My observation: A large number of folks in our society are spiritually undernourished. They spend little time or effort tending to their inner lives.
My theory: Many of these people ignore or reject spirituality because they associate it with God or religion, toward which they are either indifferent or hostile.
My judgement: Those of us who feel a concern for other people should be searching for ways to feel this spiritual hunger.
My prescription: One way to express our concern would be to help people recognize that they possess a miraculous gift of spirituality — a reality that they can confirm through their own experience, without reference to either God or religion.
How can we do this? I think we need only to point out three commonly-accepted ideas:
1) Considering that most of the universe is scattered atoms and inanimate objects, it is amazing and wonderful that you are able to experience the richness of human self-awareneess. It's an everyday miracle!
2) You did not cause yourself to be a human, rather than an ant or a dust cloud. It's a gift!
3) At the center of your self-awareness is free will, which may be influenced by outside forces but, by definition, is ultimately under your control. Spirituality is that part of your reality that exists in harmony with the physical world but is apart from the physical world, not pre-determined by physical law.
This miraculous gift of spirituality is validated by personal experience. You do not have to decide how it works or where it comes from in order to know that it is real. And, as with any special gift, you know that your life will be richer if you acknowledge and cultivate it.
Whether or not this approach fully expresses your own personal faith, it may offer an opportunity to feed the spiritual hunger of a significant part of the population who would not respond to traditional theology and established religion.
This short summary can't fully address all the dimensions and implications of this idea. Some of the key ideas are discussed briefly in the links listed near the top of this page under the heading "Digging Deeper." Some related topics are listed under "Implications." Either on one of those linked sites or here, I'm eager to receive your comments and questions about this idea.
Rodge Adams
