Science, Spirituality, and the Meaning of Life

For centuries, modern science and spiritual thought have been traditional adversaries competing for dominance in human thought, each advancing a worldview contrary to the other. At their respective core both science and spirituality, of which I include religion, are models that provide meaning as to why we are here. Religion and spirituality explore the meaning of human existence as divine intervention based on faith and personal experience. Science similarly attempts to account for the meaning of life as natural laws based on empirical observation and data.

In essence both spiritual thought and scientific theories aim to reveal the truth of existence. Spirituality and religion advance this truth in the non-physical realms of mystical experiences and human consciousness, while science focuses this truth on the physical, tangible word of substance. Therefore, both systems are valid in their own realm–science with the physical and spirituality with the non-physical. So rather than viewing science and spirituality as diametrically opposed beliefs, I choose to see them instead as two sides of the same coin.

In the past few decades it now appears that science and spirituality may be converging to present a new worldview that sees both the physical and non-physical universe as one interconnected field of consciousness and energy. In the words of Max Planck, the Nobel prize-winning founder of quantum physics, “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.” 

According to Planck and the recent theories in quantum physics, everything in the universe (including physical matter) is comprised of energy. Some neuroscientists conjecture that our brain may actually be a “frequency transmitter” or “energy receiver” that picks up and transmits energy from the matrix of creation. Think of your radio or TV; they don’t generate the signals themselves but merely are instruments that transmit the frequency of sound and sight. The same is possibly true for our human brain that might be ‘wired’ to receive and process energies and signals from the universal matrix of consciousness, i.e. what religion calls God and what science calls the quantum field.

So what if science and spirituality are both advancing the same message, but merely using different a language to signify the same thing? The meaning and purpose of life, in my opinion, is to explore the intimate connection we each have with this unifying field of energy. While science can offer us a rational, empirical model of this field of consciousness, spirituality provides us with the experiential means to connect with this sacred realm that permeates all existence.

Since this unifying filed of thought is literally everywhere, we each have the ability to tap into and commune with this transcendent matrix of consciousness at any moment. Meditation, prayer, intentionality, relaxed breathing, etc. are simply ways we “fine tune” the radio or TV station of our brain in order to transmit this signal of the sacred and divine that exists at the very fabric of existence.

Enjoy and AWAKE!

Dr. Jay Kumar 
www.drjaykumar.com
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