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SCIENCE AND THE SPIRIT

THE PROBLEM FOR SPIRITUALITY IN SCIENCE

The world of the spirit does not exist for science, and the assumption of its existence is largely excluded, except that some experiments - notably in para-psychology but also in evolving studies of abnormal mental states - are directed at phenomena traditionally denominated as 'spiritual'. Polls indicates that a relatively very low number of practising scientists are believers in religious claims as to the possibility of the existence of spirits (independently of sensory perceptions or physical entanglements). The existence of a 'spiritual realm' and an omnipotent Creator is traditionally excluded on methodological grounds, they are regarded as 'unnecessary hypotheses' which try to explain en gros so-called 'spiritual phenomena', many of which have already been explained, other which remain to be investigated.

Further, such hypotheses cannot so far be formulated in any testable way, therefore they are left to the realm where they belong - speculation, imagination, mere belief. Not all fact must be demonstrable - or reducible by instruments and through experiment to sensory observation - because overarching scientific theories are developen on the basis of such facts, the theories themselves being only indirectly testable. But this is also done experimentally. This method cannot be applied to theories )metaphysical systems) which are not construed on a sound body of sifted and mutually explainable verifiable facts. This, science cannot recognise the spirit as such. Though modern physicists and their popular interpreters like Capra see a paradox in the scientistic position and the possible complementarity of scientific observations with spiritual texts like those of Tao and the Vedas, science in general remains doggedly founded on empirical materialism. Thoughts are not visible, nor are feelings. But they become so when expressed, and can also be tracked in real time and located as impulses in the various parts of the brain. Therefore, thoughts and feelings are not non-physical phenomena.

The presence of 'consciousness' - i.e. being aware of something is testified by the activity of the brain as a whole and, moreover, it is absent in observable brain-death. When we plan for the future, believe in reliable testimony, read a work of fiction, reflect on matters of conscience - in fact during the larger part of our mental lives, it seems that we are dealing with an intangible, non-physical realm. It seems so to subjective awareness. The word 'consciousness' appears to be a substantive noun and, as such, the mind is led to think of it as some kind of entity ('soul' 'spirit' etc.). This misinterpretation of the actual phenomenon of awareness is known as the fallacy of misplaced concreteness. Since consciousness refers to an activity (of the brain and so the mind) which encompasses everything that we can know and experience at any time, it is misleading to regard it as the creator of mind (as is done in most Eastern religion or 'spirituality'). It is rather the function of the brain - that of awareness of this or that.

It is becoming much more widely recognised - such as in evolutionary psychology - that animals have consciousness (something most laymen one would think was unavoidable common sense), and that the differences between highly evolved mammals and human beings are more those of degree. That there are no strict dividing lines between human being and higher mammals in many respects has been discovered widely in the past half-century. The more extreme behavioural and physicalistic tendencies in 20th century psychology to regard the human being as nothing more than an advanced kind of animal - just a psycho-physical entity and not an individual person, is foreign to most peoples of the world. It is not representative of progressive current opinion is most of the biological and social sciences. It's practical consequences can be demeaning and biassed against cultural values and perceptions people have of themselves as persons. This attitude has changed considerably in many of the human sciences and there has been a revolution in medical practise as regards the importance of the patient's role in understanding and combatting illness. Person-oriented health care is one of the benefits of the modern move away from mechanistic and gross materialistic attititudes, while behaviourism in psychology has undergone considerable developments since the 1960s, taking into account the subjective perceptions of the subject through forms of experiment which surpass the old stimulus-response model.

For example, in 1986 Albert Bandura's 'Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory' appeared, with his social cognitive theory of human functioning, backed by double blind experimental results. This gives a crucial role to cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory and self-reflective processes in human change and adaptation. This theory takes it start from the perspective of the agent as a self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting and self-regulating person. In short, Bandura challenges (correctly) the behavioural and experimental psychological viewpoints that human beings are organisms shaped by environmental forces, driven by inner impulses to which the model of stimulus-response is the key methodological assumption. His modification of behaviourism, however, in no way implies any 'spiritual entity' or intelligence divorced from the body and brain.