Charles Darwin (1809-82) and his son William in 1842
As a scientist, Darwin developed and exercised virtues that we can apply in daily life. We do not have to be a gifted, trained, and experienced scientist in order to grow in these essential qualities.
In Darwin I find, above all, hunger for truth; this dominant virtue involves whole-souled identification with the real, problem-solving that is alive, questioning, exploratory, and resourceful, keen perception, careful attention to fact, concentration, patience, accurate reasoning, courage, the habit of testing one’s ideas, methodical inquiry, the ability to distinguish fact from theoretical speculation, openness to diverse views, freedom from prejudice, humility, and teamwork.
Where in your life do you gain by being scientific to some degree? Please describe an example. What virtues do you develop and exercise in the process?
This post (with any further comments, please) concludes this look at scientific living.
For my inquiry into the virtues of scientific living in Darwin, I relied mainly on Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (New York: Warner Books, 1991).
Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Charles_and_William_Darwin.jpg
Scientific living has helped me tremendously. We live in a material world, that is governed by precise material laws. If we want to be really successful in this world in our own right, we are going to have to discover and apply those laws.
As strange as it might seem to some, scientific living has also helped me to know God, the heavenly Father. And it happened in this way. I was the product of an uneducated mother and father who lived in poverty. And like a lot of uneducated poor people, they believed that God would intervene in their material struggles of living. I was influenced by this belief as well. “Bad things simply did not happen to good people.” But experience contradicted this belief. As long as the things were trivial, one could always find an explanation why things did not work out as expected. But when something major happened that could not be explained away like the death of a loved one, then a crisis developed. This happened to me. My mother died when I was 14 years of age. I was devastated for many years, losing faith in God, and feeling that he did not care for me, as I was left with an alcoholic father who was unable to rise to the occasion of shouldering the family without his wife, and the relatives and the church family failed to help fill the gap. I am sure they had their own troubles too. But these circumstances crippled me emotionally, but fueled my determination to survive.
So feeling that I could not receive any help from God, I launched out on my own in my own understanding. I drifted towards a material philosophy of life. But as time passed, I discovered this state of existence was worst than what I had before I walked away from God. There was a dimension of life that purely material and scientific living could not satisfy. And so from the depths of despair, I began my search for God. I did not search long before a beloved aunt told me that God was love, and proceeded to show him to me.
Now that it was clear to my mind that God was love, I could separate the spiritual from the material, and pursue the scientific world with complete material dedication and pursue God with complete spiritual dedication. And as science continued its ruthless destruction of superstition, the spiritual shining of the heavenly Father became clearer and clearer, as the divine values and meanings began to accumulate in my soul, while freed from the superstitious contamination of science, I was free to search and discover those laws governing material reality which I am still in the process of discovering.
This scientific living has stimulated my intellectual curiosity, my tenacity, persistence, and dedication, and loyalty to discover and apply these discoveries to my patients. It has made me realize that their is a solution to all material problems, even though the solution may evade me and my generation. Those who come after us will eventually find a solution to all material problems while the spiritual experience will show us how to apply these discoveries for the good of all mankind.
Dr James Perry
Dr. Perry, thank you for this priceless testimony. Separating physical and spiritual is essential for clarity–even as you united these dimensions in your service as a physician. I give thanks for the aunt who revealed God as love to you, and thanks for your own ability to persevere with tenacious dedication.
Scientific living has helped me tremendously. We live in a material world, that is governed by precise material laws. If we want to be really successful in this world in our own right, we are going to have to discover and apply those laws.
As strange as it might seem to some, scientific living has also helped me to know God, the heavenly Father. And it happened in this way. I was the product of an uneducated mother and father who lived in poverty. And like a lot of uneducated poor people, they believed that God would intervene in their material struggles of living. I was influenced by this belief as well. “Bad things simply did not happen to good people.” But experience contradicted this belief. As long as the things were trivial, one could always find an explanation why things did not work out as expected. But when something major happened that could not be explained away like the death of a loved one, then a crisis developed. This happened to me. My mother died when I was 14 years of age. I was devastated for many years, losing faith in God, and feeling that he did not care for me, as I was left with an alcoholic father who was unable to rise to the occasion of shouldering the family without his wife, and the relatives and the church family failed to help fill the gap. I am sure they had their own troubles too. But these circumstances crippled me emotionally, but fueled my determination to survive.
