To cultivate lives based on truth, we develop an increasingly scientific understanding of ourselves and our world. In practice, scientific living involves intelligently exercising responsibility for the physical and material aspects of life. For example, we learn what health requires in exercise, nutrition, and rest—and act accordingly. We do our part in reducing pollution. Since the sciences also help us understand the human person, we bring social science and a historical perspective to the understanding of human affairs. The philosophy of living embraces scientific realism. How else can love become intelligent and wise?
Science begins and ends with facts. The laws of science are higher-order facts. The hypotheses and speculations of science are attempts to lead to facts. Facts are the building blocks of wisdom, for without them thinking lacks traction. Even the most sublime values become manifest to us through facts. When we are alive to our surroundings, the mind brings questions to experience. We notice things. Involved in a course of action, we remain alert to little surprises, clues to correct our path. We positively enjoy soaking up information relevant to our purpose. We are more sensitive to others, to how they look, to the implications of their tone of voice, to the way their stories piece together, and to a thousand things we could never catalog. Though we customarily take in our surroundings in a passive way, when we focus with active attention, we organize our experience of things so as to recognize facts.
We speak of humble facts because they force us to be humble, to adjust to reality. The key facts themselves, however, are not humble. They demand to be recognized, and they wreck action that overlooks them. They prompt anxiety and avoidance. How often do we turn away from honestly facing the front-burner issue in our personal growth—the issue that deserves primary attention—and divert attention to some problem that is easier to work on? At the same time, we know how liberating it can be to confront unwelcome facts. Acceptance of them cleanses mind and soul. Intelligent action becomes possible.
Though we may flee them, facts are not a threat. Unwelcome facts are part of a larger web, a web that is on our side. The great facts, the enduring facts, the grand and glorious facts of our creation in space and time, the cosmic facts to which faith alone gives access—all these facts are rooted in something higher and more universal. Awareness of the greater facts enlightens our response to the lesser facts.
In a universe of constant change, it is remarkable indeed that there should be any such thing as a fact. A fact is a reliable piece of knowledge, a stable element in thinking and acting. In order for there to be facts, there must be something more than just a flux of energies. There must be stable things and laws of nature. Many facts are only temporary, but some changes are slow or delayed, and some facts are about patterns and processes that remain constant throughout countless changes. The river flows continually, but the riverbanks stay enough the same to chart the river on a map and build a bridge across it. The waves on the ocean rise and fall, but the atomic composition of a molecule of water remains unchanged. The tides come in and go out, but they are predictable.
Science grows out of the normal, everyday process of carefully and critically establishing facts. Facts anchor the stability of science, but facts are not isolated. Seeking the connections between facts, science discovers causes. Just noticing a fact is not yet science. When we speak of scientific truth, we imply that some methodical process has been performed to satisfaction. Our human ancestors countless generations ago began the process, trying things out, correlating observations, making predictions, learning to harness the energies of the elements and work with the powers of the living things around us, remembering failures, building on successes. When science is successful, random guessing is replaced by intelligent foresight. People who had been at the mercy of natural forces gain a degree of mastery over the natural environment. Superstition and fear diminish, clarity and confidence grow, and it is a delight to understand cosmic process. For all the mystery of life, there is much that we can figure out. We need not witness the spectacle of terrestrial phenomena dumbfounded, staring helplessly at the panoply of events around us.
Scientific action for the non-scientist
Seeing a book about "the artist within you" made me want to speak up for "the scientist within you." The point is that ordinary people have the capacity to use scientific thinking in daily life. Someday it will be common for people to cultivate and enjoy this capacity. Unfortunately though, many people see science as an ever-growing pile of incomprehensible results made by others, rather than an aspect of living for us all. Scientific thinking operates on the basis of confidence in the mind’s power to determine what the facts are, to separate the factual from the non-factual. Why do we underestimate and underutilize our scientific abilities? We intuitively accept the motto, "Good decisions are based on good data"; but the avalanche of data staggers the mind. Some people have bad experiences in school and get intimidated by science or math or computers. Some react against science's image of unemotional, white-coat objectivity. Some people feel helpless in the face of rapid technological change. Science has advanced so far and fast that, unlike the people of earlier generations, we no longer understand most of the devices we rely on every day. But even the most complex processing a computer does still breaks down to a series of on-off switches, handling the eight-bit units of information called bytes. We forget that there is a step-by-step path leading from ordinary observation to the most complicated scientific reasoning.
