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On Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 6:37:41 AM UTC+2, Ilya Shambat wrote:
There are people in science and engineering who think that religion and spirituality is for the stupid. So they fail to avail themselves of a vast body of wisdom that is the religions and spiritual paths of the world.
There are some in Christianity who think that anything that is not the Bible is of the Satan. These likewise fail to avail themselves of a vast body of wisdom that is science and other religions.
In both cases we see foolish behavior – behavior that mostly hurts themselves.
A promise that I made myself when I was younger was that, whatever I investigate, I will maximize positive effects of and minimize negative effects of. I have of course seen negative effects of both scientific approach and religion. What I have chosen
to do instead is learn from both what they have to teach me that’s right while ignoring what’s wrong. So I recognize the merit of physics, chemistry and climate science without buying into materialistic bigotry that claims that nothing spiritual can
exist. And I also recognize the wisdom of Solomon, Jesus and Augustine without buying into such ideas as that Jews are evil, that women are meant to serve men, or that reason is a whore.
Both materialist fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism are ways to ignore and deny wisdom. It is a way to impoverish one’s mind and one’s experience of life. I have had many spiritual experiences, and I would have to be completely psychotic
to practice materialist fundamentalism. As for religious fundamentalism, I have known many wise and good people who didn’t practice it, so their claim on having monopoly on truth, goodness and righteousness is obviously wrong.
I once heard a 12-year-old kid say, “Who says that God doesn’t use science, who says that God does not use evolution.” To hear such a thing from a 12-year-old is amazing. I had a mathematics teacher who said that there was no contradiction
between science and Christianity. I have known many people with good reasoning skills who had spiritual experiences. Professors, physics PhDs, successful entrepreneurs, you name it.
Both materialist fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism are very obviously wrong. The first fails to account for people’s spiritual experiences, and the second damns everything except itself when there are many things of merit besides itself. In
both cases, once again, we see people ignoring vast bodies of wisdom. This, then, leads to these people becoming very foolish and doing stupid and destructive things. The first maliciously persecute anyone involved in spiritual practice. The second deny
scientific reality while running witch hunts and forcing de facto totalitarianism on their people.
Materialism is right to support physics, chemistry and climate science; wrong to deny the reality of spiritual experience. Religion is right to acknowledge spiritual experience, wrong to deny science and other spiritual paths. The honest people
involved in both share the same commitment: Interest in the truth. To the extent that this is their actual value, they should be able to work together. And then both scientific inquiry and spiritual experience will be possible, to arrive at wisdom sooner
and better than through either of the preceding.
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