Spirituality.
10 random takeaways.
1.
Qi, entelechy, and conatus are not the same idea, but they belong in the same philosophical family. Qi focuses on life as flowing energy, Aristotle’s entelechy on fulfilled potential, and Spinoza’s conatus on the drive to persist. Each gives us a different way to see life as active, unfolding, and alive.
2.
Quote:
- Carl Sagan.
- 1979.
From History:
To live well through secular spirituality, explore the intangible while staying accountable to reality. Let your experiences deepen purpose, strengthen character, and build connections—but calibrate your beliefs: embrace what aligns with observation, question what does not, and hold the unknown with humility .
3.
From History: Reference Date: 2200 CE (+/- 50 years)
To live well, get ahead of the future in your own lifetime. Do not force religion to fight science, and do not force science to answer every question of meaning. Let empirical claims answer to evidence, rational ideas handle indirect but coherent truths, and spiritual stories help shape identity, morality, suffering, and hope. Then, with humility, let go of the disproven ideas you are ready to release.
4.
Column summary:
Our ideas about the material world are only a reflection of reality. They cannot fully describe all angles. This split between the material world and our empirical ideas about it are key to understanding our valid rational ideas and what are invalid irrational ideas.
5.
Quote:
- Michael Alan Prestwood.
- 2018.
From History:
Life is not a static achievement but a process of flourishing. Seek truth to refine your understanding. Practice honor to shape your character. Cause less harm when possible by weighing the impact of your actions. Ethical life is disciplined progress within reality’s constraints.
6.
From History: born 1711
Lived from 1711 to 1776.
Calibrate belief in statements. Hume’s skepticism does not kill spirituality; it protects it from false certainty. Awe, meaning, compassion, and transformation can be real human experiences without pretending every spiritual claim is true. Believe carefully. Let confidence rise for a reason.
7.
Secular spirituality keeps the emotional power of spirituality without requiring supernatural claims. Study and honor real experiences over untestable ones. Embrace the awe, grief, compassion, meditation, and connection of life. Do not overclaim what cannot be proved. Hold the speculative with humility and limit belief in disproven things to pragmatic adoption. Let spirituality breathe, while you keep your feet on shared ground.
8.
Quote:
- David Hume.
- 1748.
From History:
A clear thinker does not believe harder just because an idea feels meaningful, familiar, or comforting. Some mysteries deserve wonder, but belief should still be proportional to evidence, logic, testing, and trustworthy guidance. Think well by letting confidence grow only when support earns it.
9.
From History: A good life is a balanced life.
The way of nature is quiet, patient, flowing, and deeper than words. Live your spirituality humbly, your certainty needs to be calibrated to nature. Learning to flow with nature, like a slow flowing river: softly enough to bend, deep enough to endure.
10.
Personal spiritual experiences can be powerful, sincere, and life-changing. Do not sneer at them. Simply keep categories clear: private experiences may justify personal belief, but they do not, by themselves, establish public truth. Honoring belief and requiring evidence are not enemies. They are different disciplines.
The End. Refresh for another set.
TST Trainer
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Writing and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Writing and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
