I believe in truth. I believe truth is accessible to anyone. I believe powerful ways of understanding truth include traditional education through scholarly learning, personal experience and the wisdom drawn from that experience, the recognition and appreciation of synchronicity in my daily life and the mindful meditative reflection that I can engage in at any time by only quietening my mind and listening below all of the other clutter that fills up within it throughout the day. I believe it is also important to recognize truth may come in forms that I would never predict and that to be humble I must constantly admit that I could be wrong in my thinking.
I do not believe any religion has a monopoly on truth. I have studied a limited amount of Christianity, Buddhism, Atheism (and the moralistic humanism that often accompanies it), Agnosticism and Eckankarism and believe they have a great deal in common. I believe religion exists to answer deep questions about meaning, purpose and proper behavior. It uses hope, faith and optimism to help people move through seemingly insurmountable challenges and it helps us treat other people with compassion when we might otherwise forget that that is the best course of action in the long run.
I do not believe science has a monopoly on truth. I have studied science throughout my life and dedicated my undergraduate education to the understanding of biology (interestingly, itself the study of life). I believe science exists to answer deep questions about process, origins, existence and the universe of which we are a part. It uses observation, critical analysis and scepticism to help people explain seemingly incomprehensible challenges and reminds us that, regardless of the temptation, it is better to understand something as it really is rather than hope that it is something it is not.
I agree with Albert Einstein when he says that “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” In my mind, they are to be used together, not in opposition, as a means of understanding truth in our world.
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is...A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. More available at www.einsteinandreligion.com
