The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 24, 2009

Your View: Society needs diversity of thought

Andrew Johnson, professor holistic education, Minnesota State University





I have both participated in and presented at the Women and Spirituality Conference at MSU over the years and have always been very proud to do so. I am also proud that our university has chosen to host this conference for so many years. This is further evidence that MSU is committed to embracing diversity.

Diversity in this case would be: Religious, spiritual, and ontological diversity (all of which seem to be causing a great deal of strife in our world currently). In a recent Your View letter, Vance Becker condemned this conference because it did not align with his view of reality or religion (both of which seem disturbingly parochial).

I must inform Mr. Becker that spirituality is not the sole domain of religion. It is something that can (and in my opinion should) be defined and encountered outside a religious context if one wishes to have an authentic numinous experience. As well, this is not a conference on “authentic Christianity” or promoting a point of view which he claims is practiced by the majority in our society. This conference celebrates the anima (the nature of feminine found within males and females) and spirituality, something apart from physical materialism or reductionist paradigms. In this way, this conference aligns with some of the greatest thinkers in science, education, psychology, quantum physics, and philosophy.

Diversity and new knowledge leads to growth and new ideas. Uniformity and parochialism leads to stagnation and irrelevance. Now more than ever our society needs diversity of thought and new knowledge for continued economic and social growth.

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