Science, Technology, and Spirituality

As a student at Beverly Hills High, I wrote a paper entitled Religionvs.Science which brought up some points about how our connection with God plays out in our lives, asking what empirical evidence would science need in order to prove the religious concept of creation, and exploring the mystical and inspirational aspects of faith based religion. My teacher asked me if I was proselytizing some new religion. LOL! 

Actually, the paper was bringing up an age-old question.  For a long time, religion and science have been at odds overcreation, faith and many other important points about life.There has been quite a bit of evolution of science and technology since then; many more people have also discovered their own inner connection to God since then.

 When I wrote that paper, we did not have cell phones, computers, or the Internet.  There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, indeed no instant communication except through phone calls from hardwired, landline phones.

I feel that Steve Jobs was one of the first people to use their creative and intuitive nature in creating a user friendly computer for people like me. I might never have jumped into exploring the endless possibilities for creating art, videos, and music online had I not had so many exciting opportunities to explore on my first Apple.

Now, I use apps to create everyday, without thinking twice.  I love reading my poems into my Spreaker app in the morning, and I add some music from the ITunes library to accompany my words.  I now have over 36,000 listens for my offerings.  I love taking a picture on my iPhone6plus, and using the Photoshop Expressapp to enhance its colors. I often listen to healing mediations from Doreen Virtue’s Angel Therapies app. Every morning I use my Insight Timer App to time my morning meditation.

Looking back now on my lifetime, I am amazed at how religion, and metaphysics have drawn closerto science and technology.What I find very interesting is how Science has reached out to millions with some inspiring websites and apps.

I think the best example of this is the Nasasite.www.nasa.gov. They have an image of the day and many other free pictures to download.  Nasa’s apps are free and fun to use: I never get tired of looking at the awesome photos of the galaxies.  One of my favorites pictures amongst those I’ve found is called the Eye of God.

 In the last decade or so there have been many documentaries exploring spirituality and science.  What the Bleep do we Know,  www.whatthebleep.com, for example, came out in 2004 and grossed

$10 million by enthralling people with discussion of the connections between Spirituality andquantum physics, and exploring how our consciousness really works. The success of The Secret opened the door for these types of films, creating opportunities for many.

I find that both looking into outer space with images from the Hubble telescope, and looking deep into the miracle of life on earth, can be inspiring. There is an award-winning book called Grain of Sand, Nature’s Secret Wonder the work of it’s author, Dr. Gary Greenberg, who created lenses that can look deep into a grain of sand. The visuals are gorgeous and inspiring, especially when you consider that no two grains are ever the same.

I feel that perhaps the more we learn and grow, the more we will find that there are miracles right here on earth in every grain of sand, just as there are miracles in galaxies that extend so far beyond our reach. Every human life is a miracle; some aspects can be explained while some cannot, yet, be explained.

All of the growth we intechnology which occurred over the last 50 years has changed our way of living. We spend quite a bit of time on our cell phones, texting, checking emails, responding to friends we have never even met on Facebook…  We have so many more addictive distractions in our lives now.

Science has also changed dramatically, with major advances in chemistry and bio medics, discoveries that can seem both exciting and dangerous. Much of this research is funded by huge corporations that have the desire tomake millions, even if the result is ultimately harmful.  There are also many questions that could be coming in the future.  We might find that we will have to decide how much of life we wish to turn over to artificial intelligence, or how far will we let artificially modified genes changethe structure oflife, as we know it.

The convenience of technology is very enticing and presents many wonderful opportunities, and it is easy to get swept up with it.  If we do not have a strong spiritual sense of what is in line with the purpose of creation, we could be facing some very challenging times ahead.

I would love to see Science and Technology work with Metaphysics and spiritual leaders to find a way to walk that razor’s edge of our temptation for more, better, fasterand easier ways of living. I think the time has come when we might need a higher perspective of life’s purpose, a way we can all grow in wisdom, learning to control the tempting possibilities that will continue to present themselves as technology and science continue, especially if they as people find new ways of exploiting those technologies for their own, massive, financial gain.

What is really good for our hearts and souls? What is good for this planet and for the future generations of humanity? These are questions both spiritual leaders and scientists need to instill in our consciousness. What a wonderful joining of forces it will be when science, technology and spirituality can all work together for the good of the world.

-Cindy Paulos