@spiritual anrkst,
"I would like to hear from atheist that reject all forms of spiritual ideas"
That would be me, but it is not so much reject because I don't like them or hate the idea of it. It's not so much a rejection as it is a lack of confirmation that what people say on one end is actually reality on the other. Many times what is considered spiritual is so vague and so unspecific that practically anything can be call spiritual. When it comes right down to it, you could make anything seem spiritual because the concept itself is so incredibly vague. This leaves the door wide open for people to manipulate others with some sort of spiritual "training" or "guidance" but it is nothing more than a scam to make money.
"If atheist applied the same type of reasoning to quantum physics that they typically apply to the idea of a soul or reincarnation the exploration of physics beyond Newton would come to a screeching halt."
Seriously? As a person who actually enjoys quantum physics I find this incredibly funny because the theories in quantum physics actually are useful and can be used to make predictions. Quantum electro dynamics is the most broadly encompassing field that explains practically 98% of the workings of the world and the universe. Sure I won't deny that the theories themselves and how they are worked out is incredibly crazy if not borderline absurdity, bu the key difference between spirituality and quantum physics is that one can actually be used to make predictions and the other is just a huge vague guess. As soon as spirituality can be utilized outside the norm of stealing peoples money and selling false hopes, then we might be able to consider that it has something useful to provide humanity.
"So my question remains why reject all metaphysical questions relating to spiritual ideas just because religion is obviously blind and misguided?"
Once again, no actual science based person outright rejects spiritual concepts or ideas simply because they may or may not have some religious affiliation. It does not work that way and anyone who tries to claim that is their reasoning, is probably the furthest away from being scientific that you can get. There is no rejection, what you are trying to call rejection is actually a result to the lack of substantial evidences to support spiritual ideas. Huge claims are made and seldom are they ever backed up.
The rest of your talk is more focused on your existence and I get the impression that you are caught up in your existence that you can't fathom you being absolutely nothing after this life ends. Your brain refuses to accept it or acknowledge it, so you jump to some other notion to probably ease your brain. However; your brain activity is what makes you arise in the first place, there in fact really is no you that is a substantial entity that has any sort of static existence. Face it, you are a chemical meat bag that will one day become cold and lifeless and you'll never have another thought again but you won't even be aware that you are not thinking either, so what are you so worried about?
But to actually give you some credit and not actually brush off the topic that easy, I'll entertain the idea of a soul for a moment.
There are some huge problems with the concept of the soul first off. Some simple questions about it:
First off, what exactly do you mean by soul? It is something that can move around, talk, does it need rest, does it have emotions, does it feel pain/pleasure, ect?
What powers the soul? How does it get it's energy to maintain itself? If it does not require any input of energy to maintaining doing what it does, then how does it function? Absolutely NOTHING in this existence can function without some kind of energy input. If the soul needs energy where does it get it and how is it used?
What does the soul look like? It is some kind of mirror image of yourself? Does it wear clothes, have hair? Does it have tattoos and birthmarks? Does it have limbs or missing limbs? Or is it just some blob of light that floats around where ever souls go?
These are some pretty basic questions that do require being answered for the conversation about the soul to even be taken slightly serious. Otherwise the concept itself gets left vague just like the concept of spirituality gets left vague. If you can't answer them because you do not know, then what is it exactly do you know that gives you the first impression that there is even a soul to begin with if you can't identify any of it's properties or traits?
