Followup on 'Reinventing the sacred'....

I relay here (with permission) an email comment on the 'Reinventing the Sacred' post and suggest that you look at several other thoughtful comments at the end of that post.

Perhaps philosophy has something to offer the 'hard core materialist'. I recently read "Illness" by Havi Carel which I must say was a truly moving experience. Meditations on death and meaning using the authors knowledge of Greek Philosophy and Phenomenology enabled her to 'live well' with illness. This is something that a naturalistic bioscience approach would have trouble with?

You might like the thoughts of the former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway "Looking in the distance -the human search for meaning" is one of his excellent books. Holloway, who is now in charge of the Arts Council,sees religion as poetry and metaphor rather than a competition with science which seeks to search for 'material' truth.....Most people appear to need a bit of both and there does seem a universal need for spirituality and engagement-which does not have to be gained by participation in organized religion. Some of the offshoots of immersion in religious practices and spiritual disciplines do appear to have material benefit too (in terms of health and cohesion of community) but this is another discussion perhaps.