This column explores how spirituality might evolve over the next few generations as science, religion, and global culture continue to interact. Rather than framing the future as religion versus science, it asks whether spiritual traditions can mature by separating empirical claims from deeper stories of meaning, identity, morality, suffering, and hope. The linked article and supporting tidbits expand the idea through TST’s Material-Spiritual Framework, offering a path toward future common ground without dismissing either scientific truth or personal belief.
I’m your host, Michael Alan Prestwood and this is the column research for the
June 2026 edition
of the TST Column.
This is the expanded story mode edition.
With that, let’s frame the key idea.
Spirituality.
Today’s column takes a closer look at Spirituality—why it matters, and where it leads.
The future of spirituality may depend on better categories: shared reality for empirical claims, and personal meaning for faith, mystery, and the unknowable.
Now for the 6 research tidbits. The goal, to blend intersections into wisdom.
Tidbits make it possible to build slowly and honestly, without losing track of where an idea came from.
The key ideas are available on the home page, but this story mode is the only place to get the “rest of the story.”
1.
Philosophy Story.
Reference Date: 2200 CE (+/- 50 years)
By the year 2200, the major world religions will fully integrate empirical observation into their doctrines, acknowledging the importance of scientific understanding. This shift will mark a profound transformation in religious thought, where spiritual narratives no longer resist accepted scientific observation.
In the future, the major religions will not abandon meaning, buty they will sort meaning more correctly. Empirical claims must answer to reality through science, rational ideas can answer to coherence, and spiritual stories will continue shaping meaning, identity, and hope. Science rules over the observable universe, religions rule over meaning and explore the currently unknown and unknowable. Religions will still teach their beliefs about the afterlife, including Heaven.
If you think about this, this is no different than what religions have done for thousands of years. When people see newly discovered things about the universe with their own eyes, they cannot help turning away from conflicting religious “belief.” When reality pushes back, truth wins over belief.
Such a shift does not make religion “scientific,” per se, nor does it erase the personal and cultural role of spiritual belief. Instead, it simply marks the long time tradition of more clearly sorting ideas. The clarity that comes from untangling what we know, from what we do not, will allow more people to explore spirituality and religion. The industries will grow, not shrink. Religion as a whole will remain doing what it has always done best: helping people frame meaning, identity, morality, suffering, and hope.
I think the future sees spirituality and religion expanding into more honest forms. Fields of belief that honor belief without confusing it with truth. A time that accepts pragmatic humility toward stories of the unknown and unknowable. A time when the great religious traditions learn to live beside science more clearly, more humbly, and more wisely.
That Philosophy Story,
was first published on TST 2 years ago.
2.
Philosophy Quote.
- Carl Sagan.
- 1979.
Carl Sagan’s famous line was popularized in Broca’s Brain in 1979. It reached a wider audience through Cosmos in 1980. That’s when I first heard it. I was 15 years old when Cosmos aired which was a seminal moment in my life.
The deeper idea is older. In 1748, David Hume used a similar principle:
“A wise man…proportions his belief to the evidence.”
Sagan gave it its modern scientific voice. In context, the quote is not anti-wonder. It is anti-carelessness. It says the more a claim challenges what we already know about reality, the more evidence it needs before we raise our confidence in it.
For Sagan, and me, science did not kill spirituality; it deepened and sorted it. Stars, evolution, atoms, life, death, and cosmic scale were sources of humility and reverence. But his awe stayed disciplined. If someone says meditation brings peace, modest evidence may be enough because the claim fits ordinary human experience. If someone says meditation opens a portal to a hidden realm, the evidence burden rises. This is calibration: reality first, awe second, certainty only when earned.
The Why Truth Requires Reality article explains why truth is alignment with reality, and belief is confidence in that alignment. Calibration is the process of adjusting confidence to the kind and quality of support behind a claim. Empirical claims answer to observation and testing. Rational claims answer to logic and coherence. Speculative claims may remain meaningful, but they should be held with humility. Disproven claims should be released as truth. This is how spirituality stays honest: not by rejecting wonder, but by ranking confidence properly when wonder reaches into the material world.
That Philosophy Quote,
was first published on TST 2 weeks ago.
3.
Science FAQ.
Spiritual beliefs are part of each person’s personal belief system. Empirical beliefs are part of sorting the confidence in a claim.
Empirical beliefs are part of the normal sorting of ideas. They are claims about the material world that can be tested through observation, evidence, and measurement. Reliable public methods increase confidence in all types of ideas when reality pushes back in favor of them. Germs cause disease. The Earth orbits the Sun. Humans evolved from earlier life forms. These are empirical beliefs because they directly describe things we’ve checked against our shared reality. In the spiritual world, an example is meditation. We can empirically measure things like heart rate when someone meditates.
A spiritual belief is different. It is a type of belief, not a truth category. Your spirituality helps you with your identity, morality, and even managing your suffering. A belief can provide hope for unknown things or provide a deeper purpose. It’s the idea that consciousness is just material or not. Karma as guiding rebirth or not. God exists or not. The universe has a spiritual essence beyond awe or not.
