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Ménage à Trois Between Science, Spirituality and Philosophy
They should have a permanent and mutually satisfying interdependent polyamorous relationship
Introduction
I have read many stories and comments lately that discuss marrying science and spirituality. I have written on this topic and I have also written about the marriage of spirituality and philosophy. Today, while reading Jodie Helm’s Individualism is a Good Thing!, The Archangels Explain What it Is and What it Isn’t, I realized that the Archangels’ response reflected much of what I had read on the same topic from Douglas Giles, PhD in two essays of his, Am I an Individual, Part 1 and Part 2, and especially what I had read in two other essays by Douglas: 1) on Jose Ortega’s philosophy and 2) Does Anyone Understand What “Freedom” Means?
Those recognitions created the thought that as writers have already married science to spirituality, and I have married spirituality with philosophy, the transitive property would indicate that I could create a committed ménage à trois, with science pleasing spirituality, spirituality pleasing philosophy, and while we’re at it, science and philosophy pleasing each other too. Moving this out of the sexual metaphor, most importantly, so the marriages remain strong, when all the parties can’t always agree, they should still respect their interdependent rights to exist without always having to agree with each other.
Let’s explore this together — I have not planned out this essay — and see if we can reach our destination.
The Marriage of Science and Spirituality
I first recall becoming interested in this topic two years ago when I witnessed conflict between materialists and spiritualists on Medium, usually instigated by the former trolling spiritual stories to leave comments insulting anyone who believed in any form of an afterlife. One decided to pick a fight with me, first commenting in one of my personal essays about my ongoing relationship with the soul of my lover that we shared the bond of grief over the loss of great love, before then proceeding to piss all over my relationship by insisting, based largely on the absence of proof, that there is no afterlife. He scoffed…
