A few years ago, author Sam Harris gave a speech at an atheist convention in which he talked about the need for spirituality within the greater community of reason. He got a lot of criticism for those comments and other comments from many atheists in attendance. The problem was that despite his valid point, the term "spirituality" is a religious term. There is no secular term that is synonymous with "spirituality." What does the term "spirituality" mean anyway and can atheists embody that meaning?
German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote about how all of philosophy amounts to mere language games and that we become the proverbial fly caught in the bottle as our thoughts become trapped by our language. He said, "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, proposition 5.6). When talking about spirituality, that is exactly the problem.
Ironically enough, it was Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman, who best secularized the term, "spirituality" in my opinion by summarizing two Jewish theologians. The problem is that spirituality isn't one thing; it is two things. It is the feeling we get "when we are truly in relationship with others" and that "deep sense of incomprehensibility at the wonder of sheer existence." To put it simply, spirituality is the feeling of deep connection we have towards one another and with the universe in general.
From Carl Sagan to Neil deGrasse Tyson, those who don't believe in God have been quick to point out that we are all made of stardust and that the same stardust that is in you might also be in me.
Dr. Lawrence Krauss observed when talking about his book, "The Universe from Nothing":
"Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded. Because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution weren't created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be here today."
There is no secular term for our sense of profoundly deep connection and interconnection. The only term that our overly religious society understands is spiritual. While we obviously don't believe there are any actual spirits involved, the term still seems to fit and in this sense many atheists, and dare I say it, most atheists are spiritual people.
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explanation of... where athiesm comes from...
it is the FIRST time
I have understood
and been able to relate to the athiest view on the body...
as a piece of matter left ...over time... since the explosion(s)..
which of course is the same as all of the other bodies
or some of the other bodies...
depending on which combinations of explosion debris it was formed from
and then
the rest is environmental
and
relationship
differences
over time..?
interesting.
Emotionality?
Reactivity?
I wonder if the idea that we don't have to believe is kind of an evolution of thought where we let go of needing someone to maintain control for us and just get along and behave and progress together...maybe there are various stages of this belief on the earth..some of which have never had a connection to a higher power..but some of which may have once believed in a God and now do not focus on that.
Finally I get that song.
I mean, I understood it when I was fourteen...and then I couldn't get back at it.
A few years ago...I had on some weight...and I felt as if I could no longer define myself...as I had walked into a new life and picked up some excess that did not feel like myself..AT ALL.
I was chatting with a dear, old friend of mine one night and we decided that maybe we would start remembering ourselves during one of our best years..when we were younger and more true to what we had decided we would be like..and define ourselves and our age and good looks and health..FROM THAT YEAR..
we had been BIGTIME IMAGINERS (or whatever that PeterPan phenomenon is) so I said to him...if you see any of my own good grade twoers...send them my way...and I'll do the same for you.
I have learned not to go that way...since then...
but
it does draw a connetion between IMAGINE and spirituality.
I like being human, and I like being a humanist...
First there is doubt and when we have “conquered” doubt we have attained a knowing beyond knowing that we can be one with the universe and recognize that the universe is only a reflection of ourselves.
Once we overcome some form or level of doubt we can have faith; not the blind faith of the religious or the materialists but a faith in Self, which ends doubt and leads to harmony in the universe. This faith in Self can drive us to greater and greater awareness of reality.
We are mere reflections of the vitality and intelligence that is the underlying reality of all that is in the universe. It is infinite with no beginning or ending, just Isness.
One last note: intelligence is not intellectual aptitude like we see on an IQ test. One measure of one’s level of intelligence is their ability to show empathy or compassion towards others. Compassion is as rare as a white crow.
more researcher rhetoric that states nothing in the end.
The final very important thing I think is, as you address towards the end and as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens and many others address wonderfully, we need to separate spirituality from the supernatural. You can be spiritual, i.e. have transformative journeys, meditate, have oceanic experiences, etc, without gods and the supernatural.
Right now we as a society provide mere lipservice to spirituality. That's bigotry against atheists and the nonspiritual. And it's a missed opportunity. If we instead embraced spirituality as something serious that not everyone does and can be done without the supernatural, some people could get some serious benefit from it.
I think one very important thing to consider is what specifically spirituality and true spirituality is. Keep in mind that Sam Harris meditates regularly and has gone on meditation retreats. Neil DeGrass Tyson went on a pilgrimage to see the stars. This isn't some lame, lipservice sort of spirituality where one says one is spiritual but not religion or that one is spiritual because one likes nature. These people seriously practiced hardcore spirituality. They put effort into the experience and they got something transformative and deeply meaningful out of it. Your article mentions nothing about the transformative aspect. Personally, going to church reguarly or some quaint affinity for nature is not remotely like going in a cave to silently meditate for days upon days. The later is true spirituality. And that's before talking about all the people who are not remotely in any way spiritual but feel social pressure to say that they are spiritual and thus say some stuff about nature or spiritual but not religious.
I'm just not ready to attempt to reclaim the word 'spirituality' because it still implies all the supernatural aspects of religion.
Do you think atheism and the secular world should attempt to retake spirituality? How long is needed until the religious connotations are no longer attached to the idea?
Thinking about strategies, and the evolution of words, and so on.
If you, personally, want to use that word or not, that's fine with me, though of course I'd want the specific meaning to be clarified.
Spirituality without religion.
And it certainly doesn't require your god or your religion...
Paul continues about the “physical man,” that he cannot get to know the things of the spirit of God “because they are examined spiritually...However, the spiritual man examines indeed all things.” The spiritual man has understanding of the things God reveals and his position, actions, and course of life cannot be understood by the physical man.
“God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
Spirit or life-force are both used to designate the force that causes a person to display a certain attitude, disposition, or emotion or to take certain action. While that force within the person is itself invisible, it produces visible effects. Thus, we speak of a person as ‘putting on airs,’ or of manifesting an ‘air of calmness’ or of ‘having a bad spirit.’ We speak of ‘breaking a person’s spirit,’ in the sense of discouraging and disheartening him. As applying to a group of persons and the force activating them, we may talk of ‘getting into the spirit of an occasion.’ By all of these we refer to this invisible activating force working in persons, moving them to speak and act as they do.
The heart is also tied in with the spirit. The figurative heart is shown to have capacity for thinking, motivation, emotions and affection, it has a major share in development of spirit (mental inclination) that one shows.
"Sometimes the spirits speak to me, sometimes they lie, and sometimes I just make it up."