Scientific spirituality

In the ‘East’, spirituality or religion are often referred to as sciences. This is especially so in the Hindu tradition in which both yoga and vedanta are both commonly referred to as sciences. But are they really? And can religion with all its beliefs, superstitions and dogma really masquerade as science? Well take a look at this quote:

“What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he
does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it;
otherwise it is better not to believe.”
Swami Vivekananda

So spirituality can be rational and scientific - how? By ultimately not asking you to believe. In fact in many traditions belief is often discouraged with the insistence is on direct personal experience.

“We see that in the study of this Raja Yoga no faith or belief is necessary. Believe nothing,
until you find it out for yourself; that is what it teaches us. Truth requires no prop to make
it stand. Do you mean to say that the facts of our awakened state require any dreams or
imagining to prove them? Certainly not.”
Swami Vivekananda

Reading the quote below is actually quite astonishing and humbling to me - it optimises the scientific rational attitude and was written 2500 years ago:

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells
you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine
believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”
Buddha

The approach is that there is an ultimate truth which a person has realised. That person then proclaims this truth and says that through a particular system such as yoga or vedanta, etc, you will be able to see for yourself what he sees to be true. This is a bit like a science experiment in which one person discovers something through conducting an experiment, publishes the paper and then other people can confirms the findings for themselves by following the same methodology. Until the second person has completed the experiment and verified the results, he does not know for sure what is true, but follows the experimental method in good faith.