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 offered a new story, one based in 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 make sense of this cosmic worldview and discuss topics including:: 

• Science and pseudoscience
• Superstition and the paranormal
• UFOs and UAPs
• The afterlife and reincarnation
• Coincidences and miracles
• Science and religion
• God and faith
• Morality and meaning
• Consciousness and sentience
• Free will and determinism

This seminar-style workshop is open to all. Bring your curiosity, skepticism, and an open mind as we search for the sacred and the spiritual in a secular age and try to find meaning in this apparently meaningless universe.

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