secular

In this modern and civilized contemporary era, there are various spiritualist movements and schools claim to satisfy the transcendent nature of man. They are often in opposition to the divine religions and seek to marginalize them. These movements have been emerged and developed in an all-humanist context, and they have a number of epistemological, anthropological, and ontological foundations. In order to prove their ineffectiveness in responding to the thirst of the spiritually thirsty human being, it must be first examined and meticulously criticized their foundations. One of the most important anthropological foundations of secular spirituality is individualism, which, by focusing on the desires and inclinations of the individual, seeks him within the search for the entire truth, and reject other external authority such as divine revelation and prophets. The basis saying that the spiritual behavior of modern human being is only on the needs and desires of the “inside” of man, denies the authority and validity of any external authority and it causes separation of human existence from heavenly religions. In contrast, the anthropological foundations of genuine and Islamic spirituality, rely on the existence of divine and common human nature between individuals. Thus, these Islamic foundations provide the possibility of general advice on spiritual journey. In addition, they consider guidance through revelation and true religion as the only reliable reference to respond to the nature and the transcendent spirit of man.  

Science seeks to discover the order present in nature and describes this order in the form of laws. Religion is a response to a Transcendent Being Who transforms our lives and gives it a meaning. Traditionally, spirituality was regarded as an integral aspect of religious experience, and spirituality and religion were inseparable. But, the decline of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world have given rise to a broader view of spirituality which includes reference to those aspects of human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world, without necessarily bringing in a supernatural reality. Scientific revolution started in the seventeenth century with the works of F. Bacon, Descartes, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, etc. and gave rise to the promotion of empiricism by Bacon and Galileo and the propagation of mechanical worldview by Descartes, Galileo and Newton. Gradually the power of Newtonian system impressed the scientists, and the role of God was first reduced to the initiator of the universe and with the French enlightenment it was eliminated. With the appearance of Philosophers and scientists like Hume ,Kant ,August Comte, Marx, Darwin , Durkhim , Freud and logical positivists, empiricism became the dominant philosophy and with that metaphysics ,religion and spirituality went into the sideline.Several important currents started during the second half of the twentieth century which had a revival effect on religion and spirituality and some eminent scientists of our era –including some non-theists – have emphasized the necessity of going beyond the material features of life and paying attention to its spiritual aspects (values, meanings, etc.).