Science and spirituality - posting from Michelle

[Guest guest]

------Posting from Michelle on Science and Spirituality-----------

 

RE:

 

All these ideas are strongly based on a 'materialistic' approach.

They all fall back on trying to explain 'reality' by reductionism

(mathematical approach).

Explain everything via - matter (and the energies associated with this

matter).

 

Hi Jay

My name is Michelle. I have been reading this list for a while and find a

"gift" in it everyday. But reading this reminded me of something I always

think of when confronted with scientific or "logical" explanations that are

applied to the universe, spirituality and "reality". All "explanations", no

matter how valid, how logical, how accurate and experimentally proven, are

in the end only representations, only definitions, only descriptions. They

may be very good descriptions. But a description is like a photo, it looks

like it but it's not it. I can tell you about my experience and we can

decide my description is valid. But the "telling" is not it. The "telling"

is one thing, the "experience" is another. The map is not the territory.

 

I am studying to be a psychologist and the explanations for human behavior

based on experiments, etc. are becoming more and more reductionist. In some

ways, this is very useful. It eliminates some very wrong misconceptions that

have plagued psychology for years. On the other hand it makes the human

spirit and psyche seem little more than components of behavior, environment,

and genetics. What becomes clear to me though is that although we can

describe and explain parts of ourselves, we cannot describe or explain the

whole of ourselves. In essence, I cannot say why "I" am. When you look at

the sheer complexity and scope of life and of the universe, it becomes

incomprehensible how we are what we are. It is impossible to describe all

that and explain every second. There a millions of beings "experiencing"

every second, living and dying and being born. There is no "describing"

that, no explaining that. There are people who have no idea what I doing

right now in writing this, or that I capable or writing this, who assume

that they know me, and can describe me. I remember this when I catch myself

assuming I "know" someone else. Again, the map (what we think we know) is

not the territory.

 

Thanks,

 

Michelle