ABSTRACT
It can be argued that a spiritual sense is a prerequisite for learning. It is a way to reach beyond our selves and our existing knowledge and is the impetus to our search for explanations. This does not necessarily imply a religious quest, although it is strongly argued by many that a spiritual education is only educationally meaningful when taught as part of a religious tradition. However, even the writings of some of the most strident of scientific materialists, such as Carl Sagan or Daniel Dennett, acknowledge that the learning and understanding that comes from a scientific engagement with the world requires a similarly spiritual view of science. Here, it is the science and not the individual or scientist that is important. Hence, a growing awareness of the power we have to shape our surroundings and what can be gained from our developing knowledge and understanding of scientific information about ourselves, and our environment, should be enough to humble any individual. Therefore, an increasing unfolding of the subtleties,
complexities and beauty of the natural world would allow one to gain a more ‘realistic’ perspective of human ideas, actions and beliefs, and their ‘place’ in the physical world – our spiritual development comes from our exploration and deepening appreciation of Nature’s workings. To those of you who understand ‘spiritual’ in a religious sense, this may seem incongruous. Yet the growing importance of students to be ‘educated’ and ‘informed’ about concepts such as ‘human impact’ on the environment, and the introduction of related topics into the religious education curriculum, both imply that the values and philosophies consciously and unconsciously conveyed by contemporary scientific thinking need full and careful consideration by your students.