So feeling that I could not receive any help from God, I launched out on my own in my own understanding. I drifted towards a material philosophy of life. But as time passed, I discovered this state of existence was worst than what I had before I walked away from God. There was a dimension of life that purely material and scientific living could not satisfy. And so from the depths of despair, I began my search for God. I did not search long before a beloved aunt told me that God was love, and proceeded to show him to me.
Now that it was clear to my mind that God was love, I could separate the spiritual from the material, and pursue the scientific world with complete material dedication and pursue God with complete spiritual dedication. And as science continued its ruthless destruction of superstition, the spiritual shining of the heavenly Father became clearer and clearer, as the divine values and meanings began to accumulate in my soul, while freed from the superstitious contamination of science, I was free to search and discover those laws governing material reality which I am still in the process of discovering.
This scientific living has stimulated my intellectual curiosity, my tenacity, persistence, and dedication, and loyalty to discover and apply these discoveries to my patients. It has made me realize that their is a solution to all material problems, even though the solution may evade me and my generation. Those who come after us will eventually find a solution to all material problems while the spiritual experience will show us how to apply these discoveries for the good of all mankind.
Dr James Perry
Dr. Perry, thank you for this priceless testimony. Separating physical and spiritual is essential for clarity–even as you united these dimensions in your service as a physician. I give thanks for the aunt who revealed God as love to you, and thanks for your own ability to persevere with tenacious dedication.
The chief virtue of “scientific living” is, for me, a habit of inquiry. Scientific inquiry is: non-trivial, subject to disproof, and replicable. These bases of scientific inquiry compel me to imagine a public dialog within which I interrogate my uniquely individual means, motives, and relationships within a broader social sphere. When I can satisfy the ethical and moral demands of these separate spheres and act on the “results”, a wonderful spiritual transcendence sometimes occurs. This is the great reward of such a disciplined approach.
I’m thrilled that someone else has been working in this territory, has independently discovered it, and developed an approach that overlaps with what I have been presenting, while being sufficiently different to give me important new things to think about: replicable; imagine a public dialogue; means, motives, and relationships; social spheres; ethical and moral demands of the inquiry. It makes me think of John Rawls’s idea of a dialogue that would lead to the choice of principles of justice. Thank you so very much for contributing. I like your crisp definition–a habit of inquiry–and your characterization: non-trivial, subject to disproof, and replicable. The mention of spiritual transcendence makes me wish for an example. I feel a profound sense of a kindred mind here. You know the great reward of such a disciplined approach. I give thanks!
I recently had the occasion to travel on the NY subway mid-day. The car within which I was riding included an accordion-playing busker, a praying 6’3″ tall Rabbi, a raucus family of four, and a very sad-looking young Asian man among many others. The young man looked up at me and offered his seat. I smiled and demurred. He nodded a gentle assent. Then and there I was taken out of myself and experienced The Glory Train – the here-and-now presence of the Holy Spirit showing me the ineffable beauty of my/our human condition as a sensate understanding – a profoundly incarnate comprehension – of the public/publucity of a holy dialog. This, I believe, I could not have experienced without a disciplined habit of paying attention to the intersection of the (my) unique ‘personhood’ of me and the being-in life with my brothers and sisters in God (life). The gate to this experience was/is empirical observation (science) prompting a transcendental experience. In my view “mystical” comprehension cannot be attained without a “scientific” habit of mind… BUT one must look for it, I.e., engage in inquiry.
Dr. McCoy, thank you ineffably for this example. Your description of the scene expresses observation and reports a compassionate interchange–both with a poise, an attention to fact, and an openness that bespeaks scientific training and more. The interchange with the Asian man was the immediate prelude in that scene providing the occasion that the Holy Spirit took to reveal to you the beauty of that very scene. The dialog was being-with, attended to variously by those present. I cannot remember a better description of a spiritual experience. You have blessed us with an example of how scientific living prepares reflection and loving interaction that opens us to Spirit. In that revelation, the family does not cease to be raucous, nor the man sad; but those predicates are put into the background–perhaps even eclipsed–by the glory of human togetherness in the presence of God; you were not transported to heaven but had an experience of living on earth as it is in heaven.
