Friday, June 17, 2011

Sam Harris on Spirituality.




Much has been said about our human ability to harbor experiences and sensations which make us feel completely removed form the world. People often have these experiences in a variety of contexts; perhaps in their vast admiration of a natural scenery, or in utter awe at the calm and tranquility evinced in some picturesque idyll, or during some epiphany or eureka moment when -after a long period of indefatigable search- we get, as if by divine intervention, that idea or resolution to our formerly persisting quandary. Or sometimes the same sensory perceptions are achieved upon the ingestion of some specific pharmaceuticals. At any rate, nobody I know denies the existence of such experiences, but many of us find some of the believes tagged to them, intellectually suspect.

In the same vein, I think it is importnat to recognize that the vast majority of people, generally adherents of some religious persuasion, have used the term "spiritual"  to identify with the numinous and transcendent feelings that arise during at least two distinct forms of contemplative experiences: meditation and prayer. In his most recent blogpost, Sam Harris reiterates his conviction that
these  experiences, otherworldly though they may feel, in no way serve as evidence of the claims with which they come inextricably attached.
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Update

Jerry Coyne, after reading Sam's post, has also weighed in on this rather contested issue. 


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