Spirituality before Rationality
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The idealist pictures the world as it should be or ought to be ... the realist pictures the world as it apparently is. Those who who pursue spirituality first are much more content with realistic possibilities when it comes to rationality. Whereas those who pursue rationality first often become devoid of spiritual connectedness. By no means would this infer that one should avoid rationality, rather only pursue rationality after one is grounded in spirituality. One must experience the metaphysical (beyond physical) in order to begin to rationalize it. Reductionism is the view that one can reduce existence to physical properties and through the scientific method; that there is nothing more to existence and reality than the biology, chemistry and physics of all that is. Reductionists are obviously atheists and in some cases agnostics. The Philosopher however realizes that that there is something beyond just the biology, chemistry and physics of all that is. What the philosopher calls 'qualia' or the quality of an experience. While one can reduce 'love' to a neurotransmitter in the brain that reacts and causes love to manifest, there is still that personal and subjective experience that has meaning beyond scientific occurrence.
When one focuses on subjective experiences of reality ... when YOU experience reality, that experience is qualitative. So there is meaning and purpose beyond all of the organs and cells and molecules and atoms and energy that makes reality what it is on the surface. If this is true, this opens up the door to spirituality, or a state of reflection and connectedness to the experiences one is having. Once one becomes connected with the inner self and relates to their surroundings by appreciating the spirit or metaphysical beauty of all that one encounters, whether it is nature, animals, plants, humans or technology. One by utilizing consciousness and awareness and using it to create meaningful experiences and identifying the spirit and meaning as being something that the scientific method cannot explain, one has arrived at spirituality. Spirituality can be connectedness to the Divine as well. One's relationship with God. When one attempts to connect with oneself and find meaning and purpose one realizes that there are things greater than one's own life and experience. There is a larger reality that too has spirit and meaning. When one attempts to become one with humanity, one with nature, one with the Universe, ultimately the connectedness sparks an epiphany or maybe even a theophany of its own when one faces the Ultimate Reality behind it all. That Ultimate Reality is God. To become one with something by the way means to attempt to understand and relate to that thing at a deeper level.
After one has mastered spirituality it then makes sense to begin to rationalize using science (testing) and philosophy (logic) to break things down on an academic level. Having experienced spirituality, just by admitting that it is real, one can now appreciate that what we find to be rational is only a testimony to how complex the Universe really is. How complicated reality and existence really is. And this complexity demonstrates how amazing and mindboggling reality and existence is. This complexity only furthers one's appreciation of the spiritual and subjective experience we call life.
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Great post Mutazilaah. By the way, welcome to the forum.
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Thanks Caveman,
Appreciate the welcoming.
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Peace and welcome!
Thanks for this. In my opinion, rationalism and spirituality go hand in hand. One can be polytheist or worship nature or a statue and call it being spiritual, because they honestly believe that their god created all the blessings of this world. And then you have those who are rational but lack any spirituality, like you said. They see the signs, they know the science behind them but that is all.
If we are both spiritual and rational then we understand that God is out there whilst using our brains to rationalise our faith and to make the right choices instead of following blindly.
Sometimes, when I get so confused, I just think 'I wish I was brought up without a religion' so that I would have found God my own way instead of having my brain filled with preconceived notions that could affect my judgements. So even though it may be ideal if we could experience spirituality first, not everyone gets that chance. And those that are given that chance, not many make use of it. So I personally believe that there is more than just that one route to finding a balance between being spiritual and rational.
Just my opinion peace