People can do surprising things once they believe in their capacities, but being self-conscious of one's deficiencies makes even a moderate task into a personal trial. Then it takes a breakthrough to abandon self-consciousness and concentrate on the task in hand. I recall installing a new roll of paper for toweling in the men's bathroom near my office. There was the large roll of brown paper standing next to the plastic dispenser. The cabinet door was down. Someone had already started to solve the problem and left the job undone. The device was not too complex, but it was unfamiliar. Usually I would tell myself that I'm not good at dealing with that sort of thing and struggle at the task or more likely avoid it, citing "other things I have to do." This time, however, before the feeling of awkwardness could grow strong, I set right to it. Feeling a fresh surge of clear attention—it felt like a gift of divine grace!—I accomplished the task with ease. This small success brought a taste of the delight of scientific action.
By contrast with my suburban upbringing in the United States, my wife Hagiko grew up in rural Japan and developed great resourcefulness. She tackles practical problems head on, confident of her ability to figure out and fix just about anything. With a minimum of scientific education and a maximum of the "I can" attitude, she builds, knits, paints, and creates in the ceramics lab much of what she wants to use. Her crafts join art with science.
A simple guideline for scientific thinking
In the widest overview, an enlightened process of scientific thinking includes three steps.
1. As the situation requires, face facts honestly, establishing them with scientific care as needed—and be lucid about the degree of certainty of the facts.
2. Explore past causes and possible future effects.
3. Take a broad perspective on the evolution of the situation.
Working through these steps can be time-consuming, but with practice the process can move quickly, and it enhances perspective and facilitates growth. For now it is more important to grasp these steps’ three themes—fact, cause and effect, and evolution—than to grasp any one detailed account of facts, any particular analysis of causes, or any specific vision of evolution.
Any simple guideline is deceptive if it glosses over major problems. What starting point could be better than to establish the facts? However, note that scientific living does not mean beginning each day by asking, “What are the facts of this situation?” You may be in one of those times when things are going smoothly. You are living true to the best you know, sensitive to beauty, pursuing good goals, and there are no outstanding problems at present. You keep moving forward until your inner voice or some obstacle rouses your attention. Only then does a focused search for facts begin. One is not even aware of being in “a situation” until some awareness of a challenge has arisen. The Chinese philosopher Jangzi tells of observing a cicada complacently sitting on the branch of a tree, unaware that it was about to be seized by a praying mantis. In pursuit of the cicada, the praying mantis had totally forgotten itself, though it was being pursued by a bird. In pursuit of the praying mantis, the bird had forgotten itself, even though it was being hunted by Jangzi. Engrossed in the hunt, Jangzi himself was lost in amazement over this scene, until he realized that he was about to be caught by the park warden for poaching. Discovering his own situation, he fled and pondered the affair for months. As we discover our human situation with its vulnerability and uncertainties, we bring forth strategies for coping. For example, we formulate guidelines to orient further inquiry.
For example, the fact of material emotions
As we go through this chapter we will illustrate the use of the three steps with an example. Because we humans are very material but not entirely material, we need more than material science to understand ourselves, but science can tell us a lot about ourselves, so using science in daily life can help us greatly in dealing with human problems. We see the common consequences of certain types of action. Consider, for example, material emotions such as fear, anger, lust, and hunger—as distinct from feelings of the soul such as joy, liberty, and love to be discussed later. What happens when we let our lives be run by material emotions? There are consequences to be faced. When material emotions are in control, we often regret the results; but when our best thinking is in the driver’s seat, the results are far more satisfying. It seems as though the human mind can operate from either a material center of gravity or a spiritual center of gravity. Since human experience mingles the spiritual with the material, it may not be obvious which center of gravity has the upper hand. Sometimes, though, we can look back and see clearly.
