posted January 11, 2009 12:55 PM
A friend of mine and I were chatting the other day, and they asked a very interesting question - are spirituality and intellectualism separate e.g. can they ever function together or are they mutually exclusive?My respone was, frankly, a bit rubbish. I'm not sure. Speaking as someone who is intensely cerebral, but also evovling spiritually, I don't find there is a conflict between the two. Knowledge and the correct application of this is always useful, but to a large extent I think any kind of spiritual 'faith' is found in a deep and inexpressible sense of just 'knowing'. (I use the term faith as I feel that suggests something beyond belief. We all like to 'believe' in something, whereas faith removes the 'want' and replaces it with absolute knowledge.)
I don't buy into the notion that 'clever' people can't have any sort of spiritual faith because it moves beyond the physical, measurable realms of accepted Empirical knowledge. To me it makes absolute sense and, in most cases, is very simple in its essence.
Any thoughts from others would be appreciated! x