Science and Spirituality: The Search for Meaning in a Secular Age

The intellectual and spiritual quest to understand the Universe and our place in it is at the core of science, religion, and spiritual traditions. We are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals trying to make sense of the world. For millennia, we have told stories in the form of myths and through religions that have offered countless explanations. In recent centuries, science has provided a new story, one based on evidence and independent of cultural traditions.

Today, science tells us that we are but one among tens of millions of species housed on one planet among many orbiting an ordinary solar system, itself one among billions of solar systems in an ordinary galaxy located in a cluster of galaxies not so different than billions of other galaxy clusters, themselves whirling away from one another in an accelerating expanding cosmic bubble universe that very possibly is only one among a near-infinite number of other bubble universes in the multiverse. Is it really possible that this entire cosmological multiverse exists for one tiny subgroup of a single species on one planet in a long galaxy in that solitary bubble universe?

In this workshop, we will explore how to find meaning in this apparently meaningless Universe and how to find the sacred and the spiritual in a secular age. Topics will include science and skepticism, science and religion, death and life after death, morality and meaning, the randomness of life and what it means, why we think everything happens for a reason, finding purpose with or without God, why bad things happen to good people, the nature of evil, finding purpose in tragedy and adversity, and the varieties of spiritual experiences.

Guest faculty Ralph Lewis is a Psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. In his work, Ralph helps people seek meaning in the face of severe and tragic adversity. In addition to having extensive clinical experience with complex and subtle psychiatric and psychological conditions, Ralph is a regular columnist for Psychology Today and is the author of Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Should Care Even if the Universe Doesn’t.

This seminar-style workshop is open to all. Bring your curiosity, skepticism, and an open mind.

Recommended Reading: Michael Shermer, 2015. The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom.