I.  AS SCIENCE ADVANCES, MYTHOLOGY RETREATS.

    When we think of the future of existential spirituality,
when we consider how this deep way of being
might be formulated 1,000 years from now,
we appreciate the genius of subjective spirituality
as opposed to discussion of objects of faith.

    Most of the past forms of human religion and spirituality
have focused on gods and other objects of belief
—as if gaining deeper 'knowledge' of such entities
was the main goal of religious progress.

    However, precisely the opposite has occurred:
Whenever the content of spirituality has been objectified,
inevitably disputes and disagreements have arisen
when these formulated contents of religion
have confronted new knowledge as discovered by science.

    Religious 'truths' formulated as facts about the gods
always give way to new knowledge
about the world and about ourselves.

    For example, as natural science explains the world
in ever greater detail and depth,
ideas about divine creation must retreat.
And if the most important affirmations
of some form of religion or spirituality
involved claims about the objective world in which we live,
then those affirmations must retreat
as natural science advances.

    If you would like to explore the disappearance of the Creator,
you might like to read another secular sermon:
WHICH GODS DO NOT EXIST?
No Gods Created the Universe .

    Likewise, as psychological understanding deepens,
some of the former ideas about our inward dynamics must be revised.
If a system of religious beliefs was basically
a description of psychological processes,
then as psychology gives better descriptions of our inward dynamics,
the religious explanations fade away as irrelevant.

    For example, if a system of religious devotion and commitment
was basically a way of becoming more focused and Authentic,
then the psychological insights can be separated from the mythology.
We can become more whole and purposeful without religious language.

II.  SELF-CRITICAL INWARDNESS IS NOT ENDANGERED BY SCIENCE.

    However, non-objectifying passionate inwardness
is not in danger of being replaced by physics or psychology.

    Think of the progress that is likely to be made in the next 1,000 years
in the realms of natural science and psychological understanding.
Natural science (in our modern understanding) began in the 1700s.
Thus, the scientific method is only a few hundred years old.
Unless something brings a halt to scientific progress,
the next 1,000 years will see scientific discoveries
that we can only begin to imagine.

    Psychological understanding is somewhat slower to develop than physics,
but advances in the natural sciences are certain
to have profound impacts of our understanding of ourselves.
And many of the psychological phenomena
we used to express exclusively in religious terminology
will be better explained by psychological description.

    To the degree that we describe our own spiritual experiences
without objectifying them in terms of supernatural 'causes',
such orientations of being
will not be displaced in the next 1,000 years,
as science explains the natural world
and our psychological dynamics better than ever before.

    At least among intelligent and well-educated people,
all forms of religious belief that made objective claims
that can be corrected or replaced by natural science
and deeper psychological understandings
will fade away
just as all other forms of pre-scientific understandings
have been quietly replaced
by better models of the world and of ourselves.

    But subjective passionate inwardness is not similarly vulnerable.
As all forms of science advance,
we might be stimulated into better expressions
for what we know about ourselves inwardly.
And if our subjective spirituality is not fantasy,
it will not be shaken by any scientific advances.

III.  A PRESENT FORMULATION OF PASSIONATE INWARDNESS.

    We human beings are caught in a Predicament or Malaise
we have only begun to understand and express:
existential anxiety, depression, meaninglessness, absurdity.

    In the past, this problem
was mostly discussed in mythological terms.
And so, those forms of religion and spirituality
seemed to be tied to world-views
that became less and less believable
as science provided better models of our world and of ourselves.

    However, some thinkers suggest ways to let the mythology go
---if ever we expressed our spirituality in mythological terms.

    Have we experienced long periods of exploring our Predicament?
Which false understandings of anxiety, for example, must be transcended
before we are truly grasped by our existential anxiety?