This week’s column considers physicist Alan Lightman’s ideas in the book, “The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science.”  I come at the subject with a bit of an “allergic reaction” to the use of the “charged particles” of religious terms.

Look for it this Saturday.

“The Brain, the Mind and Spiritual Feelings”

Here’s a teaser:

“Following a class I taught on astronomer Carl Sagan, a retired college president gave me a copy of physicist Alan Lightman’s book, “The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science.” I admit I resisted cracking the book for a few months, until I heard the author interviewed by Alan Alda on his Clear and Vivid podcast. Impressed by Lightman’s explanation of what he means by [that word], I picked the book off the shelf and read. With no major revelation (another term that can cause rashes), the MIT physicist describes himself as a materialist, but he enlightens us (yet another scratchy term) to the fact he means he is a “spiritual materialist.” Here I need to say that linking apparent incongruous terms like “spiritual” and “materialist” causes some discomfort as well. So what does Lightman mean?”