Spirituality: Does Science Need To Adopt It?

"Dr. Jesse Preston, Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Warwick, joins to discuss a recent paper she published regarding whether or not science may serve as a spiritual experience for nonbelievers. Could loving science offer similar psychological benefits that the literature has demonstrated for those in religion?"

Modern science reveals that there probably is no supernatural realm. Thus, how about replacing it with something like "awe" and "connectedness" when reflecting on how all of the material world and life is connected to us even though much is still unknown? 

My opinion is that the term needs to be marginalized because most people associate it with the unsupported belief in religion/God and research shows that the elements of spirituality contributing to well-being (e.g. social engagement) can be found outside of such (link).

Click on the link below for a discussion regarding the role, if any, of spirituality in science:

Can Science Be Spiritual?

Free Will: A Definitive Debate

"Two titans of neuroscience and philosophy come together to debate the existence of free will – a question with profound implications for identity, justice, and the very meaning of life itself. 

"Do human beings have free will? 

"For Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, science clearly demonstrates that free will is a powerful and dangerous illusion. Without free will, it makes no more sense to punish people for antisocial behaviour than it does to scold a car for breaking down. It is no one's fault they are poor or overweight or unsuccessful, nor do people deserve praise for their talent or hard work; 'grit' is a myth.­ 

"But for philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, free will is not only compatible with our current scientific knowledge but justified by it. Free will underwrites our moral and artistic responsibility – and reason and self-control are both real and desirable. 

"Coming together to debate this question for the first time, these two intellectual giants will delve deep into the science and philosophy of the mind and get to the heart of this ancient and vitally important question."

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Click on the link below for an hour-long video debate that clarifies the science and science-based philosophy of Free Will. Two points from me: 1) Both reject any supernatural/spiritual elements and agree that the phenomenon is deterministic. 2) It was close, but I think the scientist (Sapolsky) won over the philosopher (Dennett), surprise, surprise.

Do We Have Freewill?

Meaning And Purpose

"I finally understand why religious people find so much meaning and purpose in religion and why they keep coming back for more even if there's nothing there."

Christians uniformly talk about the satisfying spiritual experience of delving deeply into their Bible for truth. Atheists usually are curious about reality and experience the same emotions when they focus deeply on the search for skill and/or knowledge. Click on the link below for one of the better explanations of this human phenomenon:

I Got Holy Ghosted!

Who Is Josie Grouse?

Since I am on YouTube regularly watching a wide variety of subjects including religion, atheism and many other pseudosciences, I get "recommendations" from YouTube. Yesterday, I was prompted to watch this video entitled "5 Signs your Guardian Angel is with You" from a Josie Grouse. I have never heard of her, have you? This is the introduction to "Her Story":

• "I’m a Spiritual Educator, Medium, and Angelic Messenger. I am here to bring light and messages from the spirit world. My energy is healing and uplifting to those whose lives I touch."

Perusing the internet, we find that she is making quite a good living selling total bullshit to the gullible (link): "According to various newspapers, Josie Grouse's estimated net worth is $500,000-$2 Million." 

Folks, science-based thinking has a long road ahead. Oh, please note: she earned a Master of Science degree in Nursing. She was a Professor of Nursing and taught health sciences, healing arts, and medical intuition!!

Why Science CAN Address The Hypothesis Of A Soul

The vast majority of humans accept that we have an immaterial soul and that science has nothing to say about it.  This rather lengthy excerpt from the author's book, "The Soul Fallacy: What Science Shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs", challenges that belief.

You don’t have a soul: The real science that debunks superstitious charlatans

The following is condensed from a discussion with two scientists and myself. One of the scientists wants to belief that there is a supernatural and tries to support his position by saying that the functions of the mind are immaterial and that “spirit” is supernatural (making a distinction without a difference, a logical fallacy). He offered no evidence for any of this, of course. The lesson? Even some advanced scientists can let their desires overrule science-based thinking. This scientist tried to compare Cyberspace with the mind to make his point. Here are the major points we made:

Cyberspace is made up of transistors and capacitors in computers. Love is a chemical process and chemical processes exert force. Cyberspace is a place of electricity that also exerts force. 

Cyberspace exists only because the 0’s and 1’s exist on a hard drive or in RAM somewhere. Cut out those 0’s and 1’s and you are literally cutting out a piece of “cyberspace”. And then, of course, you can put those pieces into a box. 

Your mind exists inside the network of your neurons, just like cyberspace exists inside the network of computers. Start cutting out pieces of the brain and putting them in a box (to use your previous analogy) and you will be cutting out pieces of the person’s mind. 

Ideas are groupings of neurons that are firing in certain patterns as are behaviors and music is actual sound-waves moving through the air. 

The mind isn’t immaterial. it is layers and layers of neural pathways that are processing signals. Stop those signals from processing and the mind goes away. 

Information IS the electrons and capacitors. Take away the electrons or the capacitators and the information no longer exists.  

Example. Hydrogen is not water. Oxygen is not water. Combine the two in a specific formation and you get water. The same is true of the information in a computer. Combine the hardware with the electricity in a specific configuration and you get information. Take any part of the hardware away, and the information disappears, just as would happen if you took the oxygen away from water.  

