Lesson 8 in Spirituality Course

At the end of the lesson you said:

"I am a member of the Universal Life Church precisely because this church is open and accepting of the beliefs of everyone.  It does not teach the "one true way."  It instead teaches that we are all children of God and we will all find our way on our own unique path.  That path could be Pagan, Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim.  It may be none of these.  It is simply our path.  As ministers we must never forget this.  We must never be tempted to think that our own path is the one true path.  We cannot even be tempted to believe that our path is right for even one other person.  Every path is as unique as the individual.""

I wanted to thank you for this statement of "our belief", in the Universal Life Church. It succinctly states my belief also as a ULC minister and Chaplain.

Reverend Suzanne Starr McLeod

Master of Spirituality Lesson 3 Bill Sykes

Science and Spirituality

I believe in traditional spiritual thought and science at the same time.  I don't have any problem with paradox.  For example, I believe in the theory of evolution and I believe in the creation story in the book of Genesis at the same time.  Evolution is a scientific theory that explains our physical origins.  The creation story is a myth that contains the truth of our relationship with God (and no I do not believe in original sin) and our spiritual origins.  He/she loves us unconditionally regardless of our behavior, that is, original grace.  In math there is a term referred to as "imaginary numbers".  These numbers cannot exist, but they can be used to solve many different problems.  This is how I view the creation story.  I am a universalist so I honor all traditions and believe that there is truth in other creation stories as well.  This is a science in and of itself. 

The idea of intelligent design melds science and spirituality as well.  The idea that there is order behind what appears as chaos brings us to the existence of something beyond Newtonian physics.  The Universe is far more than a machine that follows a set of rules.  Relativity and quantum physics bear this out.  One element of modern physics explains that particles have a rudimentary element of consciousness.  The Universe is alive!  Science cannot explain this and there is a movement among physicists that believe that we must accept the fact that there are things that we will never understand.  This is from the perspective of scientists and this is where spirituality comes into play.  Where science leaves off the answers can be sought in the realm of the spirit.  Prayer, meditation, ritual, devotion, and social action fill in the gaps and knowledge comes closer to being complete.  However, we will always have to deal with the unknown.  There is no commandment that says, "Thou shalt understand".

Bill Sykes