Scientific thinking opens a liberating space to allow higher thinking to prevail. Consider an unwelcome level of fear or desire. The first thing to do is to recognize the fact honestly. Consciously and unconsciously, the mind is caught up in the emotion. Seeing the fact is the first step toward liberation. Sometimes just peacefully contemplating the fact allows the problem to go away on its own. At the very least, the simplest level of scientific thinking has begun, and it feels good to start gaining an objective grasp of the problem as fact.
When facts are problematic
When facts are obvious, uncontroversial, and easy to accommodate, we let our attention move on. When facts are hidden, controversial, or challenging, it becomes easier to avoid facts, skim facts, neglect facts, and consume half-truths from advertisers and politicians and journalists because it takes energy to do otherwise. We read passively without learning, without doing the work needed to make knowledge useful for action. Nevertheless, when the blood is up, when our energies are roused for the pursuit of truth, we push beyond ordinary observation toward the quality of inquiry that we call science.
Once inquiry awakens, new difficulties emerge.
Thus the ideal of scientific action haunts the conscientious citizen of the information age. Not every problem is worth the effort to establish the facts in an ideal way; usually a moderate effort is all that is reasonable. Nevertheless, it helps to know the obstacles and methods for dealing with them.
Ten qualities of great scientists
When difficulties surface about of establishing matters fact, if there is no formula for resolving the problem, another path of approach must be pursued: to cultivate and exercise the qualities of character that we see in great scientists and other adventurers in truth. Though the average person cannot hope to develop the high degree of knowledge, analytical ability, or technical skill of a great scientist, we all can grow in these qualities.
Shifting our minds into their scientific gear develops the following virtues of inquiry.
1. Confidence. The fine scientists I have known exude a special flavor of happiness, partly thanks to a long and disciplined experience in a particular area of study. They also have an implicit trust in the mind as capable of discerning facts and causes. There is a smile on the face as well as alert attention in the eyes. Their self-confidence implies trust that the material realm is intelligible and reliable. Scientists feel at home in a universe that is friendly, at least in the sense that they can, to a significant degree, know and work with the things and energies of the universe.
2. A spirit of inquiry and an appetite for solving problems. The best scientists I have known are happy problem-solvers. They have a positive appetite for dealing with difficulties. Their spirit of inquiry leads them to notice much more in their daily experience. Others may passively move through a scene, but they actively pick up details. In a balanced character, virtue is not taken to extremes, not used when inappropriate. Free of compulsiveness, scientific thinking heeds a seasoned sense of when it is timely to pursue, suspend, or conclude an inquiry.
3. Concentration and patience. Fine scientists concentrate on the question at hand. They mobilize their full resources of mind, soul, and body. Their focus, however, is not a laser-like narrowness of attention, because they are able to notice relevant items in the background. Scientists' desire to establish important facts with care and explore causal connections gives them patience, freedom from anxiety about extraneous issues. They refuse to be rushed. They have a different sense of time, not the compulsive time of modernity. They dislike a mere temporary fix and prefer to keep working until they find a lasting solution. Albert Einstein said, "If people knew how hard I work, they wouldn't think I'm a genius."
4. A well-informed and organized mind. Ideally, a scientific thinker begins early in life to accumulate a large stock of clearly understood information and to organize it for practical use. Learning is not restricted to a particular specialty, but embraces a broad spectrum of science, from humble fact to universal law and grand theory.
