I believe it was Father Thomas Keating, the Trappist Monk of Colorado and Massachusetts, who said that, “There are three sciences: STEM are the hard sciences, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the like are the soft sciences, and then there is spirituality, the soft science.”
Most of what Father Keating taught is recorded from his lectures, and so he said this same idea several ways throughout the years.
I bring this up because some people are of the mind to say that “old-time religion” is passe, it is regressive, it is behind the times, and that only pious fools believe in such fairy tales.
However, I refuse to allow the logic side of my brain to dominate over the intuitive side of my brain. In essence, I do not allow my finite brain to be able to have the final say on anything beyond it’s comprehension. And so, I believe that there is always the door open to the possibility that there is a God (and there most definitely is).
In a world that is raging with selfishness, threats around every corner, news that floods our bodies with cortisol, and the rise of AI making our knowledge almost obsolete and radically changing the way we go about education, we are left asking what is there to do about all of this…
I want to suggest that it is always time for the “tender science.” No other field than spirituality takes the deepest parts of the human soul as a tender and special gift to be trasured, cared for, and protected. Spirituality, as a tender science, might just be the most important thing because it reminds us of the need for compassion, justice, mercy, forgiveness, and so on. The STEM fields do not emphasize those things; the same can be said of the other soft sciences.
All I want to get across is that the older I get, I do not think that spirituality is less important than before. In fact, quite the opposite. The more humanity grows and develops and creates new products and weapons, I can’t help but think how necessary the “old-time religion” is for us to cultivate the virtues that make life worth living.
After all, I don’t think we want people in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, psychology, sociology, botany, politics, and more if they do not have hearts and minds that have been shaped by the pursuit of love, compassion, justice, temperance, fortitude, hospitality, and so on.