Science vs. religion : what scientists really think - File PDF

54Crossing the Picket Lines: The Personal Faith of Scientistspaused for more than a few seconds and then went on in a totally unassumingway to describe his spiritual experience at baseball games, times when he is“really aware of being connected with everyone here and with nature and withmy place in it and with time.” It was an experience that the less introspectivemight simply have called “contentment.”Similarly, when asked about the role spirituality plays in his life, a chemist, 10who described himself as nominally Jewish, responded that spirituality is simply“getting up every day and putting [his] pants on.” Spirituality, then, isnothing special. As with this sociologist and chemist, many of the scientists Italked with do not often think about what it might mean to be spiritual orwhether spirituality is connected in any meaningful way to the work they do asscientists. After talking to many scientists who expressed similar views, itbecame clear that to some extent, their definition of religion and spiritualityonly arose during the actual interview. It was as though putting them in a contextwhere they were asked about spirituality forced them to develop a definitionfor something that would have never concerned them otherwise.SPIRITUAL ENTREPRENEURSAt the other end of the continuum are those scientists who do have a deep senseof spirituality. These are the spiritual entrepreneurs —scientists looking for newways to hold science and faith together yet still free of the constraints of traditionalreligion. These entrepreneurs have a spiritual impulse that is “thicker” ormore substantial, marked by a search for truth compatible with the scientificmethod, belief in a meaning that is greater than the individual, a coherence thatunifies the various spheres of life, and, for some, engagement with the ethicaldimensions of community living. Like other entrepreneurs, they are inventivein their practices, discovering and applying new forms of spirituality as needsarise. They embrace what works and discard what they find outdated orirrelevant.Over 40 percent of the scientists I interviewed who see themselves as spiritualbut not religious could be described as spiritual entrepreneurs. They specificallylabeled themselves as spiritual without my prompting. They articulateda specific set of spiritual beliefs. They engaged in practices that they saw as afurther outworking of their spirituality, and they had had experiences that theyspecifically described as spiritual. 11Most of these spiritual entrepreneurs eschew traditional forms of religionaltogether (although some admit that they borrow from the religious traditions