Friday, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

First, please forgive the long, perhaps rambling entry. But…

Recently there has been a spate of media coverage of celebrities espousing their atheism. Recently I saw Bill Maher on Larry King talking about his disbelief. It reminds me that the public discourse about the existence of God is often left to the opinions of entertainers, poplar culture icons and other fame seekers. But for many of us outside the media limelight the question becomes one of urgency. If you are rich and living a life of pampered convenience it is your luxury to question the existence of God. But for the average individual struggling to wade through the challenges and difficulties of human life, the question demands something more than a glib opinion offered from the back seat of a limousine or a green room.

For most people this is an urgent concern. What is this yearning for knowing the possibility of life after this life? Spirituality is essentially a human hunger. It is the dimension of our living experience that acknowledges that I can never find lasting emotional satisfaction here in this life. Regardless of my personal circumstances - no matter how wealthy, fortunate or privileged I am at any time, I realize that life will be at best an uneven experience. Complicated relationships, illness and countless other, unpredictable eventualities mean that no human life is emotionally static. If nothing else, it is age and physical demise that compels our coping and defies understanding.

And what is this coping?

What name can we give to this psychological discomfort? This it seems is the very dimension of human experience that we call spirituality. The challenge to focus our minds on the present moment, in light of the pressures and certainty of changing fortunes, is the work of another brain dimension unique to humanity. Psychologists name this challenge the neurotic conflict. To be neurotic means being unable to stay focused on the present moment. Our attention drifts to the complexities of our past or worries about our future

The infatuation with religion that has characterized and plagued humanity forever is essentially a response to this conflict. And despite the scandalous distortions and murderous cruelty that all religious are guilty of perpetrating, at its core, the spiritual impulse is at the foundation of all religious expression. We need to find rest in as many moments as possible given the erratic nature of life experience. And this is what we name spirituality. And in this sense spirituality is a vital dimension of coping and it is essential that it be nurtured.

Perhaps we can describe this spiritual dimension as our impulse to alleviate our restlessness. The testimony of individuals who have nurtured their spiritual hunger is its dramatic affect on their ability to cope with uncertainty. A person of strong spiritual sense experiences a greater capacity to remain serene, even when their life becomes difficult. Wherever we look for illustrations they are found among those with remarkable spiritual depth. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus and the Dalai Lama share a notable personal calm, no matter what their ideological distinctions. We look at these iconic spiritual leaders and long for their personal peace. For me it is Jesus.

This achievement is not beyond our reach. It involves attending to the discipline of focus and resisting the lures of false promises. And these are the temptations of whatever culture within which we live. In modern America these temptations all promise to alleviate the suffering of uncertainty. But in the end they are all futility. Nurturing our spiritual hunger is the time proven path for experiencing as much joy over as much time as human life can allow.