5. Methodical procedure. Fine scientists work in a way that is methodical, formulating and testing hypotheses. In daily life, using reason more thoughtfully can be surprisingly helpful. Countless seminars are based on what some experienced person has formulated as a rational method for dealing with a particular type of problem. Then participants are asked to clarify their goal, plot how to reach it, and mobilize to do whatever is necessary to accomplish it.
6. Openness. Great scientists are open in at least two ways. First, they realize that methodical work is not everything, since method does not itself produce the innovative flash of insight that generates the successful hypothesis. The apple’s falling on Newton’s head occasioned his realization of universal gravity. The structure of the benzine ring came to German chemist Frederick Kekule in a dream of a snake circling with its tail in its mouth. All realms of the mind, including symbolic and unconscious aspects of mind, contribute to creativity in solving problems. Second, great scientists are open to the beauty and mystery of the cosmos. They are aware that science can only go so far in explaining things, and they do not put take analyses as final explanations that make further inquiry obsolete.
7. Teamwork. Scientific discovery is the fruit of teamwork. This is obvious when colleagues collaborate; but there are also ways that community contributes, for example to the education and financial support of the researcher who works in isolation. Any scientist builds on knowledge acquired by others; and discoveries do not become accepted as such until being reviewed by the scientific community.
8. Humane sensitivity. Great science pursues ethical goals by ethical means. In particular, studying human beings, science makes classifications and general statements. However, when it is time to speak in generalizations, the scientist does not mistake generalizations for a universal judgment, for example, about the difficulties borne by children of divorced parents. Statistics do not predict the behavior of the next individual you meet from that category. Moreover, a great scientist avoids a simplistic image of what it means to be a human being. As science describes and classifies people, it cannot be expected to do justice to the mystery of unique personalities. As important as scientific generalizations about human beings may be, an adequate study of persons needs a philosophic and spiritual perspective.
9. Courage. It takes courage to embrace unwelcome facts and to pursue unpopular inquiries. Great scientists manifest independence from pressure to agree with others, and they are prepared to accept evidence that conflicts with their own beliefs and desires. Their resourcefulness indicates that the entire personality is engaged. Such persons are stimulated, not threatened, by difficulties.
10. Humility. Scientists are realistic and wary of idealizing descriptions such as the ones given in this list.
These ten virtues are needed to get genuine inquiry up and running, not only in science, but also in philosophy and religion. Additional virtues are needed as we go further, but these ten are a basis for every pursuit of truth.
In speaking of the qualities of great scientists—and the same observation applies throughout this book—the purpose is not to exalt the gifted and accomplished, but to understand ideals well enough to take further steps on the path from mediocrity to excellence. We should take encouragement from ideals. "Seek and find," they say. "You can!" Ideals lure, command, invite, invigorate. Ideals teach us who we can become. They are more than ideas; they are values. Perfection is the ultimate ideal. However, an ideal imposed with force kills the sense of adventure. Then ideals become oppressive, spawning contempt for self and others, inviting rebellion against the ideals themselves. I have spoken with teens who were clinically depressed because they could not fulfill their parents' expectations. Wisdom never expects too much too fast.
Facts are not isolated and self‑contained, and scientific thinking involves more than establishing facts. Present facts are explained by past causes; and present facts carry implications for future possibilities. For example, when you see the couch in your living room, you are seeing the effect of the couch’s being manufactured and moved to its present location. There is a story of causes lying behind the simple fact that the couch is in the living room. When you lift the couch and feel how heavy it is you can sense the effect of dropping it on your foot.
A sense of cause and effect pervades daily life. Our language is full of words that imply making something happen: “break,” “fix,” “build,” “soothe.” Children learn to use such words long before they form a general concept of cause. We take countless regularities for granted, say, in turning on the heat to boil water. We use the concept of causation whenever we ask, “What will happen if we do this?” or “How can I get that result more efficiently?”
