The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew

by Alan Lightman

It is sometimes useful to distinguish between a physical universe and a spiritual universe, with the physical universe being the constellation of all physical matter and energy that scientists study, and the spiritual universe being the “unseen order” that James refers to, the territory of religion, the nonmaterial and eternal things that most humans have believed throughout the ages. The physical universe is subject to rational analysis and the methods of science. The spiritual universe is not. All of us have had experiences that are not subject to rational analysis. Besides religion, much of our art and our values and our personal relationships with other people spring from such experiences. I would argue, again, that the distinction between the spiritual and physical universes closely aligns with the axes of the personal and the impersonal. Events in the physical universe can be recorded with rulers and clocks and lie outside our bodies. Those measurements provide the evidence. Although many of us believe in a spiritual universe that hovers beyond our own personal being, the evidence of that universe is highly personal.