11-14-10

1.1 The pursuit of scientifically verifiable truth (the most reasonable conclusion from the best available data) has led me to feelings of wonder that most people would call religious experiences.

1.2 Yet these experiences are based on observations of foliage and fossils. How is it that scientific observation becomes spiritual meditation? Or should I call it scientific meditation?

1.3 When meditating on the pure data of the natural world, I am tempted to use the word "spiritual". And why not? There is no spirit but nature, and no god but the truth.

1.4 What we call "spirituality" is accessible through the scientific study of nature. There is no need of spirits! There is no need for God! Good thing, too, since there is no evidence of anything beyond nature. The universe is innocent of God.

1.5 What we do have is a gorgeous, gory, glorious natural world, the world in which we live, in short: the real world. "Truth is stranger than fiction", and reality is more spiritual than religion. This could be called scientific spirituality.