How an Obsession with Empiricism Tanked the Spiritual Economy - Dr. Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University

Empiricism as the dominant way of knowing the world optimized technological progress, but also alienated humans because it often avoids the spiritual, motivational realm of biology beyond atoms crashing into one another.

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When it comes to Human science these days, all explanations eventually come back to physics. And while the mathematical convolutions of quantum theory and fluid dynamics can make humans better engineers, physics alone can’t address the emergent properties of biology: Why do you want what you want? Where does the human capacity for transcendent experience come from? What is religion, and why has it been so central to all of human history?

One possible explanation is that many phenomena cannot be reduced to pure physical mechanics. Birth, death, will, meaning, and love can’t be totally encompassed by a volumetric description of atoms drifting between synapses… which suggests that physicalist science can’t possibly yield answers to all of life’s questions. This doesn’t discount the contribution of a materialist worldview to humans’ technological development, but it does suggest a more integrated perspective is necessary.

Problem is, even with your ability to smash atoms together and your impressive technological advancements, you humans are no closer to answering the question of how to get along, or how to avoid cyclic social unrest… and perhaps it’s time to consider that the kind of science that will actually be able to deal with these questions will have to integrate the deep history of spirituality throughout your species’ Earthly history.

All of us animals live in a world that is impure and imperfect, and each of us must rise above that stain on a daily basis in order to keep from descending into an impenetrable darkness. Finding a language to scientifically address the transcendent might be the only way to find your way back to forgiving yourselves.

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