Being Spiritual & Being Intellectual

It’s not a division

Federico Faruffini: ‘La Lectora’. (1864)

When spirituality and anti-intellectualism collide, it creates toxic chaos.

The people in power can take passages from religion, twist and rewrite them to their own advantage, and harm the most vulnerable. This, sadly, is a mistake many human civilizations have made for thousands of years.

When we look over humanity’s history of violence, much of it stems from the belief that my stories are more important than yours.

There is nothing holy about that.

What if the bravest thing for human beings to do is to walk with the unknown, entrusting your fellow human, no matter what their stories are, whether those stories come from their religion or their background?

No one likes to be told they are not special. One must honor one’s individuality while also seeing oneself as part of the human family, including those who hold different political or religious viewpoints. However, when those viewpoints become rooted in toxicity and hatred, perhaps the stories that fuel that hatred are the ones that need to be left behind.

I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m not saying it’s enjoyable all the time, but it is our job to learn how to see ourselves as one. There have been many philosophers throughout history, including my favorite, Hypatia of Alexandria, who believed that to be spiritual, one must appreciate intellect and study. Others in her time believed that one could not be both intellectual and spiritual, and that intellectual curiosity and a hunger for knowledge were seen as ungodly. Sadly, this is something human beings still struggle with more than a thousand years later.

The idea that one must shut oneself away from the world, from reality, from science, and from new ideas to be spiritual is, in my view, one of the most damaging concepts human beings have ever created.

Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.- Marie Curie

This rhetoric and this anti-intellectualism had deadly consequences for those who were trying to shed light on the world and the universe. Two hundred and fifty years after Hypatia’s death, the Christian Coptic Church, in the Chronicle by the 7th-century Coptic Bishop John of Nikiû, and others accused her, in their words, of witchcraft and of using knowledge as a satanic force. She was seen as a seductress. This type of rhetoric was one of the reasons she was brutally murdered in the streets of Alexandria.

Whenever a woman who’s accomplished is referred to as a witch, you know that’s a man who has been upset by her intellect and scientific prowess. — Yanis Varoufakis

Women are the first teachers of children. They have been the keepers of medical and botanical knowledge throughout history. They have been midwives, inventors, healers, philosophers, writers, and scientists. When a society abandons women’s education, you’re not only hurting 50% of the population; you are harming 100% of the population.

It seems to me that the tradition of blaming women for the sins of mankind has truly damaged humanity in a way that we may never fully grasp. One could argue, looking back through creation stories in many different religions, that because a man comes from a woman’s womb, it is the woman’s fault that they are walking through life’s hardships.

They represent life. Man doesn’t enter life except by woman, and so it is woman who brings us into this world of pairs of opposites and suffering…. Male and female is one opposition. Another opposition is the human and God. Good and evil is a third opposition. The primary oppositions are the sexual and that between human beings and God. Then comes the idea of good and evil in the world. And so, Adam and Eve have thrown themselves out of the Garden of Timeless Unity, you might say, just by that act of recognizing duality. To move out into the world, you have to act in terms of pairs of opposites. ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

In the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, certain interpretations of the Adam and Eve story depict Eve eating the fruit of knowledge, and after sharing it with Adam, humanity is expelled from the Garden of Eden. Throughout thousands of years of history, certain interpretations of that story argue that women are more susceptible to temptation and therefore responsible for the downfall of humanity.

In ancient Greek mythology, the story of Pandora’s box releases the suffering of disease and hardship into the world. Certain historians use the story of Pandora as a warning about female curiosity.

While not a creation story, Helen of Troy is an example of a woman blamed for war and catastrophe. Ancient authors often described the Trojan War as resulting from Helen’s beauty and her disobedience to her husband. Some ancient writers portray Helen as also a victim of the gods themselves.

Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust. — bell hooks

Countless different religions and cultures have their own versions of wedding vows. Many focus on the vow of fidelity, meaning only having sex with one’s spouse. Certain religious leaders and politicians in America are encouraging women to marry young and start having children as soon as possible.

In the United States, some believe that we should take wedding vows and marriage more seriously. And I agree. My response would be: Do you know how many divorces would occur if marriage vows were taken seriously?

There are vows, certainly in certain Christian denominations, to love and to cherish. Sadly, some men do not love and cherish women; they want a wife. I have seen men belittle their wives, talk badly about them behind their backs, and raise their voices at them. By doing this, they have broken their marriage vows.

I remember hearing the term “alternative facts” used by a political figure for the first time. For a moment, I laughed, and then I started to worry. When we focus on alternative facts, falsehoods, or lies, our spiritual lives, our conscience, and our discernment of what is right and wrong begin to dissolve.

Some find their spirituality in their church; others, by hiking up a mountain. Some feel the most spiritual reading books are on ancient history. Even an atheist can find meaning in contemplation and meditation. Let us always be searching for truth and knowledge, for that is humanity’s great hope.

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