#beyond science

In this essay Emerson argues that if one follows scientific explanation at length, it leads to “we know not whence”. A scientific explanation may account for something, as let’s say, nuclear reactions account for sunlight, but when we follow it a further step, and a further step, and further still— we arrive at a cyclical regression of one thing explaining another and never can find any satisfactory source for all that is. Emerson calls this hidden source the Over-Soul. The soul which is not just the soul of man but the soul of all, in essence, God. Unlike what you’ll hear from your television evangelist today, Emerson’s arrival at this theory of spirituality is extraordinarily tactful and astute; and uniquely beautiful, I might add. His theory, too, appears to have been non-denominational and not in service of any particular religion, Christian or otherwise. In this essay Emerson outlines his conception of spirituality, one where the Over-Soul is a source of unity that transcends individual existence and connects all living beings to one another and to the whole of the Universe.