieved a golden age in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with extraordinary advances in all its major branches, with widespread institutional and academic organization of research, and with practical applications rapidly proliferating on the basis of a systematic linkage of science with technology” (1991, p. 355).
The technologies that it offered humanity have significantly increased our lifespan. We can now communicate instantly with anyone anywhere in the world. We’ve sent humans to the Moon, landed a probe on the surface of Mars, and another is doing a flyby of each of the other planets in our solar system and sending back breathtaking photographs.
The scientific method isn’t just limited to science. Its rigorous demands for evidence and replicable proof have transformed fields as diverse as the criminal justice system and archeology. For example, with the advent of DNA testing, thousands of innocent people were released from prison, set-free by a test that didn’t exist previously, and now it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the wrongly accused and couldn’t have perpetrated the crime. And, carbon-dating, soil sampling and other tools have transformed archeological finds, leaving a lot less to speculation and giving us hard facts on the lives of our ancestors. Similar techniques are applied to written works, most notably the Bible, offering us tremendous insights into its authors, the time period when it was written, and the influences of surrounding cultures.
Even in my own field of communications, a scientific method is a cornerstone of what we do, particularly when I worked for public relations agencies. I dealt with media outlets, and correspondences needed to be tight, without hyperbole, and most importantly, supported by facts and not opinions. Dealing with hardened and cynical journalists regularly certainly trains a person not to try to pull one over and, instead, rely on facts.
The scientific revolution was much more than just measuring. It became an entirely new way to view the world, which has permeated every fiber of the Western culture and much of the Eastern world as well starting in the late 19th Century. Huston Smith explains that this scientific worldview includes “two corollaries: first, that the scientific method is, if not the only reliable method of getting at truth, then at least the most reliable method; and second, that the things science deals with – material entities are the most fundamental things that exist” (Smith, 2000).
The intended or unintended consequence of materialism, which seeped far beyond merely the field of science and became the foundation of the modern Western culture’s worldview, is that it left God, the supernatural, metaphysical, and consciousness out of the equation. If you can’t measure it, they argue, then it either doesn’t exist, it doesn’t matter, or it’s just an illusion. As Tarnas puts it, “The Earth and mankind might be the metaphysical pivot of God’s creation, but that status could not be supported by a purely scientific understanding, which saw both the Earth and the Sun a merely two bodies among many countless others moving through a boundless neutral void” (1991, p. 301).
Darwin’s theory of evolution proved to be the final death knell to God and an intelligent design for creation from a scientific perspective. Atheistic at its roots, Darwin added to scientific rationalism and materialism a belief of overwhelming randomness. There was no longer an intelligent “watchmaker” who created everything to work together in a comprehensive, beautiful, and synchronized manner. The universe, Earth’s formation, life’s inexplicable cause, the evolution from a single cell entity to animals and humans, and everything else in the cosmos, all boiled down to a lucky roll of the dice. Tarnas adds, “modern science” has “cleansed the universe of all those human and spiritual properties previously projected upon it” (1991, p. 296).
The mainstream modern world lapped-up this new philosophy and relegated God and the supernatural to Sunday worship and the privacy of one’s home. It also brought something else much more disturbing, and that’s it completely disconnected people from God initially, then the environment, particularly as modern technology learned to use nature as a resource to be harnessed for energy and money, and now, with the advent of modern communications, each other. A random act of a cold universe that somehow self-combusted and created many properties that ultimately formed the planets and us is certainly not the domain of poets, musicians, or lovers. And, it’s pretty darn depressing.
And that’s exactly how I felt during this course’s first Experience exercise when we were assigned to go out into nature and adopt a rationalist and materialist worldview. The chirping birds lost their place as an integral part of God’s creation and were now just a collection of cells that formed and survived because it happened to be the “fittest.” The trees the birds sat on were soulless, and merely a hangover from an earlier evolutionary period. Everything could be measured, and everything could be explained.
Rational science, in its desire for control, succeeded in destroying any sense of mystery and interconnectedness. And I was left alone with just the thoughts in my head, which science explained are simply a series of highly sophisticated synapses and neurons. Our Darwinian desire for life can explain even memory, consciousness, and seemingly out-of-the brain phenomenon like Near-Death Experiences (NDE’s). In these instances, our brain, science says, stimulates hormones and other chemicals in the brain to create an allusion.
