Christian Perspective of the Nature of Spirituality and Ethics in Contrast to the Perspective of Postmodern Relativism-Nursing Paper Examples

Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples

Christians’ spirituality views God to exist in supernatural forms (Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit) that are beyond human apprehension. Although some Christians support that science aids in understanding the world’s existence, most claim that God is the provider of all things that exist on earth ranging from knowledge/wisdom to good health (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

As such, in the absence of God’s wisdom, human beings cannot address daily universal challenges such as natural calamities and diseases. From an ethical perspective, Christians believe humans are born in God’s image and likeness (Lasair, 2020). Thus, human life is sacred and should be respected to honor God, the creator.

Christians’ view in health care asserts that nurses and other healthcare professionals should comprehend their patient’s spirituality to support them in coping with suffering. They should respect their patients’ spirituality and show compassion when addressing their patient’s needs. Nurses and other healthcare professionals should support their patients’ faith and beliefs toward spiritual healing (Lasair, 2020). Nurses should also follow their ethical standards to honor moral values and spiritual beliefs that life is sacred and should be held with the utmost value (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

On the contrary, postmodern relativism assumes that everything is relative and nothing is definitive. Postmodern relativism convolutes healthcare ethics, leaving ethical decisions to the healthcare professionals’ discretion. Postmodernism takes a liberal approach to ethics and spirituality. Relativists claim God’s existence and adhering to ethics lacks absolute truth (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

Thus, every ethical and spiritual belief is valid; thus, discarding any healthcare decision or argument should not be encouraged. Similarly, the comprehension of ethics may vary from patient to patient without influencing the care quality. Therefore, postmodernism relativism supports multicultural and spiritual diversity in healthcare, allowing nurses and other healthcare professionals to embrace contradictory or multiple patient care views (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

Scientism and Argument Against It

Scientism purports that trustworthy information can only be obtained through scientific evidence and dismisses everything else. Science dismisses disciplines and opinions that lack observable reality, such as religion, philosophy, and metaphysics. Scientism provides accurate results that can be tested, factual, replicable, and factual. It regards pseudosciences and soft sciences as inferior since they are not factual and replicable (Vukov, 2021) (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

Scientism supports hard sciences that provide valuable information compared to soft sciences that may be prone to subjectivism, making them prone to human bias leading to contradictory ideas. Therefore, scientism accords hard sciences with greater intellectual authority than soft sciences in knowledge matters (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

However, there exist arguments against scientism and its hard sciences elevation. The first argument refutes that hard sciences only use factual data. Thus, scientific data changes depending on environmental fluctuations. The data may also change when the measuring instruments are restructured (Vukov, 2021). By so doing, sciences may not provide absolute truths and facts since knowledge grows with new pieces of information, thus creating no difference between soft and hard sciences.

The second argument is based on the hard sciences’ reliance on rationality and disregard for personal opinions. The tyrannical approach prevents scientific advancement since wilful thoughts are vital to discovering new knowledge. On the contrary, soft sciences are better at advancing scientific knowledge since they support wilful thoughts. Scientism is self-refuting. Thus, people can only have scientific knowledge if scientism is true. However, the mentioned claim is philosophical, implying that if scientism is true, people cannot depend on its basis for knowledge. As such, scientism is self-refuting since it undermines its claims (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

Personal Perspective and Worldview

What is ultimate reality?

Ultimate reality claims that people exchange results of interacting with the environment. As such, individuals are the product of their environments through nurture but nature. The environment or surroundings may include family members, schools, religious groups, and the community. In this case, I am the product of my interaction with my parents and friends. Other significant exchanges in my life include school, where I interact with students and teachers, and the community, where I interact with various members of society (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

My family created my foundation by installing values and beliefs I hold dearly, while my school religious groups and the community supplement my belief system or change some of my perspectives. I was raised in a Christian family but in a Muslim community. Thus, I am inclined to support Christian belief systems compared to Muslim ones. For instance, I am inclined to be against certain public health issues, such as abortion and polygamy. However, my school knowledge changes my perspective on supporting abortion when a pregnancy is life-threatening (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

What is the nature of the universe?

One major takeaway from this topic is that people fail to comprehend the universe since they cannot perceive its complexity. While the ultimate reality is a form of energy, the nature of the universe relates to that energy in diverse manifestations through energy conversion, evolution, competition, and extinction process (Glattfelder, 2019) (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

While animals and plants encounter extinction, human beings are subject to competition. In this case, the nature of the universe renders people to pursue knowledge through education to become more competitive in the universe. For instance, constant technological advancement requires humans to acquire more skills and knowledge to adapt to the current changes and avoid extinction. Additionally, the world is rapidly moving towards digital currency. People who stick to paper currency cannot conduct their daily business. As such, the nature of the universe will force people to adapt to paperless currency to exist in the changing world.