One of the most general truths of science for a philosophy of living is that science discloses the trustworthiness of nature's fidelity to law. To say that the universe operates according to law is to express confidence about discovering cause-and-effect relations among facts. It means that we understand that events of one type cause events of another type, as long as there are no overriding factors. Our perceptual and mathematical powers disclose a realm of order. Scientists tell us that at the subatomic, quantum level, we do not have strict regularities, only statistical laws; and this fact makes the causal regularities of daily experience even more wondrous.
It is when people think about facts in terms of their causes and effects that scientific thinking becomes effective in scientific action. Happily, scientific action often does not require advanced scientific knowledge. A pioneer woman, faced with a husband shivering in bed with a fever, a crying baby, and work that needed doing in the field, put the child on the bed so the husband's shaking would soothe the baby to sleep, as she went out to do the plowing. An author, just prior to a television interview, was having difficulty with his hearing aid. He pulled the thing out of his ear, examined it closely for a minute or so; he then blew strongly into one end of it and fixed it. He explained that an air bubble had gotten into it. (The common response would be panic, and a call for expert help from "someone who knows about this sort of thing.") A cancer patient did research and formulated the hypothesis that laughter could help him recover; he designed a successful experiment in which he supplied himself with large doses of humor, and regained his health. All these achievements exemplify scientific thinking in a broad sense. To be sure, laboratory conditions would require special controls, so the examples mentioned do not illustrate science in the professional sense. Nevertheless, they do manifest keen, practical thinking about causes.
Causes and effects of material emotions
When material emotions predominate, material consequences ensue. One person's outburst provokes an angry response. On a larger scale, we can observe that a company that pursues profit unfairly stimulates competitors to retaliate in kind. Aggressive nationalism rouses the defensiveness of other nations, and as nations line up in opposition and military forces build up, the miseries of war await them all. Reckless sexual indulgence leads to heartache, disease, broken relationships, and a weakening of the family, the basis of civilization. Actions have personal and social consequences, and something like a law of karma operates: as you sow, so shall you reap. Honesty about causes and effects sets a stern agenda for the present age.
These sobering thoughts are designed to lead not to discouragement and pessimism but to scientific action and progress. When we act from the spiritual center of gravity, the harvest has a very different quality. We return good for evil, whether on a personal, corporate, or international level. This does not mean returning nothing, shrinking from vigorous and creative response; but it does mean moving beyond mere instinctive reaction. How then shall scientific thinking help us move beyond merely material reactions to situations?
Dealing with our material emotions in daily life, the goal of scientific thinking is not to mount an assault on the self in an attempt to eliminate these inherited emotions, but to see their place and to promote harmonious change. Thinking about the causes of emotions reminds us that they are a normal and natural part of our life as creatures on this earth. Fear stimulates organisms to protect themselves; sex and hunger have an obvious place. Some emotions may well be replaced. Anger, for example, which is implicitly murderous, could be supplanted by righteous indignation, an ethical attitude that regards the wrongdoer as someone capable of taking responsibility. On the whole, though, emotions are not to be replaced, and the way of wisdom is to find healthy ways to satisfy emotion and to integrate the energies of the lower self with the energies moving toward higher meanings and values.
How can we develop better habits of response to provocative situations? Taking the next step of scientific thinking, we go beyond recognizing the fact of the emotion to consider the causes and effects of the material emotion at hand. It adds to our freedom from the emotion to realize, “This emotion arises from my biochemical nature and my psycho-social history.” We do not need courses in evolutionary biology, genetics, biochemistry, nutrition, psychology, sociology, and history to be able to recognize the emotion and to realize in a general way the kinds of causes that go into it. It may be helpful to probe one or more causes of the emotion, but the point of this reflection is not to launch a research project or a campaign of self-examination. Just recognizing the emotion for what it is helps us mobilize our best attitude in the situation. Psychology talks about conditioned responses, and undoubtedly there are habits of mind and customary neural pathways in the brain that largely determine our response to stimuli. Our freedom to grow includes the creativity to shape better responses and form new habits.
