I should have known that I wouldn't get away with such a brief comment
Rev: "I also assume that Pagans also have minds and bodies."
That's not as flippant as it might appear, since our human minds and bodies define our 'emergent' qualities - an obvious but essential point in discussing 'heart' or 'spirit'. But the words 'heart' and 'spirit' may be ambiguous. In this case, I use the common understanding in which 'heart' means the ordinary capacity to experience the range of emotions permitted by our human physiology. I assert that ultimate meaning and purpose are experienced, and therefore known, via nothing more nor less than the light of emotion. I'm quite certain that there's nothing in the nature of this emergent quality called 'emotion' that distinguishes the reductionist from the emergentist, nor the atheist from the theist. It follows that ultimate meaning and purpose can be experienced by all of the aforementioned. The formulation and construction of a god, or deity substitute, is an optional embellishment that will vary according to one's culture and background. I have not read Stuart Kauffman's book but, from what I have read, I would say that his background has come to the fore in his personal formulation.