Traditional religion attempted to fill the void of mystery and the unexplainable left in science’s wake. Yet, it was caught off guard by the tremendous advances brought forth by the scientific revolution, which seemed to answer many of the questions people previously turned to religion to answer. In some cases, certain faiths turned more dogmatic and warned its followers that Darwin’s theories were blasphemous, and they would land in Hell if they believed them. Others churches fully embraced post-modernism and gutted their doctrine of anything resembling tradition, and typically devolved into a social-political group pushing the issues and causes du jour.
By the 1960s, an entire generation of cultural revolutionaries took hold of morality, spirituality, and education, and used rationalism and materialism to attempt to kill traditional religion for good. People, including former priests, not only rejected the teachings of Western Christianity, they openly and venomously vilified its very existence. Science was king, and formal religion was nearing the point of extinction. The Postmodernist world was now upon us.
That was fifty years ago. Science, which appeared unstoppable, and Lord Kelvin’s words, which we learned in Week 5, seemed to be prophetic and applicable to all of the scientific disciplines. In 1900, he told the British Royal Society that there “is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement” (Kelvin, 1900). Yet, science’s seemingly unbeatable hand doesn’t seem to be as strong these days.
One primary reason is Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, which we discussed as part of this course. The once immovable and tidy Newtonian way of looking at matter and the universe were now called into question, at least at the sub-atomic level.
As Dennis Overbyedec said, since the inception of quantum theory in 1905, which deduced “that light behaved like a particle as well as like a wave, Einstein never stopped warning that it was dangerous to the age-old dream of an orderly universe” (Overbyedec, 2005). And N. David Mermin of Cornell University, “called Einstein’s spooky action ‘the closest thing we have to magic’” (Overbyedec, 2005).
As Robin noted several times throughout the course, science, at least externally, still holds onto materialistic and unchanging Newtonian worldview with an iron and dominating fist. As they say in 12-Step programs, “Denial is not a river in Egypt,” although traditional science seems not to have received the memo and continues on hoping that the ramifications of quantum physics will go away. Adds Rupert Sheldrake, “Materialism provided a seemingly simple, straightforward worldview in the late nineteenth century, but twenty-first-century science has left it behind. Its promises have not been fulfilled, and its promissory notes have been devalued by hyperinflation” (2012, p. 12).
Traditional religion, for its part, while still limping along, is losing more and more people daily, and ironically, it’s not due to the damage that science first inflicted. Those who stayed firm initially are finding little left for them in formal religion. The horrendous scandals have certainly taken their toll along with increased involvement in geopolitical affairs that look more like the United Nations than a house of worship. Yet, what’s hurt the institutions the most is an inability to connect people to God and the supernatural. People who still attend feel like they’re going through the motions. While they may follow intellectually, there is no passion left, just as what happens to former lovers when the magic’s gone.
Yet, a new form of spirituality has emerged in the last half-century that not only threatens to replace traditional religion. It’s challenging science’s domination as well. And, ironically, it’s due in large part to one of those fantastic technological advancements, and that’s the Internet. From a practical point of view, instead of being disparate, unconnected individuals living in our little worlds, we are suddenly connected. It’s a perfect metaphor for the changes that we’re experiencing with this period of great awakening and a stark and welcome contrast to science’s cold and disconnected rational worldview.
The Internet also brought exciting and innovative teachings from around the world different from the bifurcated and entrenched Western science versus religion thought dominated for a century and a half. Now, suddenly, there was a third way. No longer was it an “either/or,” but a new way of viewing the world containing elements of both traditional and scientific thinking. And more importantly, new spiritualities and worldviews, or rather old ones rediscovered by this half of the world, from Eastern and indigenous populations were gaining not only a foothold but prominence in the West.
Yoga, which first made headway due to the 1960s New Age movement, was no longer exclusively for monks atop a mountain. It became an essential part of suburban mom’s daily routine. Meditation, too, became fashionable, and its practice is now widespread. Once individuals became comfortable with the exercise and positive feelings of peace they received, they began delving into the spirituality behind these ancient practices like yoga and meditation.
