Spirituality... the third element

While driving to a doctor's appointment, my mother-in-law made an observation that stimulated my thinking.  She commented that "people don't  send their children to church anymore."  At that, my thoughts wandered around to the international scene where there was out-right battle between the Muslims and the Jews.  The Muslims had their own Jihad against the Christian world and the other religions were stirring to be heard.  With the growing financial crisis and the polarization between the rich and the poor, the middle class was disappearing.  And there went a large segment of support for a religious background for the young boys and girls as they were maturing physically and mentally.  There were many other factors impacting this struggle between Science and Religion, but the fact remains that as technology was producing more and more gadgets and conveniences, the Church as such was thinning out. 

Nature cannot tolerate an imbalance such as was developing between Science and Religion so that the time is ripe for the prominence of the third element. And the third element is Spirituality.

Spirituality is religion without the ritual.  We have made great strides when we went from a pantheon of gods to a monotheistic approach.  But we still have separate understanding and even names for that one god.  This has left us open to strife and struggle and even wars in the name of religion.  Whereas the Spiritual approach is to recognize the connnectedness of all things and our worship is the relationship of man, animal, environment and everything else that makes up our reality.

Spirituality is science without the arrogance to think that we "may know the mind of God".  Because without a belief in a higher power then there is no hope.  It is hope that urges mankind on to overcome difficulties and reach out to a better life.  And it is hope and a belief in a higher power that allows us to visualize a reality that drives us further and further toward our potential.

So in our trichotomy we need the facts of science, the belief of religion and the hope of spirituality to create a reality anchored in this existence.

Next week I will speak to this reality.