The Rapprochement of Science and Religion in the Post Secular World

Last updated on: December 28, 2021 at 11:02 am By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Gregory Gronbacher Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. – John Paul II Our times seem to be marked by posts — post-modern, post-Christian, post-Liberal, and even post-secular. The concept of post-secularism is more commonly used in Europe than currently in the US. The term is contentious, with many scholars finding it too vague to be useful, while others simply deny that we are in a post-secular culture. However, I tend to agree that Western culture, the US included, is now... Read more

Nature’s Creativity

Last updated on: December 16, 2021 at 1:55 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Thomas Schenk Western philosophy has provided two main metaphors for the nature of the world: the world as organism and the world as machine. The idea of the world as organism was presented boldly by Plato in his Timaeus, suggested by Spinoza and the Pragmatists, and boldly put forth in a new form by Alfred North Whitehead in his Process Philosophy. The world as machine is suggested by the Greek atomists and taken up boldly by Western science, where it... Read more

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Last updated on: December 9, 2021 at 7:31 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by DT Strain At the Spiritual Naturalist Society, one of the things we write, talk, and teach about are practices that help to transform our character over time. That is, a transformation toward freeing ourselves from the tiny box that is the ego. In this, becoming more aware of the feelings, motivations, and their sources that arise within us, and attuning those reactions to wisdom. Many of us have been the member of church congregations, pagan circles, temples, or other spiritual... Read more

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Last updated on: December 16, 2021 at 1:51 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Daniel Shkolnik I’m constantly amazed how certain religious myths map onto human psychology. Psychologist Gabor Maté wrote a book called In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, where he describes his years working in a notorious neighborhood of Vancouver which has one of the highest concentrations of drug users not just in Canada but all of North America. The metaphor in the book’s title struck me: The “realm of hungry ghosts” comes from Buddhism. Specifically, it’s one of the six realms... Read more

Developing Spiritual Naturalism

Last updated on: December 9, 2021 at 7:29 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Eric Steinhart It’s often hard to define spiritual naturalism. Movements like Stoicism or Westernized Buddhism are pretty clear. Stoics have a well-defined set of texts and a pretty clearly defined system of psychological ideas and practices. You can learn how to be a Stoic. The same holds for Westernized Buddhism. It’s defined around the practice of meditation. It has a well-worked-out system of background ideas to motivate the practice. You can learn how to meditate; moreover, it’s a skill that... Read more

The Soul of the Matter

Last updated on: December 9, 2021 at 7:26 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Thomas Schenk Naturalism suggests that our soul* is material. To accept this notion, not just as an abstract idea, but as a recognition in the depths of the soul, can provide a shock. How can this inner being – so weightless, so intangible – be made of the same thing as bricks and mortar, wood and water? But the evidence is clear – the anesthesiologist puts our soul to sleep with drugs, and a hard bump on the head also... Read more

Safe

Last updated on: December 9, 2021 at 7:24 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by SNS Guest (Article is by guest writer Brock Haussamen. For a brief bio, see below.) From time to time over the last couple of years, I’ve said to myself, deliberately and slowly, “I’m safe.” This self-talk felt strange at first. I don’t believe I’m plagued by any immediate dangers that I’ve been trying to talk myself out of. I’m in my late 70s, in pretty good health, vaccinated, enjoying retirement. But I’ve found that saying “I’m safe” brings a warm... Read more

Humboldt’s Vision of Nature

Last updated on: December 3, 2021 at 1:03 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Brock Haussamen Our ecological imagination—our sense of nature as a global, interconnected and sacred whole—has roots in many sources. A relatively unfamiliar one is the work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a manic, prolific explorer and naturalist of the German Romantic era. Humboldt’s life and work are the subject of an outstanding biography by Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World (2015). Humboldt’s trademark was the web of connections he drew around whatever he observed. Nature, he insisted, could... Read more

Witchcraft

Last updated on: December 3, 2021 at 1:00 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Eric Steinhart I’ve become fascinated by the rise in witchcraft in the United States. The name conjures up some silly Halloween stereotypes: a witch is an ugly old woman wearing a pointy hat, holding a broom, attended by a black cat. Of course, witches aren’t like that. Witchcraft also suggests that witches are women who’ve made a pact with the devil, and use demonic power to work miracles – to violate the laws of nature. Of course, witches aren’t like... Read more

Mindfulness and Environment

Last updated on: November 25, 2021 at 1:08 pm By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Thomas Schenk In his book, Nothing Holy About It, Tim Burkett lists the four foundations of mindfulness as: Mindfulness of our body; Mindfulness of our feelings; Mindfulness of mental formations; and Mindfulness of our environment. Each of these four poses unique problems for us as we try to become more mindful, but here my focus is on the fourth, mindfulness of our environment. Obviously, humankind as a whole currently suffers from a lapse of mindfulness about our natural environment, which... Read more