The cosmic drama of evolution
Reality looks linear when we interpret facts only in terms of cause and effect. One thing follows another again and again. The consistency has an austere beauty, like the flatness of west Texas. The motion and mass of the cue ball determine the motion of the billiard ball it strikes. Thinking of all events on this model gave rise to a determinist fantasy when Laplace claimed that he could calculate the entire history of the universe backwards and forwards if only he were told the location, mass, and state of motion of every particle in the universe. Growth, life, and liberty are unthinkable in a deterministic universe where classical physics usurps the truth of the fact of evolution.
Events flowing according to causal laws do not merely perpetuate static arrangements, for they are woven into the drama of cosmic evolution. Something beyond linear sequences of cause and effect is going on. Though nature, from the level of atoms to that of galaxies, operates according to the principle of cause and effect, it is striking how well the causal properties of inanimate nature fit the requirements of life. Universe wonders are concealed in everyday phenomena. Consider water, a substance that performs so many life-supporting functions. It covers three-quarters of the earth and makes up 90% of our body mass. Water stores heat and helps maintain the temperature equilibrium required for planetary life, both in the individual organism and in the environment. When an animal perspires and the water evaporates, the heat carried off with the vapor brings efficient cooling to the skin. Water, unlike other materials, expands when it freezes, and so, as ice, is less dense than its liquid form, and floats. Ice insulates the deeper water from heat loss and thus protects marine life. Each molecule of water is a system of one atom of oxygen with two atoms of hydrogen; the bonds between these atoms are the primary forces within each molecule, but the hydrogen atoms tend to form weak and momentary bonds with oxygen atoms from other molecules. These atomic flirtations give water molecules mutual cohesiveness. As a result, sap can rise in plants against the force of gravity. Water vapor, finally, is one of the atmospheric devices for filtering out harmful radiation from the spectrum of radiation that the sun pours forth, and for transmitting just the light that life requires. Do we not sense, however dimly, some wondrous purpose being pursued in the physical creation?
Science unfolds to us the knowledge of a magnificently structured universe of unimaginably enormous proportions, whose evolution in time proceeds as galaxies and clusters of galaxies whirl about in space. The human mind has achieved a considerable understanding of the mathematics of physical particles and forces, of living organisms, and of the tendencies of the human psyche. Evolution appears to be at work on all levels that we can observe. Galaxies have a history; stars, so far as we can tell, go through birth, maturity, and death. Our earth's history of a few billion years is a story of a fiery, molten sphere, gradually cooling, condensing, shaken by decreasingly frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, developing its mobile continents, salty oceans, and breathable atmosphere, becoming ready for planetary life.
Combined processes of geologic and biologic evolution have interwoven age-long, gradual changes with sudden, forward leaps. Species arise which are not only more complex arrangements of units of mass in space; species evolve nervous systems with higher receptivity, supporting higher capabilities of consciousness. The animal-origin human organism supports a mind that can wonder whether we are merely material. Humankind can cope in a multi-dimensional environment of facts to recognize, meanings to grasp, and values to strive for. Humankind, the heir of millions of years of struggle for survival, have developed capacities for cultural progress undreamed of even five thousand years ago. We must now take responsibility for our planet’s physical environment and cultural evolution. And let us not omit our individual evolution, from zygote to infancy to maturity, and our departure from planetary life, in the hope of life after death as we heed in faith the call to perfection.
Cosmology, trying to narrate this vast scenario beyond our grasp, arouses the deepest questioning. What is our origin? What is the meaning of human life in the cosmos? In a universe of mind and spirit as well as matter and energy, the full concept of evolution involves philosophic and religious dimensions beyond the scope of science. Today scientists try to avoid implying that evolution involves progress, since "progress" implies a value judgment beyond the scope of science; but it’s hard to resist the impression of progress from stellar furnaces to a planet suitable for life, from one-celled plants to human beings. The concept of evolution implies some direction, and direction implies a goal, near or remote, vague or definite. In short, the concept of evolution raises the question of destiny. Could there be a grand destiny working itself out in the cosmic process? The universe remains a place of wonder. Cosmic and biological evolution are not gentle operations. The past is marked by starry cataclysms and catastrophic losses of species. Eventually, sometimes because of, sometimes in spite of such disasters, things move forward again. Things work out. Things work together for good. At least some such belief is connoted by talk of evolution in a broad sense. In this sense, “evolution” connotes hope.
