Since we use the word "church", people will expect us to have some ideas about spirituality. Well, we don't have an official position about this subject. Each individual member is free to have whatever point of view they choose.
My personal point of view is that yes, something exists outside of what is studied by science, and you may use the word "spiritual" to describe it, but no one really knows anything about it, other than their own personal experience. I think these personal experiences should be respected, without forgetting that they are personal experiences. But that's just my personal viewpoint.
If our church needs a point of view, I recommend the acceptance of
mystery. As I see it, each of us is surrounded by mystery, we are
immersed in it, swimming in it. Most of the time we don't think about it, but we don't really know or understand why the world is the way it is, or what causes it, what lies behind it. Science provides us with a great deal of information about the physical world, but it cannot answer these fundamental questions. It's important to point out that traditional religion is also unable to provide satisfactory answers. When you say: "God made the universe.", it immediately suggests the question: "How did God come to be?". Whatever answer you give to that question could simply be applied to the first question, without bringing in the God hypothesis.
We might also recommend certain practices that are often associated with spirituality, such as meditation. I meditate fairly regularly. I do it because it seems to help me to function better, and also as an attempt to be in direct contact with the mystery.
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Here's another idea. Remember that some months ago we had an exchange over the practicality of new kinds of airships/dirigibles? We concluded with the idea that new kinds of sailing vessels might be practicable. However, in Spain., looking over the Barcelona harbour and after seeing some lithographs in a Lisboa gallery, I thought that the idea of hybrid vehicles might apply to today's vessels as well. They did in mic-19th century, when steamships had sails, as security against the boilers failing. Today, the opposite might be true: sails could be used with favourable winds, and steam (however generated) when the ocean was calm.
ReplyDeleteAny takers for an old technology relevant once again?
David S.