Opinions on my Spirituality essay

[Blue]

Huang-Po said:

"This pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection.  But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows.  Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source."

The source is the rationality... REASON itself, as compared with the personal "sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing" affectively.

In REASON there is no dualism, only what he called "clarity".

He also argued that perceiving the 'source' is to realise the essential fault of affectively categorising and conceptualising.... Clear logic and meditatively sourced rejection of affectively based concepts, was the route to clarity perceivable in the 'source'.

Reason shines with the radiance of its own perception. It does not 'judge', it does not 'love', it does not 'hate', it simply is essential clarity and logically incorruptible, having rejected all moral conceptualisations, seeing everything as what it IS.
Science ultimately seeks the source and objective truth of all things. It seeks the 'source' as surely as Huang-Po's personal techniques.

[DT Strain]

Blue,

I am speaking only of what can be objectively measured. When we take on different perspectives, attitudes, or even ethical norms if you like, this has an objective effect on humanity one way or the other, and this can be measured empirically through sociological and historical study.

For instance, we can compare states with and without the death penalty, who share a good deal of other demographic and social traits in common and then make estimates as to the effects of the practice on crime rates. We can also look at before and after statistics of the same state. It may be more akin to meteorology than to physics - but it is a science.

In exactly the same way, you can look at historic, statistical, and sociological evidence to gather an overall theory on the effects of various ethical or spiritual cultural norms.

Science is not so limited as you would seem to think. The scientific method can be applied to many things effectively.