Meaning and Mystery in Science

Uncovering the Spiritual Dimensions of Science

How do scientists across the globe grapple with meaning, connection, and mystery in a disenchanted age?

About the Study

Is science a spiritual quest?

The Meaning and Mystery in Science project seeks to explore how scientists, often considered bastions of rationality, navigate the yearning for deeper connections—to self, others, nature, and the transcendent. Through rich qualitative interviews, primarily with scientists who consider themselves non-religious, we examine how scientific practice relates to scientists' quest for meaning, and the factors that help and hinder this quest.

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Implications

The findings of our study challenge the old prejudice that science strips the world of meaning and mystery. Instead, they suggest scientific work is a source of wonder and meaning, and can awaken a sense of yearning for deeper connection to nature, self, others, and/or a higher power. This has consequences for how we picture scientists, how we train them, how we support their flourishing, and how we understand the relationship between science and spirituality.

Beyond disenchantment

Scientists are not the disenchanted rationalists of popular imagination. Across religious and non-religious scientists alike, scientific inquiry stirs wonder, awe, and existential questioning. Science can awaken spiritual yearning rather than extinguish it.

Move public understanding of science beyond the “conflict” and “disenchantment” narratives
Recognize scientific work as a site of meaning-making

The search for meaning cuts across belief systems

Many non-religious scientists express a sense of spiritual yearning as readily as religious ones, though in different vocabularies: through curiosity, awe, and connection to nature and the cosmos rather than in the language of religious doctrine. Meaning and transcendence are a shared dimension of scientific life.

Mentors and institutions should recognize the existential and vocational dimensions of science
Make room for scientists to reflect on purpose and on experiences of self-transcendence in science

Meaning, connection, and flourishing

Experiences of wonder, contemplation, and connection to nature are bound up with meaning and well-being. Yet the institutional conditions of scientific work, including overspecialization, ethical strain, competition, and burnout, can sever scientists from these sources of meaning.

Protect and cultivate scientists’ access to wonder, nature, and the bigger picture
Treat meaning and connection as part of well-being in science
Cultivate attention, patience, and contemplation as scientific virtues

Embracing mystery

Encountering the limits of knowledge can deepen existential engagement. For many scientists, mystery is not a defeat but an invitation. Science education and communication can embrace open questions and wonder rather than presenting science as a closed body of facts.