The Seventh Sense: Why be a Christian in the age of science? An exploration of spiritual metaphysics from first principles

This book is for the educated and energetic spiritual explorer seeking the solace of life’s meaning. It is for those who find themselves as conscious beings walking this earth knowing they will die, and wanting at least some credible answers about their true nature. It is also for the secularist who might have an interest in Christianity but find it fatally compromised through a lack of scientific support or outright irrationality. This book therefore provides a resource for a thorough rebuttal to the derision heaped on conventional religious faith by the ‘new atheists’ namely: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens.
In part 1: The first issue for the spiritually hungry is to work out exactly what they are i.e. what is the reality of the self? Many a spiritual narrative will talk of such things but it is often addressed in vague terms that do not persuade. This book does not flinch from the most detailed analysis of what the ‘me’ or ‘I’ in our thoughts might really be about. It explains that the self is really an object that persists through time with memories and personality traits as its accidental properties. It is essentially conscious with an unconscious component. The self can then convincingly be demonstrated to be in principle, and therefore forever, beyond scientific investigation. It is genuinely separate from the material world and in religious terms is the soul. The only way to investigate the self is therefore through introspection. This section is then completed by rigorously identifying the structure of consciousness when looking within our own mind. Here the object that we are as an individual thing is also identifiable. Alongside this, a detailed look at how anyone can know what is beyond our soul and responsible for its first person subjective experience is undertaken. This sets up the legitimacy or otherwise of any religious claim that such a thing as God could be known.
In part 2: A second way to find out about the real self is by experimentation employing altered states of consciousness. This from deep time and throughout the ages, has been achieved by yoga commonly called meditation and prayer. A universally consistent message is then uncovered in full detail; systematically identifiable altered states facilitate direct contact with, and sensing of, a great universal consciousness. All such findings are found to be fully explicable by the structures of consciousness uncovered in part 1. In Christian terms, the human spirit that is the consciousness of the soul, directly senses the Holy Spirit that is God, by an established seventh sense. The other critical element of spiritual life that is the nature of morality is then explored. This enables an explanation of how the institution of morality is realised in the nature of individual and cosmic consciousness.
In part 3: We arrive at generic spiritual conclusions and relate them to Christianity. This is used to explain and fully rationalise the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement in Christ’s Crucifixion. It can then be specifically shown that within the concept of the Trinity, God can be understood as the unitary entity responsible for the existence of everything. How the Christian God realises the institution of morality can also be explained. Christian metaphysics is therefore revealed to genuinely capture and address the human condition.
Conclusion: Anglican Christianity is recommended as a gentle, non-cult-like religious life with a mature attitude to science and modern social development. We finally arrive at a position where the hard-nosed secularist is enabled to authentically, without intellectual disrepute or compromise, subscribe to the Christian Creed. You may think this cannot be done, or are possibly nervous that religion could yet have answers; so only proceed if motivated to engage with considerable detail or if you dare.