Atheists: What do you think of the term *spiritual*?

Question

Personally, i think its a term for overgrown children
There is no proof of spirits, but yet many things and people are *spiritual* (of or pertaining to spirits)??
It makes no sense

hahahaha kris :)

lol evolved...me too :)

slop...dont try to scare me like that!

Answer 1

agreed. i cringe whenever the term comes up in conversation. because no two people can agree on what it means (or that it means *anything*), it's a debate stopper.

Answer 2

I think it's OK. People mean many different things by it. I think it's a useful word to describe things pertaining to the human spirit the complex mix of emotions that we can experience that make us unique in the animal kingdom.

Answer 3

Outside of food, water, sunshine and liver damage so much of what people talk about is just imaginings. Law, Government, Authority, Spirits and God are just that!

Answer 4

Agree,spiritual would seem to imply "spirits"But then,what should I call myself when I can absolutely be blown away at times with the absolute grandeur of the universe,and my connection to it?

Answer 5

I kind of object to being labeled an atheist, but my relatives call me one because I don't believe in an anthropomorphic notion of God. I would like, however to share my "take" on the term "spiritual".

As I'm sure you're aware, it is derived from "breath". In former times it was commonly thought that life entered a child with the first breath. From that point, the "spirit" was thought to animate the person, the body. It was considered life itself, departing the body on death. All sorts of myth has since been and still is being constructedaround the term .

Like you, I reject "spirits", those more or less "astral", ephemeral, wispy, diaphanous etc. etc. conceptions as childish imagination. I consider such to be unworthy of a reasonable, informed and aware person. I do give slack to those whose lives have been so consumed with getting enough to eat and caring for children, etc. that they have remained ignorant and simply taken their metaphysics and life-view off-the-shelf. I give less sympathy to the willfully ignorant who close their eyes to the inconsistancies of their religious myth and freely condemn others while spending their free time watching TV, reading trashy novels and generally wasting opportunity to know better and more. What sympathy I do have for them comes out of my respect for their fear of death. I know how it feels to be afraid.

Back to the point - I believe that while much of the religious scripture supporting these vain "spiritual" imaginings is only more vain (and sometimes hateful) speculation, there is much which is profound and useful in them. In attempting to winnow the scriptural wheat from the chaff I've found that original sense of "animating spirit" to be helpful. I believe "spirit" is what motivates one. In itself, as a general term, I think of it as the life force. Human being itself distinguishes the life force into many aspects. It sounds simplistic, and in truth, seems a profanation to "the faithful", but I have come to believe that "spirit" in some scriptual cases means attitude or motivation in that sense. I believe I see remnants of that archaic sense of meaning in common useage such as "In a spirit of good will..." or " ... the spirit of giving, of mercy", etc. To me it seems that these attitudes, idealized, personified, mythologized and projected onto that itenerant Jewish Rabbi of two thousand years ago may be the Christ that is worshipped to the good advantage of the ignorant and gullible even today.

From there it is only a short step to the conclusion that all manner of attitudes such as pride, wrath, envy, lust, avarice, gluttony, and sloth, i.e., the "seven deadly sins" are EVIL spirits. When they are personified and mythologized and projected onto and into others they are the "demons" which "possessed" folks in the middle ages and which labeled "mere" obsessive compulsive behaviors today. When they are folled into one and given supernatural powers they become Satan. (I'll skip my rant about how these spirits are manifested in the scriptural threats of eternal fire, etc. and how THEIR inclusion in worship is and has been the tragic flaw in orthodox Christianity since its formalization under the auspices of the Roman Emperor Constantine these ~1700 years ago.)

And if I may be permitted another digression: Just as neuroses and psychoses featuring these "sins" have split off from the primary personality in those cases of schizophrenia labeled "multiple personality disorders", I suspect that in some cases where Christians claim to have a "personal relationship with Jesus" the phenomena is basically the same. It is a fact that stress is often a contributor to disabling mental illness featuring voices in the mind and it is a fact that stress is often if not always a pre-cursor to "salvation" and the "born again" experience for Christians. I see no reason that a "personal relationship with Jesus" and "talking to God in prayer" should not be a double-first cousin if not a full blooded sibling to what Dr. Carl Jung labeled as "an autonomous psychic complex".

Still, I like to think of the "Holy Spirit" as a spirit of forgiveness, compassion and simple good will rather than some supernatural anthropomorphic ghost-entity. The admonition of the apostles to "let that spirit be in you which was in the Christ" is much more plausible in that sense! And in truth, I believe that the teaching of the Christ might well have been that very simple formula. What better "good news" could there be that the way to have life more abundantly, to foster peace on earth and good will toward men than the simple practice of doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you?

Spirit is attitude, and attitude is everything!? (The gospel according to t-shirt)

Answer 6

It is nothing but a different way of life. Spiritual approach to life, is not necessary to believe in God, because you are God & that is what you realize.

Answer 7

I have to agree, I use it only in terms of counting Tequila shots.

Answer 8

wait til you meet a spirit

Answer 9

Scotch is spiritual.

Answer 10

agreed

"i'm not religious but i'm spiritual"

oh yeah? well i'm not honest, but you're fascinating...