And what they found was something that traditional Christianity espoused as well, and that’s the fact that we all contain an element of God within. As St. Paul says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1. Cor. 6:19). Early Christian Gnostics had understood a concept of a “divine spark” that went even further and is closer to our Eastern brothers and sisters. After condemning Gnostics for nearly 2,000 years, many Christians now found themselves in lockstep and barrel. And it wasn’t only Christians. Jews, too, who had grown tired of the organized faith’s orthodoxy and hierarchy, now turned to the mystical Kabbalah for teachings and inspiration.
My spiritual journey is a microcosm of these movements. I converted to Catholicism in 2000 as a desire for more meaning in my life and a firmer moral foundation to raise my children than what the rational, materialist, and cold post-modern world offered. I embraced the faith with both arms, completed a Master’s in Catholic theology, and attended daily Mass. I also followed the spirituality of a number of the orders, in particular, the Dominicans and the Knights of Malta.
Yet, after fifteen years, I needed more. It wasn’t anything intellectual I was missing. It was a hunger from within that I felt the Church no longer fed. So, I started looking elsewhere. I read the Bhagavad-Gita, and to my surprise, it contained many of the same messages that Jesus espoused. I dabbled in alchemy, attempted to learn the Kabbalah, which I found fascinating but above my paygrade, and I became a Rosicrucian. I also opened up to the esoteric and learned to read tarot cards, I studied astrology, and ultimately found Edgar Cayce after joining a psychic development circle. This led me to Atlantic University and this master’s program.
The further I went, the more I began to see that all these spiritualities are generally the same. In the end, when you strip it all away, there are us humans, with an incredibly powerful presence. While attempting to explain it, science and traditional religion became too mired in their own power struggles and instead of recognizing our connectedness and unity, they created divisions and separated us instead.
My grandparents were victims of a dogmatic Church. My grandmother, a 2nd Generation Irish immigrant, and Roman Catholic fell in love and wanted to marry my grandfather, a Boston Blue-Blood from a prestigious oldline English family and a Protestant. They were forced to elope since neither church would have them. Ironically, when it came time for my grandmother to attend my Dad’s wedding to my mom, she wouldn’t go because it was held in a Protestant church and not a Catholic one. Divisions, divisions, divisions.
For its part, science has erected walls against anything not measurable to the point that their theories are now ranging on the absurd. As Rupert Sheldake notes, “the sciences are being held back by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas, maintained by powerful taboos. These beliefs protect the citadel of established science but act as barriers against open-minded thinking” (2012, p. 12).
We saw these dogmas on full display in the movie we were assigned that covered science’s creation teachings. Because of their dogma, science was forbidden even to entertain an intelligent designer’s concept. Instead, they relied on phrases like “lucky breaks” to describe the fundamental questions that have plagued humans from the beginnings. Questions like, “where did we come from,” Is there a Divine presence?” and, “Where did we come from, etc.?”
If you want to know our exact distance to Saturn, science can tell you within a fraction of an inch. If you want to know how two people can telepathically communicate instantaneously across different continents, they offer nothing but the sound of crickets, and this is due to the dogma that now surrounds the mainstream field. Or, more poignantly, if you want to understand the concept of love or human suffering, science offers nothing. Wilber notes that “Science and technology have created a global and transitional framework of industrial, economic, medical, scientific, and informational systems. Yet, however beneficial those systems maybe, they are all, in themselves, devoid of meaning and value” (1993, p. 3).
We concluded our final Zoom call with a general agreement – amongst the students anyway – that we’re at the point of a tremendous paradigm shift. I believe this shift will be driven in large part by the absence of meaning and value that Wilbur speaks of from both mainstream science and traditional religion. We’re well into this shift, although the power centers don’t realize it yet. Prophets like Vaclav Havel predicted this decades ago when he said that the science’s relationship to the world seems to have “exhausted its potential.” He continues that science has failed “to connect with the most intrinsic nature of reality and with natural human…It produces what amounts to a state of schizophrenia: Man as an observer is becoming completely alienated from himself as a being” (Havel, 1994).
Robin talked about the two disciplines – science and religion – playing on entirely different fields, which is a great metaphor. What will happen one day as each is playing on their separate field, they’ll realize that there are no fans left in the stadium. More troubling to both will be a huge roar they hear from an entirely new field, one that they didn’t even know existed. And when they investigate further, they’ll notice that some of the players from their teams are now playing together on this third field. And, it’s not even a competition of sorts. It’s a gathering and a joint experience.