What is a human being?

By definition, human beings are rational animals, God’s creations or products of evolution. According to religion, God is the creator of the universe and all human beings. Christians believe God created human beings with certain purposes, including procreation, obeying His commands or instructions, and nurturing the earth and everything on it (Lasair, 2020). On the contrary, science asserts that humans are scientific products that result from the fusion of male and female gametes (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

The theory of evolution claims that humans developed gradually to obtain higher thinking capacity through selective adaptation leading to civilization characterized by improved technology, complex language, and vocabulary. My worldview aligns with Christianity’s origin of man. I am created in the image of God to fulfill his purpose on earth. Thus, all humans should abide by God’s purpose of procreation and caring for all other creations (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

What is knowledge?

Knowledge is an abstract/ broad notion, a sense of perception or true belief that may be viewed differently from one person to another (Pritchard, 2023). I perceive it as a set of skills, facts, and information acquired cognitively from learning experiences. People gain knowledge to survive by learning how to accommodate their lives in the ever-changing world. However, people may acquire knowledge for pleasure to satisfy their social needs. Learning may occur in formal and informal settings. As such, schools are formal settings where people acquire knowledge in a structured manner, and teachers and learners have clear roles (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

On the contrary, home is an informal setting where knowledge is intentionally or unintentionally passed from one person to another. For instance, children are likely to learn and acquire their parents’ behaviors. Notably, people may also acquire knowledge from experience in performing various tasks. Knowledge is vital to our society since it improves the quality of life. For instance, healthcare professionals acquire knowledge from learning and experience to address their patients’ concerns leading to a high quality of life (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

What is your basis of ethics?

Ethics relate to the standards of what is wrong or right to inform what humans are expected to do (Doherty, 2020). I support the different bases of ethics, such as relativism, religion, and culture. First, I support the postmodernist perspective, where I value relativism and utilize ethical standards from different life spheres. Secondly, culture is also a suitable basis for my ethics. My culture results from interacting with my family and other social groups in my community (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

For instance, my culture has shaped my ethics of respecting and being kind to all people. I have learned to address older adults with the utmost respect. Thirdly, my religious beliefs have also shaped my ethical conduct. My religious beliefs require me to remain assertive to avoid immoral acts such as cheating or stealing. Importantly, the worldview asserts that people should apply the different bases of their ethics to applicable situations since one basis may be right or applicable in one situation but wrong in the other (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

What is the purpose of your existence?

Most people have asked themselves about their purpose of existence at some point in their lifetime. My purpose of existence aligns with my religious beliefs toward accomplishing God’s will. In this case, I must remain a good steward of all creations on earth. I must be a responsible member of society who works towards continuous improvement and improving life (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

I will conserve the environment, animals, and plants while safeguarding human respect and dignity. I will utilize my resources to benefit other people rather than accumulating individual wealth at the expense of other people. Importantly, I will care for my body as a temple of God through healthy eating, exercising, and having communion with my creator (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

Conclusion

This reflection shows the significance of balancing spirituality and postmodern relativism in daily life. As a healthcare professional, I can utilize relativism to seek insights on healthcare issues from different life spheres. I can also use my religious beliefs to show empathy and compassion for my patients, thus improving their health outcomes (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

I can explore my patients’ beliefs on health and healing to assist them in coping with health-related problems. My perspective and worldview are also instrumental in comprehending and handling human existence complexity and peculiarities in health practice. Lastly, reflection is an instrument for self-development and understanding my purpose (Nature of Spirituality-Nursing Paper Examples).

References

Doherty, R. F. (2020). Ethical dimensions in the health professions-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=N1cBEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq

Glattfelder, J. B. (2019). Information—consciousness—reality: how a new understanding of the universe can help answer age-old questions of existence (p. 662). Springer Nature.

Lasair, S. (2020). A narrative approach to spirituality and spiritual care in health care. Journal of religion and health, 59(3), 1524–1540. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-019-00912-9

Pritchard, D. (2023). What is this thing called knowledge? Taylor & Francis. https://ds.amu.edu.et/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/13993/0415387973.Routledge.What.is.This.Thing.Called.Knowledge.Nov.2006.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Vukov, J. (2021). SCIENTISM AND SECULARISM: Learning to Respond to a Dangerous Ideology. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 73(1), 48–50.