TaoWolf
Active Member
I have been trying to point out evidence about the spiritual and the real impact it has on mankind, society, and science specifically. Spirituality 'exists' even if you disagree with it or have an opinion about it in any form:Wow, you are so lost it's not even funny... I have to go to work so this will be quick.
Read what I said again, you are way out of the loop. I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about people who make claims then refuse to back them up with evidence. And people who refuse to listen to reason when valid counter evidence is presented. You really have to re read the conversation.. You are lost..
You may consider it a strawman on my part, but you would be wrong since I am not arguing a point you never made.. You were..
And finally your last statement, How does that prove anything spiritual? You say "Science and other trappings of modern society are based in the philosophy, art, religion, ethics, and personal codes of behavior that come from spirituality." How can you prove that? How can you prove we derive these things from anything spiritual? You would first have to show me that spirituality is something other than physical.. The colloquial definition of spiritual means something outside the physical realm.. Please show me how this is possible..
Spirituality exist in individual thoughts that are translated into action or behavior. I can't physically prove anyone's thoughts as they aren't directly physically provable even though we know thoughts "exist" (or at least if you go for the I think, therefor I am line of philosophy), so instead I'm providing examples of the behaviors and actions of people associated with spiritual thinking that existed... and how that has impacted the history of mankind into the present, that which is expressed in art by individuals, and what our current ideals of morality and ethics in society are as a result of spirituality (which comprises our modern concepts of law and justice in a functional legal system). It's along the same lines of symbols; symbols mean nothing without a shared sense of meaning inside of a culture.
People aren't born with any specific sense of morality or understanding of law and ethics and they didn't come to be by chance, it is learned through the culture (which is comprised of philosophy, art, religion, law, etc...) that people must exist within and have to function as a part of. At least according to scientists in the fields of sociology, psychology, and anthropology. Different people, different cultures, different governments, different laws and different senses of morality and ethics that are instilled within people. There are entire fields of science devoted to studying how and why it is not only possible but how important it has been and continues to be to mankind. Take it up with scientists in those fields if you are skeptical - there are years upon years of research and study available for you to delve into personally if you want. Otherwise we'll just dismiss 'spirituality' as unprovable, not real, and of no consequence and move on - I get what you are saying.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (physiology and geography professor @ UCLA) goes over the concept well in layman's terms and is a good read to get an idea of what has gone on over the past 13,000 years in the history of mankind that resulted in modern spirituality, art, science, and philosophy.
In direct response to first having to "show you that spirituality is something other than physical"... that is the claim that spiritual people exercise whenever they think spiritual thoughts - however they personally define spiritual. And I'm not interested in arguing semantics over the world 'spiritual' because it varies from individual to individual and culture to culture. We can agree or disagree as you see about this as well. No offense meant.
But on the contrary, science does not exist only within the realm of provable physical laws and facts, and instead goes heavily into physically unprovable theories. So what's the point in discussing what is 'physical' or not? The most fascinating aspects of science (to me) lay in quantum mechanics where the physical laws we have defined and tried to prove as 'fact' simply do not apply and are currently inexplicable outside of new theories that are continuously proven wrong (like E=mc2). And according to even rational, scientific principles like Heisenberg's, we'll never likely be able to directly "see" or prove what reality truly is at the most basic levels of our existence where 'physical' or 'physical laws' have no meaning and everything we thought was proven 'fact' is wrong.
A lot like any scientific theory stating that time and space began at a certain place at a certain time... in 'time' and 'space'. How can time even 'begin' at all? How can matter and a physical universe come from nothingness when matter cannot be created nor destroyed? Even die-hard atheist scientists, like Steven Hawking can admit to the glaring paradoxes scientific theories themselves create and appreciate the limits of scientific knowledge. Read A Brief History of Time by Hawking if you ever get a chance and haven't already. It will blow your mind - presented in a way that doesn't require knowing a lot of mathematics to understand the principles of existence.