Spiritual beliefs may feel important, but they still need to be sorted before entering public belief. Empirical beliefs directly describe the material world and must answer to observation. Rational beliefs describe reality indirectly through logic and coherence. Spiritual beliefs often explore the rational, speculative, unknown, or unknowable parts of life. They can be meaningful without being empirically established.
So:
If a spiritual belief makes a claim about the material world, it must accept empirical testing.
If it cannot be tested, it should be held with humility. If it has been disproven, it should be released as truth, though it may still survive pragmatically as art, ritual, or personal reflection.
That Science FAQ,
was first published on TST 3 weeks ago.
4.
Philosophy FAQ.
Secular spirituality is calibrated science-first spirituality.
Spirituality explores the intangible. Things like awe, meaning, and purpose. Secular spirituality tells the same type of stories, but allows reality to push back. It honors honest classification. That’s the “empirical first” rule: when an idea makes contact with reality, reality gets the final say. This is how you apply confidence to spirituality. It’s how you calibrate one belief over another.
In other words, let scientific observation outrank unsupported belief. This means your spirituality stems from the observable. You still explore metaphysics: What is reality? What kind of universe are we in? You still explore ontology: you are here now—aware, temporary, embodied, and responsible. But secular spirituality begins with observation before it reaches toward what might be.
The focus is on observation: awe changes us, meditation affects attention, grief reshapes identity, music moves emotion, nature can humble us, compassion can strengthen relationships, and rituals can bond communities.
This also means secular spirituality puts the supernatural in a special category. It’s not rejected, just categorized as irrational. If you think about it, the reason why is clear. Supernatural, by definition, means not natural, not of this reality. So beings like nymphs, fairies, and mermaids are speculative. So are ghosts, demons, and psychic echoes. If it reaches toward reality but cannot be tested, it belongs in the speculative category.
Metaphysical and ontological questions are important, but secular spirituality does not pretend its answers are established truth until reality supports them. It does not leap too quickly to, “therefore a hidden realm exists.”
All this means spirituality can flourish without pretending to know what it does not know. The best spirituality opens the mind, deepens humility, and helps us live better inside reality—not escape from it.
That Philosophy FAQ,
was first published on TST 2 weeks ago.
5.
Critical Thinking FAQ.
Spirituality is an inward journey exploring connection with things bigger than yourself. For many, that means God, Allah, or Waheguru. For others that lean more toward nature, the Eastern Dao or Stoic Logos might appeal. For most of us, we remember ancestors and think about spirit or essence. At some point, most of us think about consciousness, humanity, and what it all means. The first step in thinking clearly about spirituality is to let people hold their own inner meanings.
That is conscience and it requires tolerance.
But public belief is different. A spiritual idea enters public belief when it asks others to accept it as true, obey it, fund it, teach it, vote for it, or use it to make decisions that affect other people. At that point, tolerance is no longer enough. We need calibration.
Within public belief, spiritual claims should be sorted. Some are empirical. Some are rational. The rest are neither. Some of the rest are awaiting proof, and some have already failed testing.
“I felt connected to something larger than myself” is a personal spiritual belief. “This spiritual force cured my disease” is a public claim about the material world. That kind of claim needs evidence. “This ritual helps me feel grounded” is different from “this ritual controls the weather.” One belongs to personal meaning, the other to a shared reality.
This distinction protects both. You are free to explore your own spirituality without reservation. The catch? Do not force your private certainty onto others. This approach protects public truth systems from being overrun by claims that cannot be tested, have not been tested, or have already failed.
Everyone is free to believe while we all reap the benefits of standing on common ground.
That is not anti-spiritual. It is truth with humility.
That Critical Thinking FAQ,
was first published on TST 2 weeks ago.
6.
History FAQ.
Yes. Secular spirituality sits in a long tradition: Laozi found reverence with alignment in the way of nature, the Buddha in disciplined experience focused on this realm, the Stoics refined strict alignment with reality, Spinoza found spirituality in nature itself, James and Dewey in lived human transformation and being, and Einstein and Sagan in cosmic awe grounded in scientific observations.
In ancient thought, secular spirituality shows up again and again. Laozi pointed toward the Dao, the deep way of nature that words can never fully capture. The Buddha focused on suffering, impermanence, and disciplined inner practice. The Stoics taught people to live according to nature, accept what they cannot control, and shape what they can. These are not lab sciences, but they are deeply rooted in the observation of life, mind, and nature.
In modern thought, the same thread continues. Spinoza found sacredness in nature itself rather than in a supernatural ruler outside it. William James studied spiritual experience as lived human experience. John Dewey separated religious institutions from the deeper “religious” quality of devotion, purpose, and moral seriousness. Einstein and Sagan talked openly about how science-first spirituality deepens awe.
So yes, secular spirituality is supported across history. Many serious thinkers chose not to ignore human experience, nature, mystery, or our limits. Science-first spirituality does not mock belief or drain life of wonder. It simply lets reality push back. It honors awe without pretending to know what it does not know.
That History FAQ,
was first published on TST 2 weeks ago.
That’s it for this issue!
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Thanks for listening.
The end.