"Uniting science and spirituality has a very practical purpose. Science without spirituality can easily lose the ethical, moral and values-based perspective.
Scientists without the guidance of spirituality can engage in the invention of nuclear bombs and other weapons of war, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, factory farming where animals are reared in cruel conditions, and technologies that create waste, pollution and the destruction of Nature.
Science without the guidance of spiritual values has created many of the problems the world faces today. Science by itself is not benign, value-free or neutral.
Therefore, science needs the helping hand of spiritual wisdom in order to maintain its integrity and modify its power. Without spiritual wisdom, science can be dangerous. Spirituality gives meaning, value and purpose to science.
As science needs spirituality, spirituality needs science. Without science, spirituality can easily and quickly turn into blind faith, dogmatism, sectarianism, and fundamentalism.
Unscientifically minded people may claim, “My god is the only true god and I have the truth. Everybody must be converted to my truth.” Such narrow religious exclusivity has led to wars, conflicts, terrorism and divisions.
Science helps to keep our minds open so we can seek truth and act for the benefit of the whole of humanity and for the good of all living beings, human, and other-than-human.
Do we want to live in a fragmented way, either as materialists discarding the subjective dimension of spiritual wisdom or as spiritual seekers denigrating the objective world of scientific discovery?
The choice is ours. I choose to embrace spirituality with a scientific mind. For me, science and spirituality are complementary parts of the whole."
~Satish Kumar