Spirituality and Psychology
Living with an idea of spirituality and a handle on psychology is no easy task and I can only speak for myself when it comes to my understanding of the two, but the practice of maintaing a personal openness with things we can't empirically prove has done nothing but augment that which I've experienced so far. I keep most at bay when it comes to my beliefs because, like most things that involve preference and choice, you most likely have a different way of expressing that belief, if it exists at all.
We -should- be able to share our experiences openly, but clearly the world is not mature enough for that... yet. On the other hand, atheism is a huge trend these days and with the citizens in many countries only thinking in black and white, people like me are told that we must align ourselves with on one side or the other. I grew up reading Fritjof Capra and Douglas Hofstadter before the former was featured in a Dan Brown book and the blend of physics and philosophy kept me mentally independent of spirituality and science alike.
What I'm getting at is, from a psychological standpoint, most of us have been offered a choice between black and white. What I am telling you as a 27 year old kid from the sticks is that there's a whole box of crayons to choose from, you've only got to give yourself the choice to use them.
Here's my religion without all the fluff: People are good and helpful, life is good and plentiful and we could work to make this a great place to live if we only believed it and made the kinds of life decisions that reflected that belief. That's not faith, that's just psychology. Spirituality only animates the process. It's a ghost in the machine, the deus ex machina. Life as it should be.
