Although I definitely don't believe in the god of the Bible anymore I still do believe human beings have a spirituality and a connection to everything. Maybe there is some kind of higher power maybe not. Maybe it's karma or whatever I don't know but I do know meditating, talking to people, journaling, enjoying music, relaxing in nature, eating something really good, healthy relationships and many other things make me feel good inside my heart and head.
Either I can't or just plain don't want to believe those feelings inside are just electrical signals in our brain. I really like the thought or belief in a greater purpose. Even if it's an unnoticed but good purpose if it helps to make the world even a little bit better go for it. I'm not saying humans are better than animals or that we should think of ourselves as superior to anything in the universe but as caretakers, or beings that can effect or world and universe positively or negatively. I'm trying to be more positive and become a better person in general. I don't know if anyone can say they believe in spirituality and be an atheist if not maybe this isn't the right place for me.
If it makes you feel bad to kill someone but good to save someone, I can't and don't really want to believe those are just electrical signals. I believe those feelings are emotions that come from outside of ourselves I don't think most animals care about killing or saving anyone or anything.
Not trying to start an argument or insult someone else's belief just saying how I feel about life.
Thanks!
Peace and Love!!
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There are all kinds of atheists out there. If you don't think god is real, you're in! Welcome :P
One of the really annoying things about Christians and theists in general is their claim to a monopoly on spirituality. For the vast majority, spirituality consists of sitting in church every week and feeling holier than thou while comparing their Sunday best with what other people are wearing.
As a long-term atheist, I have abolutely no belief in gods, but that doesn't make me a cold robot. I have a deep sense of empathy toward people who are suffering. I also experience awe when looking at mountains, glaciers, primeval forests, the ocean... I can even feel a sense of awe in a cathedral. When I look at nature I'm amazed to know that I'm related to every other living thing through my DNA heritage. But I'm not convinced that these feelings prove the existence of a soul or a spirit. I think they all originate in our highly developed brains, along with our conscience, and our capacity for love and hate. For that reason, I feel a real need to share my perceptions by teaching my children and grandchildren, and by interacting with other people. That's our only path to immortality.
I don't quite understand the grasp people seem to think they have on the idea of spirituality. It's fairy tale stuff no different than any other supernaturally-based notion of things that cannot be experienced and described by our sensory-specific world of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.
There is no such thing as "a sense of" something. There is only the familiar and unfamiliar. The latter might be discovered and then associated with something already familiar but at no time can one claim they have a "sense of something" prior to actually physically experiencing it. In this understanding of notions we dream up, but do not possess, we can also place spirituality. It is non-existent outside simple imagination.
We imagine ourselves to extend beyond what's real and exist in some form of nondescript ethereal world. Rein it in. It doesn't exist. Our psyches come from nothing, exist in the consciousness of a biological brain, and then cease to exist at the end of that biology's life cycle. Only theists support the ridiculous notions of spirituality and immortality, out of a fear of one day ceasing to exist, and make wild claims of having purpose in our lives like servitude under some form of cosmic dictatorship.
Wake up and smell the coffee. That's real.
Always entertaining.
There is no reason to believe that compassion, wonder, a sense of unification with all, can not simply be part of our brains capability. As an atheist I feel privileged to be alive. Spirituality is simply an unnecessary embellishment.
Sadly we are just animals. Nothing superior about us.
I think the universe and everything in it is sufficiently awe-inspiring. I've no need to create anything, like spirituality, in addition to it.
I sort of understand where you're coming from, not wanting to believe that "transcendent-like" experiences, emotions, feelings; etc. are simply electrical impulses are in the brain. But if you want to live your life in such a way where the way you make claims and find your beliefs are through the scientific method (as many atheists do), I would try and understand the complexity of humans' brains. There are many awe-inspiring feelings or thoughts that come from simply understanding the complexity of human beings as a whole. If you are interested in the subject, I would try reading Sam Harris' "Waking Up - A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion." (https://www.samharris.org/waking-up).
I just saw a article online about Sam Harris and waking up kind of weird you just mentioned it thanks anyways! :)
This is why I don't like calling myself an atheist because atheists get angry when you say you still believe in spirituality as if it's not my right to believe in such things.
It is that thinking that leads Atheists to become as ruthless as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have been for millennia!
It's a very slippery slope to say any belief is entirely bad or entirely good.
I accept all of your rights to 'Not' believe in spirituality I just disagree but these responses don't seem to accept my right to believe in it.
