Last updated 1.14.25.

(Please Note: We have not yet completed the conversion of our older materials from the older name Evolution Spirituality to the new name of the personal spirituality side of the Way of the Universe called Universe Spirituality. Whenever you see the words Evolution Spirituality, you can replace them with Universe Spirituality as they are the same thing. You also may be taken back to our older website for some materials. It is easy to return by hitting your back button.)

Why does The Way of the Universe also include the option of personal spiritual exploration? 

Roy Bhaskar, the famous Oxford "philosopher of science," stated in his breakthrough work on Critical Realism that, in numerous ways, science would be far better served by adopting an "open systems" approach toward new areas of exploration that do not yet yield themselves to scientific experimentation, methodology, and falsification.

The new "Way of the Universe" on this website values Bhaskar's valid open-system science insights. Therefore, The Way of the Universe, as a science-grounded philosophy, must also honor all personal open-system inquiries into spiritual possibilities as areas that current science cannot yet prove or disprove. We hold this position to honor and reflect the truth of the open-system Critical Realism that Roy Bhaskar demonstrated was essential to all rational scientific inquiry and factual presentation.

Being an open system does not mean everything is the same or accepted without reality-testing. Testing starts with determining that the new spiritual information, ideas, or processes are life-affirming, not some past spiritual or religious pathology, destructive contradiction, outdated dogma, or abuse. (We have lots of tools to help you do this.)

What is Personal Spirituality?

Science, Spirituality, and the Way of the Universe

Science and a personal spiritual philosophy can coexist and can empower each other. When a person's spirituality is grounded in the realities of the universe and science, it offers benefits far in advance of traditional religious beliefs, ideology, and dogma. The new manifestation of science-grounded spirituality that we call Universe Spirituality transcends yet includes the best of all previous spiritual and religious movements while simultaneously avoiding the worst of those same movements.

"The Way of the Universe" can also include a new philosophical form of personalized spirituality we call Universe Spirituality. Universe Spirituality provides a universal, science-grounded, life-affirming set of values and practices. It also contains sub-influences from Open Source Spirituality, Eco-Spirituality, and Meta-Spirituality. Universe Spirituality and these sub-influences reflect the growing global movement toward personalized spirituality versus traditional authoritarian religions.

Universe Spirituality conscientiously and initially avoids current spiritual and religious pathologies, contradictions, outdated or unhealthy dogma, and religion and spirituality's many abuses while still preserving the best values and wisdom from those traditions.

When achieved in healthy ways, the benefits of a healthy, science-grounded, personalized spiritual life can also profoundly contribute to furthering one's search for the best answers to life's most important questions, such as one's place in the universe, one's, one's purpose in life identity, and the optimal way to live successfully with others.

The Science-grounding in Universe Spirituality 

The science-grounded principles of Progressive Evolution (which are the core of both the Way of the Universe and Universe Spirituality) work to help "guide" and align your life with the great evolutionary flow --- the deepest success patterns of the universe. This Great Evolutionary Flow continually benefits the whole of the Universe while doing whatever it can to improve the individual's well-being.

When recognized and valued, the guiding support from the universe's natural evolutionary processes will greatly assist you in developing life's most important values and qualities within your character and the success that those values and qualities will naturally bring.

When you read and begin practicing the Universe Principles of right action and the right attitude (derived from the principles of progressive evolution), you will understand how the deep success patterns within the science of evolution can become guiding values for your life.

Ultimately, you can and will create any personal spirituality that you choose. Still, after you learn more about Universe Spirituality, we hope you choose the science-grounded, philosophic, and healthy form of personalized spirituality we call Universe Spirituality.

Universe Spirituality as an applied spiritual philosophy

The Universe Spirituality found within the Way of the Universe should be considered to be an applied spiritual philosophy. This is accurate because it educationally supports the individual in exploring the deepest questions of life surrounding the universe's origin (what we call the Great Mystery,) the individual's life purpose and meaning, and the individual's truest, deepest identity, and it also addresses how the individual should act in a balanced and ethical way in relationship to the greater human, animal, biological, and natural communities.

Within Universe Spirituality, you will initially learn four essential things for a healthy and productive personal spirituality.

a. The abuses and the pathologies of organized religion. This will help you create a healthy personal spirituality and spot and avoid unhealthy spiritual or religious organizations, individuals, or cults.

b. What rational science says about the universe's origin, what the universe is doing and where it is going (what we call Progressive Evolution), the individual's life purpose and meaning in the universe, and the individual's truest, deepest identity.

Progressive Evolution is important spiritually because when it is viewed from a spiritual and scientific perspective, and when viewed from the largest possible time and space perspective, is what may also be rationally considered to be humanity's best example of "the will of God." The logic and reason behind that statement is that if God created the universe as almost all religions believe, then it stands to reason that the most often repeated, largest-scale evolutionary processes of the universe, which create, maintain, and evolve life and have done so for eons must also logically reflect the depth of the will of God.

Even better yet, these repeated, largest-scale evolutionary processes can be observed scientifically, repeated, and independently demonstrated as physically real. As such, these evolutionary processes are far more reliable as a reflection of the actual "will of God" than the traditional declarations by ever-changing religions and religious authorities or of endless religious revelations, which cannot be independently tested or proven through scientific examination or rational examination.

Not surprisingly, the deep evolutionary processes of Progressive Evolution reflect a more accurate view of the will of God and also embrace most of the traditional religious virtues and values of ethical living when seen from a big-picture perspective that embraces all of humanity, Earth, and the universe.

c. You will also learn about what rational science says about how individuals should act in a balanced and ethical way in relation to the human, animal, biological, and natural communities. (This is made simple through the daily practice of the Universe Principles of right action and right attitude.)

Once you have completed the above three items,

d. You will be directed through humanity's greatest life-affirming spiritual traditions to explore how their information and metaphoric insights might also enrich your understanding of life's most important and fundamental questions as discussed above.

To begin exploring this new vision for a healthy and science-grounded Universe Spirituality and to begin the Universe Principles, start here.