An argument against secularism

I’m sure in the Middle Ages when the religionists had the power they were very harsh to the rationally and scientifically minded. Now the situation seems reversed and in our politically correct secular culture, a spiritual world view is discriminated against. Or the media and our educational system just excludes it as if it is not relevant. I really want to argue that there is a place for both empiricism and spirituality and that each has its legitimate realm. An open mind about the nature and possibilities of life and consciousness is best. The continuing revelations of science are continuing to reveal new and unexpected aspects of reality, after all. However, there are reasons why many rationalists, materialists and atheists (RMA’s) often hold deluded, hypocritical, uninformed and arrogant beliefs.

RMA’s reason that because some religious beliefs are obviously false, all religious beliefs must be false. This is faulty and deluded reasoning — ‘straw man’ logic. By this line of argument, because some scientific theories have been wrong, all scientific theories are wrong. 

If someone told RMA’s that they were really having a dream and were not awake, they would vociferously exclaim that they can tell the difference between waking reality and a dream or fantasy. Yet they arrogantly believe that the millions of people who have had spiritual or paranormal experiences have only had psychoses or fantasies and not reality based experiences. Denying the evidence of our collective human experience is willful and arrogant ignorance — and unscientific.

RMA’s say they only believe in the reality of things that can be empirically substantiated, yet hypocritically base this on thought itself which is a medium that can not be empirically tested. There are no instruments that can determine if a person is thinking about an apple or an orange, democracy or autocracy. Thought and consciousness are therefore spiritual mediums. Having a physical effect in our physical bodies doesn’t allow us to presume that the cause is also physical. In a similar manner we do not have scientific instruments to directly test black holes and dark energy but know that something must be there by its effects. Therefore RMA’s are unconsciously contradicting what they profess to believe.

RMA’s are therefore actually more religious than the spiritualists they castigate, because they have no evidence or facts to support their belief in the non reality of the metaphysical whereas religionists and spiritualists often have had spiritual and paranormal experiences to support their beliefs. This makes RMA’s in sum, look rather like deluded fanatics.

RMA’s who believe in the supremacy of the intellect and who believe reason and rationality are the best or only faculty to base one’s life, beliefs and decision making on must realize that this is not realistically in accord with human nature. People will consistently do things that trump rationality by acting based on feeling, intuition, instinct or emotion. And they often are grateful they did for there are aspects of human knowing that transcend the intellect and our conditioned learning. This psychology attests to.

The wisest and most influential people who have ever walked on Earth such as Buddha and Christ and others — individuals who have also demonstrated supernatural powers as well as profound wisdom — have been united in teaching that there is a spiritual or metaphysical reality. From the very beginning humans have believed that there is more to life than what can be known through the senses not just because they needed an ultimate explanation rationally but also to explain the many kinds of spiritual and paranormal experiences that are part of the human experience and which Earth’s greatest souls have testified to. The most compelling argument for the reality of God derives from our collective human experience rather than a need for rational belief. 

Therefore, a secular society that excludes the spiritual and metaphysical dimension as ours does creates an unhealthy balance that must contribute to sickness and suffering. When popular culture in our schools, media, arts, politics and economics extols the material and denigrates or minimizes the spiritual we loose a sense of proportion and awareness that allows us to be in sync with the divine and create a society based on the Wholeness of reality. People become confused because the underlying myths and paradigms are confused, partial and distorted. Real Christianity, however, is based on a holistic understanding of life that must be resurrected. (I’m not talking here about narrow, doctrinaire, Bible thumping belief.)