Why does science need spirituality to make sense?
Life is precious. With several pursuits and people involved, life is the culmination of the past, present, and future, which redefines the existence of humanity.
The most pertinent characteristic of life is to have a purpose. Meaningless life can significantly contribute to causing anxiety, depression, and phobias, ultimately turning in major psychological ailments such as “existential anxiety”.
This is when the concept of spirituality becomes most relevant. Spirituality is often misunderstood, especially by the younger. It is usually a fat, smiling Buddha sitting with crossed legs or an old sage (rishi) sitting and meditating at the top of a hill.
While these images may be the representation of a particular section of people who have associated themselves with this profound practice of wellness, it does not depict the entire story.
Spirituality is for everyone. It is a pathway to gaining perspective of life. It recognizes the fact that human life is much more than what they do every day or plan to do in the future. It defies social dependency on material things and helps us to comprehend the greater purpose of life.
Spirituality invokes a higher form of cognition and intelligence that transcends the reality of time, which runs the universe. It advocates a more profound sense of human thirst for peace, truth, and tranquillity. An interesting fact about spirituality is that it is not dependent on religion.
One can be spiritual and yet not religious. Spirituality has a much broader spectrum, with room for many perspectives and schools of thought. It can be seen as an endeavor to achieve a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, coupled with the search for true meaning. It is a universal human experience –something that touches us all at some level.
Loopholes of science
The world has come a long way in terms of scientific innovations and transformations. It has moved from molecules to atoms to the sub-atomic particles. Yet it has failed to explain the composition of the fundamental forces of nature and the life-giving substances that prevail in various dimensions across the universe.
It may not be wrong to say that science is oblivious to the space beyond the physical world. Many driving forces of nature are still arcane and obfuscated for science to describe them through its theories. Hence there arises a need to differentiate between the mind and matter.
For example, the carbon atom makes charcoal; the same carbon atom makes a human being. This remains inexplicable by science, and it is unable to differentiate between living and non-living phenomenon. The innominate space of life energies poses a severe existential question about the credibility of science and its various pursuits.
The human mind is still a mystery, the composition of the soul is unknown, and many such undiscovered realities are glaring before the scientific world, to be recognized or explained.
It will be wrong to conclude that there were no scientific endeavors to answer these questions, but all have ended in smoke. Hence there has been an inadvertent need to follow a different path to aid the scientific findings and propositions.
The connection between Science and Spirituality
There has been a pervasive perception that science and spirituality are opposite fields. But in reality, they both are two sides of the same coin. The actual aim of science is to unleash the deepest mysteries of the spiritual dimension, and the goal of spirituality is the search for the reason behind scientific reasoning.
This paradigm tends to be appealing to both practitioners of science and spirituality. There is not much difference between the physical scientists who have chosen science as their field of study and spiritual scientists who entail their lives around spiritual research. Both paths lead to the same destinations.
They are in a quest of the unknown, greater power or energy that created everything and thereby use these discoveries to improve human lives. It may sound profound that the physical scientists are trying to prove God to themselves through the outer eyes and ears, whereas, spiritual scientists are in the same expedition but through their inner eyes and ears. They are sailing on the same ship, just with different sailors.
In science, a hypothesis is tested, and observations are made depending on the same. Science is trying to unravel the mystery of how creation came into existence and how human beings came into being.
It is a quest for discovering the series of events that occurred at the advent of creation. Hence the scientific tool can be used to prove the validity of spiritual existence. History has witnessed several great scientists who have admitted to the fact that there was a divine power behind the inspiration of their discoveries of inventions.
Albert Einstein once said, “I assert that the cosmic religious experiences are the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research“.
Going hand in hand?
If perceived from a non-judgemental prism of thought, science and spirituality make a great pair. They have the same destination; their paths are different. People interested in science tend to spend hours in silence for self-introspection, which ultimately leads to inspirations and answers which they are seeking.
Similarly, spiritual minds can apply the scientific law of testing hypotheses in their own body and soul to find their desired results. Science can uncover the most profound spiritual truths and vice-versa.
Conclusion
It is now upon the human race to find a meeting point of science and spirituality, which can aid in the probe of theories and existences, beyond the physical dimension and transcend into a deeper spiritual space. A prudent endeavor will be required for the same. The human race will wait for that confluence!
