I take the time today to refresh my memory about muggers in 2016 - we have Nov. 28th 2019 today. I loved - and still do - these long responses, which really interest me. Thank you, Durdle. That comes a little late, but that does not matter. I loved your script.
I am so sorry for not having replied tou your wonderful and lengthy response. I think we ride the same waves when it comes to spirituality. I get very emotional by watching nature. As a camper I have plenty of opportunities.... I will be here more often from now on... Karin.
Many scientists say that as they understand more, especially about life and the Universe, the more difficult they find it to call it all God's, or a god's, work; though there are scientists who are religious. Not, though, to be confused with beliefs like "intelligent design" which mashes bits of both together to "support" Biblical literalism, so leads nowhere either scientifically or theologically.
On the other hand many religious people do appreciate the findings of science as showing, in their view, the works of God in ever greater depth. The more we learn about it, the greater and more magnificent we see it as, academically, aesthetically and spiritually.
Seeing it from that angle, crushing of knowledge in the pursuit of a religious faith - as in the past by the Catholic Church and nowadays by some far-right para-Christian and Islamicist minds - not only debases learning and the human drive to be inquisitive, it also debases its own God. Ironically perhaps, while learning was stifled by the Church in Mediaeval Europe, it flourished in the early-Islamic countries; encouraged by a belief that to serve humanity by study and knowledge was also to serve God - a wholly pragmatic approach to science but a very positive view of the roles of both science and religion, sadly now lost on fundamentalists of the three Abrahamic faiths.
Some form of spirituality seems to be innate in our species; and while it led to the development of various religions, perhaps it is something far simpler in appearance but much deeper emotionally than a simple belief in a deity or a particular book can ever go.
I like to define the words I'm commenting on in the general hope of making sense when I say something.
Science is defined by Wikipedia as a structured way to study the natural world. That's a pretty good definition in my opinion.
Spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. I like that definition as well.
Truth is one and does not contradict itself. If both the natural and the supernatural exist, then science is perfect for understanding the one and spirituality encompasses our attempts to understand the other.
My first degree is in theoretical physics and I have always had an abiding interest, as well as formal education in philosophy and theology.
I find that the discipline of science along with the reasonableness of theology to have been nothing but synergistic in my understand of "truth"---which I think exists and is the proper object of study.
So perhaps not just compatible, but perhaps---at least to some degree---necessary.
Simply put, if you ascribe to the idea that we all are spiritual beings living in a human body, then everything we experience is connected to spirituality on some level.
I don't look at it that way. Humans exist with two principles of being joined together as intimately as substantial form to primary matter. Science without spirituality and spirituality without science can produce only incomplete---and sometimes unintentionally misleading---understanding of the true nature of what we are and how we even subsist.
Durdle 