Growing up in our home, there was no conflict between science and spirituality. My parents taught me that nature as revealed by science was a source of great, stirring pleasure. Logic, evidence, and proof did not detract from the feeling that something was transcendent—quite the opposite. It was the source of its magnificence.

But, safe in New York, my great-grandfather looked up and smiled at his son and said the immortal words: “The only sin would be to pretend.”

the greatest thing I could do, in the eyes of my parents, was to ask a question to which they did not know the answer. To them it was the sign of a curious intellect scanning the horizon for new mysteries, which might lead to new understanding.

My parents taught me that there has never been any correlation between how true something was and how fervently it was believed.

We needn’t resort to myth to get that spine-chilling thrill of being part of something grander than ourselves. Our vast universe provides us with enough profound and beautiful truths to live a spiritually fulfilling life.

“Science demands a tolerance for ambiguity. Where we are ignorant, we withhold belief. Whatever annoyance the uncertainty engenders serves a higher purpose. It drives us to accumulate better data.”

The equinox is the astronomical way of marking spring’s arrival. But depending on where you live, the weather patterns, or the flora and fauna, it might not really look or feel like spring yet. So maybe your spring begins when the snow melts, when you can go out without tights or a coat. That would be the meteorological way of defining it. Maybe

No matter how many rituals we have, we all also experience uncertainty every day. Maybe even every hour. What should I do? Is this true? What is going to happen? Impossible to predict, the future tortures us. Something absolutely shocking can happen at any moment. What a toll this takes on us. How many small tools have we created to combat this, to

You are separated by your sins or shortcomings from the way you believe God or your community wants you to be, from your potential, from some kind of purity. You confess, do penance, apologize, and make up for what you’ve done. And thus you are reconciled with God, or godliness, or your community’s approval, or your ability to sleep at night.