What does Positive Psychology say About God?
Most branches of psychology do not deal with the controversial issue of God. Many scientsists such as Ruchard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens come from an atheist view point.
Positive psychology claims that spirituality is one of the character strengths we need to have.
In a recent book, Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith by George E. Vaillant, M.D, he defines spirituality as:
“the amalgam of the positive emotions that bind us to other human beings—and our experience of ‘God’ as we may understand Her/Him”
Vaillant has been involved with the Center for Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Vaillant’s central thesis is that spirituality is inherent to man’s nature and that it is the product of both biological and cultural evolution.
Our spirituality, he shows, resides in our uniquely human brain design and in our innate capacity for emotions like love, hope, joy, forgiveness, and compassion, which are selected for by evolution and located in a different part of the brain than dogmatic religious belief. Evolution has made us spiritual creatures over time, he argues, and we are destined to become even more so. Spiritual Evolution makes the scientific case for spirituality as a positive force in human evolution, and he predicts for our species an even more loving future.
According to some scientists it is unlikely that man’s physical characteristics are liable to evolve beyond there current state. Could the next stage of evolution be concerned about spiritual evolution?
Positive Psycholgy’s view on spirituality does not define what the term God means. It defines spirituality as:
“Having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe; knowing where one fits within the larger scheme; having beliefs about the meaning of life that shape conduct and provide comfort.”
Positive Psychology does not align itself with any particular religious tradition. In the above definition of spirituality statement there is room for the concept of God, but there is also room for a Buddhist view which does not concern his self with ideas about God.
Certainly Positive Psychology looks to the potential in man in terms of his positive emotions such as for beauty, compassion, forgiveness, prudence and love. These are certainly matters that religion and spirituality deal with.
Posted by Stephen Williamson
