Categories, Contexts, and Consequences of Spirituality Among Non-Religious Scientists

Today’s waning of traditional religion runs parallel with a waxing of popular interest in matters “spiritual.” While a growing body of qualitative research provides rich insights into the spiritual lives of the non-religious, we do not sufficiently understand the varieties and significance of spiritual experiences among the non-religious in the professional realm, particularly in domains like science. This paper reports findings from a study involving 100 qualitative interviews with non-religious physicists and biologists in various national contexts, designed to shed light on the categories, contexts, and consequences of spirituality among non-religious scientists. We find that non-religious scientists’ spiritual experiences fall into three distinct categories: aesthetic, immersive, and transcendent; which are occasioned by four types of contexts: nature, music or art, grief or loss, and science itself; and in turn can give rise to attitudinal changes requiring such cognitive accommodations as the selective suspension of disbelief and toleration of cognitive dissonance.