OVM.
Quick Hits
10 random key ideas.
1.
A spiritual experience may shape a life, but private experience alone does not establish an empirical or rational claim about reality.
2.
From History: Spirituality is exploration.
When publicly discussing spirituality, distinguish thought of the material world, what we directly experience, from the spiritual interpretations beyond it. Organize each spiritual idea into agnostic, non-theistic, and theistic.
3.
The personal, science-first exploration of meaning, connection, mystery, and the self, anchored to reality and sorted into empirical, rational, and irrational categories.
4.
From History:
It takes work, but structure disagreement so that clarity replaces tribalism, and calibrated dialogue replaces dogmatic assertion. Live well by letting others be themselves without giving up your own clarity.
5.
Column summary:
Your spirituality does not have to disappear as science advances. It can mature by distinguishing shared empirical reality from personal meaning, faith, mystery, and the unknown.
6.
From History: Reference Date: 2200 CE (+/- 50 years)
Start to live your life better now by sorting truth from belief with honesty. Let science guide the observable, reason guide what is coherent, but hold spirituality humbly.
7.
To live within secular spirituality, your exploration of the unknown and unknowable need to stem from testable observations.
8.
From History: 3 Types: Empirical, Rational, & Irrational
Avoid irrational pragmatists; they dismiss good evidence when it gets in the way.
9.
An irrational-pragmatic worldview prioritizes usefulness as sufficient reason to hold ideas as true.
10.
Belief in determinism has deeply shaped science by encouraging thinkers to search for order, causes, and laws beneath nature’s surface.
Done. 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.