Computers use 0’s and 1’s to store information. The exact medium changes depending on the storage device. Those 0’s and 1’s when put into the correct pattern ARE THE information. The information is a physical thing made up of 0’s and 1’s put into a specific pattern. Change the pattern and the information is gone. 

The internet and love and anger are all material as they all exert force. 

Computers don’t have any capacity to access and display immaterial things. Only material things

 

It's Time To Dump The Term "Spirituality"

"Replacing 'spirituality' with 'emotionality' comports, I think, with how we nonbelievers conceive of our 'nonmaterialism'. The practice of science, and the curiosity that drives it, isn’t emotional: looking for the laws of physics isn’t an emotional experience. Having wonder about the laws of physics is an emotional experience."

Can we please abandon the word “spiritual”?

Blossom Doesn't Get Science

 "If you’re my age, you might remember Mayim Bialik as the star of the 1990s television show “Blossom.” Now, I’m told, she plays the role of a neuroscientist on another t.v. show I haven’t watched, “The Big Bang Theory.” But she really is trained in neuroscience: she got her Ph.D. in that field from UCLA, though she doesn’t currently do research or have an academic career. She continues to act, write books, and run her website Grok Nation.

"Bialik is clearly a smart, high-achieving woman, but she’s also an accommodationist (she’s a “neo-Orthodox” Jew). In this short video, she explains how she reconciles her penchant for science with her faith:"

 Nobody who really understands science would talk like this.

Spirituality

A humorous look at "spirituality."  I agree with Coyne: the term needs to be defined every time it is used.

The Church for People Who are Spiritual but Not Religious.

Critical Thinking And Belief In The Supernatural

"The opposition between religious beliefs and scientific evidence can be explained by difference in brain structures and cognitive activity. Scientists have found critical thinking is suppressed in the brains of people who believe in the supernatural."

Ya, right, not shocking.  But the study also showed a correlation between spiritual belief and empathy.  The take-away? Science-based thinkers may want to guard against possible de-emphasizing of empathy and make sure the positive aspects of his or her social neurological network are also engaged.

Critical thinking suppressed in brains of people who believe in the supernatural

Deepak, Spirituality And Other Nonsense

"Either you follow logic, reason, and evidence to whatever conclusion it reaches, or you don’t. Faith begins with the conclusion. This is not a false dichotomy but a genuine stark difference in approach." 

Deepak can't stop himself.

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/there-is-no-problem-with-atheism/

Are There Evil Spirits?

Many people who are not regular church-goers will say they are "spiritual, but not religious."  What does this mean?  Unfortunately, the term "spiritual" is not universally defined.  However, many who do use the term talk about good spirits (Angels?) and bad spirits (Demons?), the same way religious people do.

Most atheists I know, including me, totally reject the concept of the spiritual, as modern physics has shown that there is no room for any supernatural entities in our classical, Newtonian reality (see a previous post discussing this).  Given this situation with most atheists, and many fundamentalist religious folks thinking us atheists are evil or possessed by evil spirits,  why has there not been a documented case of an atheist showing the "signs" of being possessed and then being exorcised of his or her evil spirits?  In other words, why is it only "believers" who respond to the rites of exorcism?

Spirtuality Of The Gaps

"We should be careful to recognize that the weirdness of the quantum world does not directly imply the same kind of weirdness in the world of everyday experience. That’s because the nebulous quantum essence of individual elementary particles is known to quickly dissipate in large ensembles of particles (a phenomenon often referred to as “decoherence”). This is why, in fact, we are able to describe the objects around us in the language of classical physics."

As Sean Carroll, and other physicists, have stated, there is no room in our classical reality for the supernatural of any sort. Statements to the contrary are '"spirituality' of the Gaps."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/sunday/the-reality-of-quantum-weirdness.html?_r=0 

You Don't Have A Soul

"Astronomy has taught us that our planet is not the navel of the universe. We learned from biology that we were not created by God but evolved alongside millions of other species. This book is about another seismic change in our self-image. Most people today believe that we have the bodies of beasts and the souls of angels. Science tells us otherwise. In the pages ahead, I will take you on a tour of history, philosophy, and science to show you that the soul, like geo­centricism and creationism, is a figment of our imagination, and I will try to explain to you what gives rise to the illusion. Modern astronomy and the theory of evolution did not precipitate the end of the world. They are unmis­takable signs of progress. Likewise, I will show you that in spite of repeated claims to the contrary, we lose nothing by letting go of our soul beliefs and—better—that we even have something to gain. It is this empowering conclusion that I want to leave you with as you reach the end of this book."

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/25/you_dont_have_a_soul_the_real_science_that_debunks_superstitious_charlatans/ 

"Nevertheless, while a substantial majority of the American public believes in the soul and its survival after death, mainstream science has abandoned this traditional idea. So here we have two worldviews that could not be more different from one another, and if we really care about being fair and ensuring that different ideas get their share of airtime, I say it’s time to give scientists the microphone."

It’s Time to Abandon the Irrational Concept of a Soul