As I complete this course and prepare to enter my final semester at Atlantic University, I am confident for what lies ahead regarding science and spirituality. The new paradigm will include the greatest elements of both mainstream science and traditional religions. Yet, instead of attacking each other and demanding exclusivity, they will understand that each has a role to play in explaining God, the universe, the cosmos, and everything that we can see and, in particular, what we cannot.
The theory of relativity and quantum physics will join and support mysticism and consciousness by acknowledging that we’re all energy and vibrations, and more importantly, that we are therefore all one. As Ervin Laszlo notes, “disciplines as diverse as quantum physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, and consciousness research” all “point toward a previously unknown form and level of unity in nature. The discovery of this unit is at the core of the next paradigm shift in science” (2007, p. 25)
Two people can communicate telepathically across two continents because there is a universal energy field. They are simply two individual currents using the field to send messages to each other. Robert Foreman puts it, “consciousness is not limited to the body. Consciousness is encountered as something more like a field than a localized point, a field that transcends the body and yet somehow interacts with it” (1996, p. 373). It’s not complicated, and we already have examples of it with things like WIFI.
Not only living things are made up of energy and have a life force, but it’s also rocks and other non-living entities. There is nothing within the universe that’s not connected, and science along with spirituality will provide different explanations for the same conclusion.
The science of consciousness will also help drive this transformation. It’s the enormous pink elephant in the room that modern science refuses to discuss. The irony is as humans, they must experience it as well. There are many intuitive scientists. I remember Dr. Davies, my primary care doctor, who still did house calls when I was a child. He didn’t need a fancy computer program to figure out what was wrong with me or what I needed to help me feel better. He coupled years of experience with a tremendous sixth sense, all wrapped up in the perfect demeanor of a pediatrician who used to give me gumdrops as a reward for being brave.
This sense of connectedness will transform us as humans as well. I’m beginning to feel this in my own life on occasions, like when I did this week’s Experience report. I felt connected to the animals I encountered, along with the trees, and even the road under my feet. I’ve taken to talking to my car (don’t tell anyone), and I ask it if I’m treating it ok and if it minds me driving like a Bostonian. I know from our interactions that you find this connectedness with your hikes in nature.
This worldview has been around forever. Mystics have discussed it, saints for two millennia like St. Theresa of Avila have written about it. Shamans from indigenous tribes conduct ancient ceremonies even today that take people into altered states of oneness, and monks in the Eastern world have given their lives to this unmeasurable connection.
I’m at the point where I’m so confident that consciousness, connectedness, the quantum field – all of it – is real. I don’t need any more books or gurus to explain what I now know from this course of studies and my own life experiences.
What I now long for is to live in a more connected way. The old battles of religion versus science wear me out. They seem so 20th Century! They’re not worth the time, nor are the political battles that rage and keep us from evolving to 5D. Like many other movements and paradigm shifts in history, the masses will get there before the elites, and when they do, we’ll have a seat waiting for them.
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References
Forman, R. (1998), “What does mysticism have to teach us about consciousness,” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5 (2). Retrieved from: https://moodle.atlanticuniv.edu/pluginfile.php/52646/mod_page/content/8/Mysticism%20and%20Consciousness%20Forman.pdf
Havel, V. (1994, July), The need for transcendence in the postmodern world. Speech presented in Independence Hall on July 4th, Philadelphia, PA.
Laszlo, E. (2004), “Science and the akashic field,” Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
Overbyedec, D. (2005, Oct. 27). Quantum trickery: testing Einstein’s strangest theory. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/science/quantum-trickery-testing-einsteins-strangest-theory.html
Sheldrake, R. (2012), “Science set free,” New York, NY: Random House
Smith, H. (2000), Why religion matters: the fate of the human spirit in an age of disbelief, “Scientism: the bedrock of the modern worldview.” In M.M. Zarandi (Ed) (2003). Science and the myth of progress (pp. 233-248). Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, Inc.
Tarnas, R. (1991), The passion of the Western mind: understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view, New York: Ballantine Books.
Wilber, K. (1998), The marriage of sense and soul, New York, NY: Random House