This is why Jews, Christian, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists and every people of every belief in-between have been massacred.
If any atheist would be ok with Christians dying just because of what they believe, they aren't any different than the Christians who wouldn't have a problem with any Atheist dying just they don't agree with Atheism.
neal the real deal: Who the fuck obstructed your right to believe in such things ?
@Neal the real deal: If any atheist would be ok with Christians dying just because of what they believe
I've never met any atheists like that. Have you?
There are some people I wouldn't want to associate with because of their beliefs, but the only ones I'd wish any harm to are clergy who hurt children.
@Neal the real deal
"If any atheist would be ok with Christians dying just because of what they believe, they aren't any different than the Christians who wouldn't have a problem with any Atheist dying just they don't agree with Atheism."
You are mixing together two completely different things. One is a belief system, atheist, and theist. The other is mental, whether a person is psychotic or callous, or is so dedicated towards a cause that they are willing to perform atrocities. A person could be callous against others and even wish them dead, and be either a theist or atheist.
Stalin was willing to kill many to advance his causes, and he was an atheist. Osama bin Laden was willing to kill many to advance his causes, and he was a theist.
On the flip side of the coin I am an atheist and abhor violence and killing. I know many theists who also abhor violence and killing.
It's not about religion, it's about a sick mind.
@Neil the real deal
"If it makes you feel bad to kill someone but good to save someone, I can't and don't really want to believe those are just electrical signals. I believe those feelings are emotions that come from outside of ourselves I don't think most animals care about killing or saving anyone or anything."
Then explain this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPccqkSjy8M
And read this: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/861/233998
Neal, you appear to be what I was twenty years ago, having cast off religion, but still hanging on to spirituality because you had not properly though that part through. But I looked behind many doors, gave deep thought to spirituality, and arrived at the same conclusion as religion. It could not be proven, it was just a creation of the imagination.
Today I could easily attend a full blown seance at a forlorn graveyard on Halloween, and feel zero fear. While others may be cowering and jumping at the slightest sound, my fear level is zero.
Ask yourself, what is your true motivation for clinging to spirituality? You attribute a lot of things to spiritualism, but cannot prove anything, just a belief system. There are many scientists and academics who do explore spirituality, but none of them has offered enough proof for it to be accepted by the general scientific community. And trust me, spirituality has run deep and wide in scientific exploration. Many scientists were motivated by such things as maintaining a certain order, or as in the case of Pythagoras and the harmony of the spheres.
https://www.oakweb.ca/harmony/pythagorean/pythagorean.html
Pythagoras advanced science a lot, but recent measurements disprove his "harmony of the spheres".
I like you Neal, and I hope you continue your journey of discovery and liberation.
Hello - I've just joined and was immediately drawn to the title of this post, because I was mulling this very thought. I still have a sense of - what's in a name? Spirituality, sense of transcendence, connectedness to the world - call it love, if you will. I'm glad to see a number of posts in agreement, but it gives me pause to see intolerant - and angry responses. I would never be arrogant and think that I have THE answer to anything; then I would be just as bad as any evangelical Christian or believer of any fundamentalist religion.
There are some things that cannot be "proven" One's own sense of anything cannot be proven by either side.
The word spiritual/spirituality seems to mean very different things to different people. Which in my book suggests it is essentially useless for conveying ideas to other people; since the first thing you have to do when you hear the word is to ask what is meant by it.
Yes, we have a connection to everything. We have "peak experiences, insights and an ability to string things together and make sense out of the world," even when there is no "sense" in our making sense at all.
We came from the world and universe that we live in. If you are going to call something spiritual you have to define what in the hell it is you are talking about. You don't get to assert there is a greater purpose.
How in the hell does a purpose make life better. If life has a purpose you are nothing at all but a means to an end. You are a pawn in the game and no longer anything spiritual or important. You are diminished by the very purpose you hope there is. And while we are at it, "Hope" does not make things true.
What does feeling bad have to do with electrical signals. Human beings are clan animals. People that did not fit into the clan were killed or turned out to the wild. Then we became tribal animals. Those that did not fit into the tribe were turned out or killed. Then we became colonized animals and those that did not fit in were killed, placed in prisons, or sent to the shores of some unknown place to die. Now we are country animals and those that do not fit in are killed or placed in prisons to die. There are thousands of years of culling and evolution involved in making you feel bad when someone is killed. Any genes holding any other point of view have been killed off.
Feel about life any way you like but if you are going to make wild assertions about souls, spirituality, and other BS at least try to back it up with facts.