Saro Baljavedian
For most of my life, I consider myself an agnostic. In fact, when asked what I believe, I respond by saying I am a respectful agnostic. And I fully understand why I meet skeptical. Isn’t the point of being an agnostic being that you don’t commit to either position? Why is someone respectful and agnostic?
But for me, being an agnostic doesn’t mean avoiding taking an attitude towards belief. It is to critically evaluate what I chose to believe and do so in a way that is based on logic and evidence-based reasoning.
So, now on the topic of this article: how can an agnostic be argued to be spiritual when spirituality often appears to be amorphous with little supportive evidence?
How we harmonized the loose and circulating concepts of spirituality depends on how we choose to define spirituality.
The Oxford dictionary defines spirituality as “the quality of interest in the human spirit and soul, as opposed to the material and physical thing.” Wikipedia defines it as “the search for the ultimate meaning and sacred meaning and purpose in an individual’s life in general.”
What if you combine these ideas to define spirituality as your basic and essential self or “mind” as a practice that cultivates your best ability? Let’s call it a coordinated effort between self-improvement and internal growth.
So, when we start talking about the development of our “spirit,” what does it mean in physical, concrete terms?
We have all heard the concept of developing our mind, body and mind. We can all clearly imagine how we build our minds and bodies. There are very specific and physical activities that we can pursue to develop those aspects of our personality. To strengthen your body, you need to be consistent in physical activity. To expand and grow our mind, we can study, learn, meditate, socialize, or engage in any activity that challenges our mental abilities. So, how can someone develop their minds now? Are there any specific activities that people can engage in? Or does working on your mind and body also affect your mind?
I solve these concepts about spirituality and spirit by trying to ground them into physical and biological processes that may help us explain who we are on a basic level. As an agnostic, it is important to me to understand phenomena in a scientific and evidence-based way. And of course, science doesn’t have all the answers at least now. But I believe over time, as we deepen the lives and processes that govern our universe, we will begin to explain how even these seemingly metaphysical processes work.
For now, here is a humble attempt to explain the mind physically. If the mind can agree to represent our essential or fundamental self, then one mechanism that helps explain what our mind is can be found in the interaction of genetics and epigenetics.
Our genes are like blueprints or instruction manuals that tell the cells what proteins and functional RNAs they produce. Epigenetics refers to the mechanisms our bodies use to regulate and manage how a gene regulates and controls its activity (expression) or inactivity (silentation). Rather than changing the genetic blueprint, epigenetics regulates how cells are interpreted. It also determines how much they raise or reduce the construction of proteins associated with that gene, based on how a cell interprets its code or blueprint. Think of epigenetics as a faucet knob that controls the flow of proteins being synthesized. Therefore, when a gene defines what a protein cell produces, epigenetics determines how much or how little it is in that protein.
To put this practically, several studies involving identical twins have shown that phenotypic differences are the result of epigenetics. Scientists have observed for some time that despite the same twins carrying the exact same gene, they still exhibit differences in physical properties. But why are one twin taller than the other twins? Or will you be fatter or skinny than others? Do you have a variety of skill sets and actions? Do you have a variety of preferences or preferences? If they appear to be identical, what is causing the difference between them? Their different spirits and souls?
Answer: Epigenetics. (If you want to read more about it, you can go here))
When epigenetics determines how genes are expressed in many ways, we believe that every activity, every experience, every environmental factor will affect epigenetics. Your body and mind are part of this incredibly flexible organism that responds and responds to all the environmental factors and experiences you encounter, including your own internal experiences.
And what this actually means is that who you are fundamentally the sum of everything that came before you. With every action, every choice, every experience, and every environmental factor, you have shaped you into who you are today. The power of that knowledge is that what you choose to come and encounter in the future will determine who you will become. So this provides some context that we can all do to shape the future, our fundamental self, or our spirit.
So let’s take a look at some examples. If someone works consistently every day, behaviors and habits that develop over time will cause epigenetic changes that lead to protein creation. Yes, you will be stronger, healthier and more muscular. Additionally, it forms new neural connections and wires the mind to become more disciplined. Over time, repeated actions of collaborative effort in workouts develop discipline characteristics, making people at the core and more trained. What happens if a person chooses to be luxurious and smooth? Rather than working out and eating healthy, they sit all day long, watch lots of TV and social media, have poor food and choose to drink alcohol. Changes that occur in the body and mind will soon become clear. But the person’s core conditioned himself to be smoother. What about people who lie frequently? If someone chooses to lie every day, at some point they will lie and seep into their own nature, and that will effectively become their mode. They effectively became liars.
By defining the mind as a biological process, it may seem that I am perceived as referring to aspects of the personality and personality of a person’s mind. But what I really get is that over time, if our cells are changing as a result of the choices we are making, then what is more fundamental than the cellular and epigenetic changes throughout the body? 
As an agnostic, I am still very open to all possibilities and look forward to discovering in the future. In the meantime, it seems to hold the saying “You are what you eat.” And I say that it’s going to take it a step further and that all your choices, actions and experiences will be added to determine which version you will be in the future. And that means at least we have a certain degree of agency in determining our fundamental future self.
Saro Valjavedian An award-winning filmmaker, storyteller and spiritual explorer, whose work combines creativity with contemplative research. “Tim and the Robot: A Psychological Agnostic Guidance to the Newly Formed Consciousness” is his debut book on October 1st.st, You can get your book anywhere.
Booklink: https://books2read.com/timandrobot
Website: www.anagnosticapproach.com
Source: Spiritual Media Blog – www.spiritualmediablog.com
