spirituality, semanticsI associate spirituality with supernatural matter, so I find it rather strange to see someone stating that they are not religious, but are spiritual. What do people commonly mean by that?
My experience with that has been people who do believe in the supernatural in some form, but do not associate themselves with an organized religion. I’ve met people who made this claim for everything from neo-paganism to Christianity, so I don’t associate the term with a particular brand of woo.
It seems to me to be one of two things:
Naturally, there will be exceptions, and this only reflects the people I have come across that use these terms.
This is the best justification of an Atheist calling himself "spiritual" that I have come across.
Transcript from AHughman08's (A. Hughman) video: YouTube: My Spirituality as an Atheist:
"Is there any value in spirituality? As an atheist you may expect me to say no; but if I'm being honest, I'd have to consider myself a spiritual person. Of course I'm not talking about some ghostly ethereal soul that lives inside my body. There's no reason to think there's anything like that. I'm talking about the essence of human. There aren't many words in our language that capture what that is. at least for me. And so I use the word spirit, in the same way I use the phrase bless you. For rhetoric's sake. I can only describe it as the action or ability to see beauty. to feel wonder. and to be in awe.
Religion and all groups faith of course serve only to prostitute the awe, and the mystery we all feel as humans. they bottle our essence and try putting lid on the wonder we naturally feel. They fail of course. Religion points to the man behind the curtain in an attempt answer the mystery. when in reality, there is no man. the mystery is just that. a mystery.
But even though I don't believe in the supernatural, I try to be as honest as I can to myself, about my spirituality.
On my trip out west just a couple months ago I remember a moment standing in a field that looked up at the grand tetons. the tetons in wyoming are these massive glacier capped mountains that just cut into the sky. I remember thinking to myself. Something much greater than me must have caused this. I know it.
I also remember sleeping out underneath a cool and clear sky next to the dunes in white sands national park. Looking up all I could see was just a pile of stars. More than I'd ever understood to exist. Looking at them all, still and perfect, and vast beyond my ability to comprehend, I felt uncommonly humble. And grateful just to be alive.
There are moments when I'm with good friends, where it just feels good to breath. The taste of chilled apple butter on a warm buttermilk biscuit is often more than delicious, to me it feels enlightening. And a soft kiss to me can honestly stop time and space.
At times I can be so overwhelmed by the sensation of being alive, that I cry. or I laugh. or I scream. or I just breath deeply.
And no, I never once imagine that to be supernatural. I understand, that the thing that is so much greater than me, to have caused the Tetons has a name. and it's called plate tectonics.
That being humble is simply the feeling of recognizing the reality of ones small significance to a universe so massive. And being grateful to be alive doesn't require a person to be grateful toward.
I recognize that being happy in a comfortable social setting is a evolutionary trait of my species. That my body naturally craves specific foods for nutritional or maybe even psychological reasons. And that the intoxication of romance is most likely driven by the need to procreate.
But I am one with the universe. Not metaphysically, but physically. I am as much the universe as a supernova. made of the same particles, governed by the same forces. I am Genes that mutated randomly, then were selected naturally based on their success at survival.
And I love applebutter on a biscuit. I collapse in awe at the magnificence of this place. I crave romance. and I breath appreciation for it all..
I have to, with all my essence. with all my spirit. because imagine, in all the universe, we may be the only things that can, and that's beautiful."
If spirituality is just the feeling people get when going to church, engaging in deep contemplation, being moved by music or poetic speech, and other such similar feelings, then there is no problem with an Atheist claiming to be spiritual.
Sit down at night, pour a drink, dim the lights, and listen to something like the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suit No. 1 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZn_VBgkPNY ) or a Chopin Nocturne ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leSYZRmknlc ), and you too can have a spiritual experience, no gods allowed.
