Getting Into the Spirit of Scientific Inquiry

Re “Putting Our Faith in Science,” Commentary, July 25: Andrew Klavan correctly notes that many people will not easily relinquish their faith that there is a god and each of us has a soul, despite the findings of materialistic science.

But he continues to make the mistake of placing this faith in the same category with natural science. Mysticism and religious faith, Klavan assumes, can disclose a truth not accessible by science.

Contrary to Klavan’s assumption that mysticism does have “a leg to stand on,” many scientists and rational inquirers find that no one has ever provided any neutral, objective evidence, verifiable by repeated tests or experiments, that a god acts in the world or that humans possess souls independent of “a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”

Can Klavan or anyone else clearly demonstrate the existence of a soul that is independent of the human nervous system or clearly show us those truths that mysticism, but not science, can reach?

Until they do, we don’t have anything but the findings of materialistic science that can be correctly called “knowledge,” as opposed to faith or mystical yearnings.

Juan E. Bernal

Santa Ana

*

Because of the reintroduction of the spiritual “science” of yoga in the 19th century, true spiritual experience, i.e., mysticism, is no longer based solely on faith.

By using these higher, meditative, yogic techniques, each person can now prove to himself or herself beyond a doubt that God is and can be known by repeatable, “scientific” meditative methods.

So take that ball, if you dare, and run with it, scientists.

Paul Reimers

Oakland