Book: Sceptical spirituality

Are there such things as spiritual ‘facts’? Let’s have a go

Doing your spiritual homework #7

Thinking things through systematically, objectively and sceptically is the only way to deal with spiritual topics. (artwork by the author)

(This is all about clearing a serviceable path through the jungle of confusion and spiritual misdirection. Not as easy and straightforward as one might think. It’s also about an exercise in elementary objective metaphysics.)

Where on earth do we start? And how do we establish a ‘fact’ in the first place, especially as regards something as apparently vapid and ‘inwardly subjective’ as ‘spirituality’?

What will qualify as a ‘fact’?

Well, what constitutes a ‘fact’? Let’s start with that. We don’t need to waste too much time on dictionary definitions, which unfortunately tend to be somewhat circular — for example, a fact is something ‘true’ or ‘real’ — we can just move to a position which combines objectivity with a certain unassailable exigence: we’ll only consider something as a fact if — given what we have, in terms of our mental and perceptual capacities — it is not possible for us to deny the evidence presented to us. If it might be possible, under changed circumstances, to deny what is in front of us, then what we perceive and understand at any one time can’t constitute an unassailable fact, but only a ‘provisional set…