Spiritual growth is a journey out of the microcosm into an ever greater macrocosm. In its earlier stages(which is all this book concerns itself with) it is a journey of knowledge and not of faith. In order to escape the microcosm of our previous experience and free ourselves from transferences, it is necessary that we learn. We must continually expand our realm of knowledge and our field of vision through the thorough digestion and incorporation of new information. The process of expansion of knowledge has been a major theme of this book. It will be recalled that in the previous section love was defined as an extension(延伸)-that is, an expansion(扩大)-of ourselves, and it was noted the unknown of new experience. And at the end of the first section on discipline it was also noted that the learning of something new requires a giving up of the old self and a death of outworn(陈腐的) knowledge. To develop a broader vision we must be willing to forsake, to kill, our narrower vision. In the short run(从短期看) it is more comfortable not to do this-to stay where we are, to keep using the same microcosmic map, to avoid suffering the death of cherished notions. The road of spiritual growth, however, lies in the opposite direction. We begin by distrusting what we already believe, by actively seeking the threatening and unfamiliar, by deliberately(故意地) challenging the validity of what we have previously been taught and hold dear. The path to holiness lies through questioning everything.
In a very real sense, we begin with science. We begin by replacing the religion of our parents with the religion of science. We must rebel against and reject the religion of our parents, for inevitably their world view will be narrower than that of which we are capable if we take full advantage of our personal experience, including our adult experience and the experience of an additional generation of human history. There is no such thing as a good hand-me-down(传下来的) religion. To be vital, to be the best of which we are capable, our religion must be a wholly personal one, forged(伪造) entirely through the fire of our questioning and doubting in the crucible(坩埚) of our own experience of reality. As the the theologian Alan Jones has said:
One of our problems is that very few of us have developed any distinctive(与众不同的) personal life. Everything about us seems secondhand, even our emotions. In many cases we have to rely on secondhand information in order to function. I accept the word of a physician(医生), a scientist, a farmer, on trust. I do not like to do this. I have to because they possess vital knowledge of living or which I am ignorant. Secondhand information concerning the state of my kidneys(肾脏), the effects of cholesterol(胆固醇), and the raising of chickens, I can live with. But when it comes to questions of meaning, purpose, and death, secondhand information will not do. I cannot survive on a secondhand faith in a secondhand God. There has to be a personal word, a unique confrontation, if I am to come alive.
So for mental health and spiritual growth we must develop our own personal religion and not rely on that of our parents. But what is this about a “religion of science”? Since is a religion because it is a world view of considerable complexity with a number of major tenets. Most of these major tenets are as follows: the universe is real, and therefore a valid object for examination; it is of value for human beings to examine the universe; the universe makes sense-that is, it follows certain laws and is predictable; but human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition(迷信), bias, prejudice, and a profound(强烈的) tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there; consequently, to examine and hence understand accurately, it is necessary for human beings to subject(征服) themselves to the discipline of scientific method. The essence of this discipline is experience, so that we cannot consider ourselves to know something unless we have actually experienced it; while the discipline of scientific method begins with experience, simple experience itself is not to be trusted; to be trusted, experience must be repeatable, usually in the form of an experiment; moreover, the experience must be verifiable(可核实的), in that other people must have the same experience under the same circumstances.
The key words are “reality,” “examination,” “knowledge,” “distrust,” “experience,” “discipline.” These are words we have been using all along. Science is a religion of skepticism(怀疑论). To escape from the microcosm of our childhood experience, from the microcosm of our culture and its dogmas, from the half-truths our parents told us, it is essential that we be skeptical about what we think we have learned to date. It is the scientific attitude that enables us to transform our personal experience of the microcosm into a personal experience of macrocosm. We must begin by becoming scientists. Many patients who have already taken this beginning say to me: “I’m not religious. I don’t go to church. I no longer believe much of what the church and my parents told me. I don’t have my parents’ faith. I guess I’m not very spiritual.” It often comes as a shock to them when I question the reality of their assumption that they are not spiritual beings. “You have religion,” I may say, “a rather profound one. You worship the truth. You believe in the possibility of your growth and betterment(改进): the possibility of spiritual progress. In the strength of your religion you are willing to suffer the paints of challenge and the agonies(剧痛) of unlearning. You take the risk of therapy, and all this you do for the sake of your religion. I am not at all certain it is realistic to say that you are less spiritual than your parents; to the contrary, I suspect(认为) the reality is that you have spiritually evolved beyond your parents, that your spirituality is greater by a quantum leap(巨大突破) than theirs, which is insufficient to provide them with even the courage to question.”
One thing to suggest that science as a religion represents an improvement, an evolutionary leap(猛跳), over a number of other world views, is its international character. We speak of the worldwide scientific community. And it is beginning to approach(临近) a true community, to come considerably closer than the Catholic Church, which is probably the next closest thing to a true international brotherhood. Scientists of all lands are able, far better than most of the rest of us, to talk to each other. To some extent they have been successful in transcending the microcosm of their culture. To some extent they are becoming wise.
To some extent. While I believe that the skeptical world view of the scientific-minded is a distinct(明显的) improvement over a world view based upon blind faith, local superstition(迷信) and unquestioned assumptions. I also believe that most of the scientific-minded have only barely begun the journey of spiritual growth. Specifically, I believe that the outlook(看法) of most scientific-minded people toward the reality of God is almost as parochial(狭小的) as the outlook of simple peasants who blindly follow the faith of their father. Scientists have grave(严峻的) difficulty dealing with the reality of God.
When we look from our vantage(优势) of sophisticated skepticism at the phenomenon of belief in God we are not impressed(折服的). We see dogmatism(教条主义), and proceeding from dogmatism, we see wars and inquisitions(审讯) and persecutions(迫害). We see hypocrisy(伪善): people professing the brotherhood of man killing their fellows in the name of faith, lining their pockets at the expense of others(牺牲别人的利益来中饱私囊), and practicing all manner of brutality(残忍). We see a bewildering(使人困惑的) multiplicity(多重性) of rituals(宗教仪式) and images without consensus(共识): this god is a woman with six arms and six legs; that is a man who sits on a throne; this one is an elephant; that one the essence of nothingness; pantheons(万神殿), household gods, trinities(三位一体), unities(统一性). We see ignorance(无知), superstition, rigidity. The track record for belief in God looks pretty poor. It is tempting(诱人的) to think that humanity might be better off without a belief in God, that God is not only pie in the sky by and by, but a poisoned pie at that. It would seem reasonable to conclude that God is an illusion in the minds of humans-a destructive illusion-and that belief in God is a common from of human psychopathology(精神病理学) that should be healed. So we have a question: Is belief in God a sickness(疾病)? Is it a manifestation of transference-a concept of our parents, derived from the microcosm, inappropriately projected into the macrocosm? Or, to put it another way, is such belief a form of primitive or childish thinking which we should grow out of as we seek higher levels of awareness and maturity? We want to be scientific in attempting to answer this question, it is essential that we turn to the reality of actual clinical(临床的) data. What happens to one’s belief in God as one grows through the process of psychotherapy.