Where does it all end—or does it end at all? The intriguing story of the universe told by astronomy and physics stimulates the human imagination to generate a range of cosmic scenarios. Taking the fact of the expanding universe as the major clue, some scientists deduce an “inevitable” future of universal destruction. Religious wisdom, by contrast, challenges us to integrate our changing cosmology with the promise of cosmic stability and eternal adventure.
And creation?
Some people believe in creation but not evolution, and some believe in evolution but not creation; but what if someone wants to see how to accept both evolution and creation? How might science, taken at its best, and religion, taken at its best, fit together? An integrated view does not treat ancient scriptures as though they were written to answer the questions of modern science. An integrated perspective challenges seemingly scientific statements that enter the realm of philosophy, advocating materialistic views of the cosmos and humankind.
One can use the word "evolution" for its breadth of application, yet reject some of the word's current connotations. For example, one can reject the story of living organisms arising initially by material accident as a result of chemical evolution in which amino acids in a primordial soup are catalyzed by a lightning bolt. One can believe that something beyond the gradual accumulation of small, random variations is needed to explain the leaps in the fossil record. Even if the parents of the first humans were sub-human, the new creatures made a connection with a new order of mind with capacities for philosophy and religion quite beyond the gazing of a chimpanzee and the fawning of a dog. Thus it is possible to speak of evolution without accepting every hypothesis based on naturalistic nineteenth- or twentieth-century conceptions of evolution.
Material emotions and evolution
Evolutionary thinking in daily life emphasizes personal growth and planetary progress. With this broad and useful concept of evolution, the pursuit of truth in science reaches its limit. To be complete, to do its job in a philosophy of living, the concept of evolution must incorporate elements of philosophy and religion. Regarding personal growth, return once more to the problem of material emotion. Factual honesty led to recognizing the problem. Causal analysis helped understand the factors of the problem. Now we take a step back to gain a broader perspective, to look at the big picture. We put the problem in the context of a process of evolution, and we entertain a vision of our progress toward our destiny. This reflection leads to an adjustment in the mind. Groundless fear is replaced by faith, while genuine concerns that prompted fear are handled by alertness and prudence. Sexual desire settles down to a normal and natural responsiveness, gracefully subordinated to higher moral and ethical commitments. Pride relaxes into superb self-respect and good-humored self-forgetfulness. In general, the fight is over. The inner conflicts, the struggles with the impulses and urges and passions of the lower nature subside, lost in harmonious living where spiritual motives guide the entire system. We do not expect to gain this advanced state tomorrow by means of some impossibly heroic resolve, but we can envision a process culminating in self-mastery. This vision energizes our faith that intelligent, persistent, and wholehearted efforts will succeed. We imagine the path of growth in “fast-forward” mode. The process is speeded-up in the imagination, so that we can anticipate the triumph and get a foretaste of the goal of destiny. All of a sudden, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. The foretaste that we enjoy today is a surprisingly satisfactory substitute for the remote goal of constant and reliable character achievement that awaits our gradual attainment.
Regarding planetary progress, the process of imagination is more complex. Nevertheless we envision the fulfillment of the requirements necessary to break up the logjam of current biological, social, economic, political, and other problems. We envision our planet moving into a stage of advanced civilization. Faith teaches that the realization of destiny for humankind is not a question of whether but a question of when and how. Our individual and cooperative efforts to make the world a better place are envisioned in their truth—taking the human steps in cooperation with the divine, making this world eventually a lovely place for all to dwell.