I think that the meaning of “spiritual” means simply whatever the person wants to think. Even in the psychology of religion, there is no satisfying definition of spirituality. This leaves the word vague at best and completely ineffective at worst. “Spiritual” can mean any of the things the other answers have described: -no belief in organized religion, but a personal religious belief, whether or not it can be described -a feeling of unity with the universe, nature, or other people -a New-Age religious belief, in reincarnation or magic or crystals -agnostic mysticism
From the people I have talked to, if I ask them their religion and they say they are spiritual but not religious, I have found that it means, “Just don’t ask, I have no idea but I don’t want to find out for sure.”
I think, sometimes, such a person has a loose definition of how things work and no specific drive to tighten it. He/she has decided that religions are bunk and God may not exist, but all of the myriad things they don’t understand have to mean SOMETHING… so I’ll just call it spiritual.
It can also be an avoidance maneuver: In a society where atheism is spurned, sometimes it’s easier for someone to evade the question of belief in God, by just claiming to be Spiritual. It plays on the believer’s sense that “spiritual” involves a “God” and so gets the non-believer off the hook without having to outright declare non-belief.
Spiritual, like faith is a word I avoid because it means different things to different people. If someone says "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual," what they mean is that they're trying to claim to be more moral than those nasty nasty atheists while not being hidebound by the restrictions of "organised religion". They're claiming to be "original thinkers" while actually doing very little thinking and certainly not subjecting their thoughts to critical analysis.
Or, as someone else put it:
The "I'm spiritual but not religious" trope is trying to have the best of both worlds... but it's actually getting the worst. It's keeping the part of religion that's the indefensible, unsupported- by- a- scrap- of- evidence belief in invisible beings; indeed, the part of religion that sees those invisible beings as more real, and more important, than the real physical world we live in. It's keeping the part of religion that devalues reason and evidence and careful thinking, in favor of hanging onto any cockamamie idea that appeals to your wishful thinking. It's keeping the part of religion that equates morality and value with believing in invisible friends. It's keeping the part of religion that involves conferring a sense of superiority onto yourself, solely on the basis of your purported connection with an invisible world.
It's keeping all that... and abandoning the part of religion that is community, and shared ritual, and charitable works, and a sense of belonging. It's throwing out the baby, and keeping the bathwater -- and then patting yourself on the back and saying, "Look at all this wonderful bathwater I have!"
See Greta Christina's essay.
I don’t think it is strange that some people are “spiritual” without being religious, but I do find it strange when an atheist claims to be spiritual.
Possible definitions:
I think it’s inappropriate to use the word “spiritual” if you are talking about something that doesn’t have a supernatural component (e.g.: “awe of nature”). This reduces clarity, so is better avoided. But some people use it that way anyway.
For me, it’s a bit like saying they’re not religious, just christian. But many people associate a quite fixed view of a deity with religion and spiritualist beliefs often make a point of not having a deity.
That he/she has developed his/her own religion that suits his/her needs.
I would find it to mean that you are in awe of nature in all its forms without the need for a god or supreme being to worship. I think a great example of this would be Niel DeGrasse Tyson's "sermon" at Beyond Belief 2006 in which the way he talks about the universe and his path in life in a very spiritual manner, while never attributing it to a supreme being.
I usually ascribe it to nonbelievers (of one stripe or another) who are too scared or self-conscious to use the word “atheist”.
I don’t mind calling it spiritual when I listen to Bach, or see a beautiful landscape, or hear a new born baby cry, or read about an act of human goodness. I think its a way for your sub conscious to remind you its still there when you’ve tried and subdue it with logic and reason. You can call it something else if you want to.
I sincerely don’t think that religion or supernaturalism has any claim on spiritualism.
Atheists can be deeply spiritual, and it would not mean anything in any religious context.
Perhaps “spirituality” is a somewhat confusing term, but it is in a metaphorical sense a feeling of extremely deep awe about a specific subject, for example some people have a spiritual sensation when they “feel” the grandness of nature, the vastness of space, the intricacy of biology, the order of mathematics and etc. It is a sense of realization and connection of a sort. It’s hard for me to define it, but I think that anyone who hasn’t felt it, is missing.
It is also a neurological and psychological state, and it is the same feeling that religious people describe when they are in a deep prayer or trance.
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