ABSTRACT
In the exploration of religious naturalism, students shall alternate between two perspectives: experiences of the sacred or events of overriding importance and the scientifically informed big picture. These two could be called specific feelings and abstract generalizations. The key thing is to keep alternating between immediate experience and reflection on the big picture. For Karl Peters, "sacred" refers to whatever is the center of our being, that around which our lives revolve, very likely the source of our existence, what "brought us into being and nurtures our growth and development". The first starting point is reflection on immediate experiences of the sacred or "minimal experiences of transcendence". The second starting point for the exploration of religious naturalism is the big picture, a narrative built upon scientific account of the universe as an experimental process. The chapter summarizes how four thinkers, Ursula Goodenough, Connie Barlow, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme reflect on the process of finding meaning in this scientific account.
