Beyond Enlightenment understanding: Honouring the mystical in nature

S.O.T.T: As we enter the 21st century and today's children look forward to living in the 22nd, this lack of intellectual humility is harming us in a number of ways. Most notably, humanity is fundamentally and unintentionally changing the shape of the natural world. But the scientists who best understand this shift typically use only the language of science and reason - data and models - to explain it.

This over-reliance on science and reason makes it difficult to communicate with the general public. It also blinds us to the full scope of the issues we now face, which can be fully grasped only through the emotional, cultural, ethical and spiritual perspectives on the world.

Leaving room for the mysterious and unexplained

Geophysicists have proposed that we have entered the Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch defined by humanity's influence on the planet and nature's systems. What we do to adapt to this new reality requires that we augment our scientific ways of studying the natural environment with the wisdom to appreciate our intellectual limitations.

For example, scientific reason relies on data and analysis, and yet there is much in this world that cannot be measured; one cannot provide data that proves that love for another human being, a spiritual connection with the natural world, a sense of calling of vocation or the presence of God all exist. And yet, a great many people believe - or even know - that these exist...read more>>>...