Why is Nature, the natural world and physical universe, not enough?
The natural cosmos includes goodness, beauty, love, creativity, invention, insight, adaptation, evolution and an incredible variety of species still being discovered. Yes, and the cosmos has death, destruction, disease, disaster. The “darkside” of Nature does not make it less real or “bad.” We cannot escape the yin or the yang of our existence. As John Burroughs wrote, we can “accept the universe” with all its conflicts, and learn more along the way as we journey deeper into a wiser, broader understanding of the only home we have. This begs the question:
Why do we need a Super-natural?
This seems to be the question for the reasoning mind in the 21st century.
This is the critical dilemma for any meaningful dialogue between Philosophy and Religion, Science and Spirituality, as well as Religion and State issues and conflicts.
If there is no “beyond” Nature, no super-natural, then the most reasonable path is to search for and practice ways of being ethical, compassionate, just and joyful creatures beyond faith, beyond religion and beyond God.
“To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel; to match the wind and waves and know when to take in the sail, and to read the signs in the firmament over all. It matters not whether the solitary voyager is man or woman.
Nature having endowed them equally, leaves them to their own skill and judgment in the hour of danger, and, if not equal to the occasion, alike they perish. To appreciate the importance of fitting every human soul for independent action, think for a moment of the immeasurable solitude of self.”
~Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Solitude of Self,” address to the Congressional Judiciary Committee, January 18, 1892
Read Nature is Enough by Chris Highland