Comments on: Meaningful rather than Spiritual

By: Spiritual Atheism: Good Idea With a Bad Label? : 40 Year Old Atheist

Spiritual Atheism: Good Idea With a Bad Label? : 40 Year Old Atheist — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:47:52 +0000

[...] visited the Skeptical Seeker’s blog where I learned that, in The Atheist’s Way: Living Well without Gods, Eric Maisel thinks the [...]

By: jess

jess — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:05:40 +0000

i think nature is spiritual (which is reality)

shutting out the word spiritual in hopes of boycotting ‘god’ doesn’t work. all ur doing is shutting out anything related to the word spiritual. like love

“It is better to stand consternated and not understand an experience than to commit our version of the supernatural error. It is far wiser not to sprint from a momentary feeling to a complete revision of our basic understanding of the universe.”
i disagree —>
i think its better to understand than to say no to everything god
and i also think there’s such thing as middle ground
and i dare say we dont understand the universe

By: Mikel

Mikel — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:42:08 +0000

I prefer to use “meaningful” because I think the word is more accurate to describe experiences that I previously described as “spiritual.” Before Whenever I consider “spiritual” to be the more accurate and truthful word, I will not hesitate to use it.

By: Harvey

Harvey — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:02:54 +0000

I am a Christian, but the word spiritual does not always need to describe something supernatural even to me. For one thing, I don’t see anything supernatural about the human spirit. It is a natural characteristic of humanity. The human mind is capable of having moments of ecstasy, that have little to do with religious belief or non-belief. Often these moments are the source of great creativity. A problem we are working on suddenly becomes clear.

As a Christian, I might call this an epiphany, but not for the reason you might think. Not that God intervened in my thinking and put the answer supernaturally into my mind, but that God is the ultimate source of life and intellect and so gets ultimate credit for it.

I don’t think people should be ambivalent or paranoid of using words that seem to come from sources opposite their thinking. If we are afraid to use a word because it may cause us to start thinking in another direction we are probably not really convinced that our thinking is correct.

I believe we need to constantly seek truth and follow it where ever it leads. For me the search is the journey and the journey is life. I am a Christian because my journey has led me to this point. I will follow truth where ever I find it and if it leads me to be an atheist, so be it. I cannot imagine that at this point, but there was a time when I could not imagine myself as a Christian and yet….

The important thing is to never give up the search, and follow where it leads without fear of mere words.

By: Lily

Lily — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:28:33 +0000

I’m an atheist who uses the word “spiritual” to describe myself often. I too am ambivalent about using that term, but I use it because I want to convey a sense of seriousness that I don’t think “meaningful” conveys. I find the word “spiritual” to be a more meaningful word. The irony doesn’t escape me that it’s only such a powerful word because religion is such a powerful force in society. “Spirituality” has a powerful meaning for most people, at a level that no other synonym can quite match.

To me, this falls along the same lines of classifying atheist groups and atheist books under the category “religion”. It’s not semantically correct, but it’s functionally equivalent, and it’s the only way they’ll receive proper attention.

I don’t think simply using the word spirituality is backsliding on our view of the universe. I definitely do not believe in anything supernatural, but my former christian faith does inform my current atheism, and calling myself spiritual is one of them. It’s as much a cultural word as a religious one.

Anyway, this is a good post, and I’ll be sure to check out the book.