Physics, spirituality and religion

Being both a physicist and a man of faith I get asked about how I reconcile the two. People ask for confirmation of, or insights into, the latest book popularizing quantum mechanics or some other esoteric physics theory. Then there are the neo-athesists, emboldened by the writings of militant materialists like Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) and Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), who find me, someone they think should know better, a ripe target for pointing out the error of my ways.

Well, first off, my appreciation of the marvels of the physical realm in no way subtracts from my appreciation of the transcendent realm. Both are equally real and beautiful. Furthermore, while it's abundantly evident that people's blind adherence to dogma has caused much suffering in the world, it's also obvious that religion fulfills a fundamental human longing to connect with something greater than the small self.

I began studying physics because I wanted to know all I could about the inner workings of the universe. But while physics amazes me, so does chemistry, biology and even mechanical engineering. It's all amazing. And I think it's great when people get inspired by quantum mechanics, which shows that we really are all connected. But physics can only hint at the inner truths. To be meaningful to the individual these truths have to be experienced directly. And that's what the materialists don't get. These fundamental truths of existence can be taught, which means they have an existence in the material world in the form of speech or the written word, but their undeniable reality is in the transcendent realm, and can only be experienced by leaving the mind and material world behind.

Neuroscientists are beginning to identify the unique patterns of brain activity associated with transcendent states. And transcendent states can be induced by drugs or direct stimulation of the brain. Does this make the soul a product of the brain? Hardly. What is identified as soul, or the part of us that experiences the transcendent through the body, is just a projection of the timeless, limitless true self onto the material realm. And just as a photograph of a place is not the place itself, the soul that can be probed and quantified is not the true soul.

Someone who lives only in the material realm, who relies entirely on the analytical mind to tell them what's real and what is not real, has no qualifications to comment on the transcendent realm. These people are welcome to point out the shortcomings in how humans behave, but cannot possibly have anything meaningful to say about the human experience outside of the material realm, because it's territory they have never explored. I claim that the materialists must be in denial, because even if they ardently wish to believe that the physical realm is all there is, life will deal them transcendent experiences, which they must deny in order to maintain their worldview.

I choose to practice the Sikh religion. It speaks to me. It makes sense. It isn't dependent on dogma and encourages everyone to experience for themselves the transcendent. It recognizes a Creator as the source of everything and teaches that praising that One is the best use of this human life. The One is unknowable through the mind but can be experienced.

We must use the mind to manage day-to-day living, to advance human knowledge, and to appreciate the world around us. But to fully appreciate life and to make the most use of our time in this world, we must know how to set aside the mind and dwell in a higher awareness. Only then will the mysteries of the transcendent be accessible to us.