Different Routes to the Same Destination

Kathleen Parker's article in The Washington Post notes some "startling conclusions" from Barbara Bradley Hagerty's book "Fingerprints of God", where the author "couldn't accept mainstream science's answer that we are "a collection of molecules with no greater purpose than to eke out a few decades." Instead, she sought out spiritual virtuosos (people who practice prayer, religiously), as well as neurologists, geneticists, physicists and medical researchers who are using the newest tools of science to discern the circumstantial evidence of God".

"circumstantial evidence" - what does it mean really? Per the legal definition it is the indirect evidence. No direct evidence exists, hence the indirect way to proving a fact or facts. For many, especially the scientists, it may sound a bit far fetched, perhaps too much assumptions in it.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty's research "led to some startling conclusions that have caused no small amount of Sturm und Drang among those who believe theirs is the one true way. She found that whether one is a Sikh, a Catholic nun, a Buddhist monk or a Sufi Muslim, the brain reacts to focused prayer and meditation much in the same way. The same parts light up and the same parts go dark during deep meditation" -- the "same parts" of brain of every human beings in prayers or meditation, regardless of any specificity of religion or mode of spirituality practiced, light up and go dark.Thus, the following observation by Kathleen Parker / Barbara Bradley Hagerty is profound, "spiritual experience is a human phenomenon, not a religious one. Different routes to the same destination."

Centuries after centuries, so much bloodshed, destruction and devastation occurred from heartless religions invoked warfare and violence, whilst the very basic essence of humanity was and still is trampled in the name of meaningless "superiority" of one deity or rituals over another, though the destination of human beings remains the same, either extinction by way of being originated from simple arraigned molecules and in the end disarrayed or disassembled into some other organic or inorganic forms or beings, or perhaps elevated to heavens or demoted to hells. Who knows? Perhaps not the the mortal beings in this world. Perhaps some truths are indeed too "sacred / divine" or outright ridiculous to comprehend. Like the author Hagerty, I also feel optimistic and inclined to believe the power of science, that "science eventually will demonstrate that we are more than mere matter. In the meantime, it would seem imminently rational to presume in our public affairs that God does not play political favorites with His creation" 

Link to Kathleen Parker's article in The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050704065.html

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