Many people have turned off these last two senses, looking only as far as Scientific Explanation....not realising there is a whole world that lies far beyond explanation.

Scientists are not all Mr Spocks you know. Shimrod hunts down his fumitories and yesterday I found a patch of moschatel in a wood at Boscastle, only the second time I've ever seen it. My wife must have thought I was some kind of a nut, yelping with delight and crawling on the leaf-mould on my belly to try to get a photo of it (I got one that wasn't half bad, though the light conditions made it tough). I doubt that either of us thinks we are contributing over much to the great body of scientific knowledge by hunting for wild flowers, but by Christ we don't half have a good time. Whatever this spirituality lark is that many believers like to insinuate that we pagans lack, I think I have it in truckloads, if going around with eyes open in wonderment and delight and indulging in reveries surrounded by the natural world is anything to go by. In fact, I will go so far as to make the outrageous claim that believers are more likely to find their "spirituality" somewhat stunted by their belief in something that they falsely imagine is at the heart of it. The amazing and delicious ordinariness of nature isn't good enough for some people.