Thank you for awakening us more fully by publicly sharing this/the/our holy dialog. My view is that a scientific habit of mind prunes careless perception, hasty leaps to judgment, superstition, and complacent neglect of inquiry; a scientific habit of mind prepares philosophical reflection on meaning, and it stabilizes our spiritual receptivity, so that we are less likely to distort what we are Given and less likely to become fanatical in the wake of such a gift.
You have given us a fitting culmination to our unit on scientific living. May you be blessed by many more opportunities to awaken people (including in this weblog–smile) to their being-in-life as brothers and sisters in God (life).
Will I betray gratitude by asking for more? More examples of the scientific habit of mind that you exercise in daily life outside the professional activities for which you have been trained? Let me direct my request to other readers.
The chief virtue of “scientific living” is, for me, a habit of inquiry. Scientific inquiry is: non-trivial, subject to disproof, and replicable. These bases of scientific inquiry compel me to imagine a public dialog within which I interrogate my uniquely individual means, motives, and relationships within a broader social sphere. When I can satisfy the ethical and moral demands of these separate spheres and act on the “results”, a wonderful spiritual transcendence sometimes occurs. This is the great reward of such a disciplined approach.
I’m thrilled that someone else has been working in this territory, has independently discovered it, and developed an approach that overlaps with what I have been presenting, while being sufficiently different to give me important new things to think about: replicable; imagine a public dialogue; means, motives, and relationships; social spheres; ethical and moral demands of the inquiry. It makes me think of John Rawls’s idea of a dialogue that would lead to the choice of principles of justice. Thank you so very much for contributing. I like your crisp definition–a habit of inquiry–and your characterization: non-trivial, subject to disproof, and replicable. The mention of spiritual transcendence makes me wish for an example. I feel a profound sense of a kindred mind here. You know the great reward of such a disciplined approach. I give thanks!
I recently had the occasion to travel on the NY subway mid-day. The car within which I was riding included an accordion-playing busker, a praying 6’3″ tall Rabbi, a raucus family of four, and a very sad-looking young Asian man among many others. The young man looked up at me and offered his seat. I smiled and demurred. He nodded a gentle assent. Then and there I was taken out of myself and experienced The Glory Train – the here-and-now presence of the Holy Spirit showing me the ineffable beauty of my/our human condition as a sensate understanding – a profoundly incarnate comprehension – of the public/publucity of a holy dialog. This, I believe, I could not have experienced without a disciplined habit of paying attention to the intersection of the (my) unique ‘personhood’ of me and the being-in life with my brothers and sisters in God (life). The gate to this experience was/is empirical observation (science) prompting a transcendental experience. In my view “mystical” comprehension cannot be attained without a “scientific” habit of mind… BUT one must look for it, I.e., engage in inquiry.
Dr. McCoy, thank you ineffably for this example. Your description of the scene expresses observation and reports a compassionate interchange–both with a poise, an attention to fact, and an openness that bespeaks scientific training and more. The interchange with the Asian man was the immediate prelude in that scene providing the occasion that the Holy Spirit took to reveal to you the beauty of that very scene. The dialog was being-with, attended to variously by those present. I cannot remember a better description of a spiritual experience. You have blessed us with an example of how scientific living prepares reflection and loving interaction that opens us to Spirit. In that revelation, the family does not cease to be raucous, nor the man sad; but those predicates are put into the background–perhaps even eclipsed–by the glory of human togetherness in the presence of God; you were not transported to heaven but had an experience of living on earth as it is in heaven.
Thank you for awakening us more fully by publicly sharing this/the/our holy dialog. My view is that a scientific habit of mind prunes careless perception, hasty leaps to judgment, superstition, and complacent neglect of inquiry; a scientific habit of mind prepares philosophical reflection on meaning, and it stabilizes our spiritual receptivity, so that we are less likely to distort what we are Given and less likely to become fanatical in the wake of such a gift.
You have given us a fitting culmination to our unit on scientific living. May you be blessed by many more opportunities to awaken people (including in this weblog–smile) to their being-in-life as brothers and sisters in God (life).
Will I betray gratitude by asking for more? More examples of the scientific habit of mind that you exercise in daily life outside the professional activities for which you have been trained? Let me direct my request to other readers.