Nourishing ourselves with the vision of destiny does not invite us to lie down in the face of present challenges. An evolutionary perspective gives warning as well as hope. In a progressing universe, that which refuses to progress cannot endure. Consider the ancient Assyrian empire. It was oppressive in the manner of ancient empires, but when it raised tyranny to an utterly outrageous degree, it provoked its enemies to unite to defeat it, even though it took a hundred years to do so. Tyranny rouses a powerful combination of revenge and moral indignation, thus creating the seeds of its own destruction. Systems that become outrageous get recycled. Like a crop that cannot be harvested, such systems get ploughed under and used to fertilize a new generation with a fresh chance to progress. On the scale of personal conduct, an evolutionary perspective teaches the danger of self-destructive, high-risk behaviors. Wrong action has unfortunate consequences for everyone affected. An evolutionary perspective gives reason to act to help turn a bad situation around. At the same time an evolutionary perspective teaches patience in the pursuit of ideals. Combining scientific realism with spiritual idealism suggests the folly of trying to implement ideals too fast. Growing too fast leads to unstability in on a personal level as well as on a broad scale. For example, after the breakup of the Soviet communist regime, market-oriented reformers tried to impose revolutionary change, not just at the top political level, but in the behavior of the society at large. Surveying his country beset with poverty, greed, and organized crime, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, resigning from office, acknowledged that his great mistake was to think, in the wake of the political collapse of the Soviet Union, that major social and economic changes could be accomplished quickly.
Summing up: Truths of science in a philosophy of living
What truths of science are relevant to a philosophy of living? We could never enumerate the background knowledge and foreground knowledge needed in all the things we do, but some general statements can be made. The more we understand the cosmos, the more we can participate intelligently. Even a beginner can enjoy confidence in increasing cooperation with universe law. Science gives us a picture of the universe with several leading features. The general truths of the universe most relevant for this philosophy of living include the following:
1. The universe is dependable. Facts can be understood in terms of causes. For all that is unpredictable in nature, there are laws and constants. Pattern may be discerned. Gravity holds things together as galaxies whirl in their orbits.
2. The universe is evolving. In the portion of the universe accessible to our observation, there has not always been life or any planet capable of supporting life. Only long, gradual development, punctuated by sudden events, has enabled complex forms to arise with the intelligence to realize their own responsibility in the process.
3. The universe is friendly to the appearance of life, to scientific attempts to understand it, and to efforts to work with its energies and materials.
Scientific thinking develops certain qualities: confidence in one's capacity for discovery, a spirit of inquiry, concentration, diverse knowledge, methodical procedure, originality and teamwork, ethical goals and methods, courage, and humility. Even though most of us cannot hope to attain the level of a great scientist, we can enjoy growing in these qualities of responsible living. The joy of scientific living is to participate in the evolution of a friendly universe.
What concept of scientific truth emerges from these thoughts? Scientific truths include facts, causal laws, and generalizations about the course of evolution. Facts are not isolated and self‑contained, for we understand them in terms of causes. Chains of causes and effects, moreover, are woven into an evolutionary drama in which suns give birth to planets capable of hosting living organisms, which, over time, develop wondrous potentials of consciousness. Scientific truth, then, is a movement through these three phases of the realization of universe process. The universe is evolving, so are we, and so is our science. Science is revisable in the light of new research and theory, but many results are solid. Since the work of William Harvey in the seventeenth century, the circulation of the blood is no longer debated. Recognizing the stability of facts, the dependability of causes, and the progressive sweep of evolution prepares the mind to search for philosophic and spiritual truth.
Clearly the concept of evolution is not only a scientific concept, since it so deeply involves perspectives in philosophy and religion. This concept is one channel through which the whole shapes the part; the integrated perspective of a broader philosophy shapes our account of the earliest steps, even as our growing grasp of fact, cause, and evolution shape our view of the whole.