A life without spirituality.

Do you mean "spirituality" as defined by (via Mirriam-Webster)
1 : something that in ecclesiastical law belongs to the church or to a cleric as such
2 : CLERGY
3 : sensitivity or attachment to religious values
4 : the quality or state of being spiritual

or did you have another definition in mind? I am interested in responding, but if we are working with the definition shown above, then please see my posts in MG's thread for my reply. I would, however, add that I do live by a moral code, and while it does seem to conform in many ways to what is shown in certain religions to be "good" and "right", I do not give religion credit for me feeling these are the good and right things to do.

Re: A life without spirituality.

Nicely worded.

I'm a spiritual person. I have seen too much to ever be able to reject spirituality. Some of it involves personal experiences, some of it is involves what is referred to as the paranormal. I would never try to impose my spiritual beliefs on anyone else.

If someone wants to be deluded and pacified by organized religious rituals without giving any real thought (or questions) to what they believe, that's their prerogative. By the same token, if someone is satisified in believing there is nothing beyond what they can see and explain, who am I to tell them otherwise?

I think we are all deluded and pacified in some way or another. Chose yer brand, that's all. To the atheist, the blind conviction of ultimate ending can be just as delusional as the christians steadfast belief in heaven and hell. Or they can both be not at all pacifying and deluding.
Confidence in our own intellect can be the delusion that pacifies us.

What you believe is not the most important thing. It is where your beliefs take you that is important.

As I see it the point of any religious or spiritual quest or creed is to live well and happily. To find the balance in existence where you can be at peace and bloom. The personality and experience of each individual will determine where that balance is, and the spiritual aim is for me to move and shift along with this balance as it unfolds in the form of my day to day existence.

So even though I don't consider myself religious I find religion very interesting. But there is a need to sift and select. A lot of what is today's religions are remnants of disguised politics. After all, before modern politics, and many times after it's coming too, religion was the justice and rule of everyday life.
So I greatly appreciate the story of Jesus, for instance, because it is a source of great wisdom. But I'm not a member of his community because it stands for something else entirely, manipulated slightly time and again to suit human needs.

AMEN!




Add "(or lack of beliefs)" after the word "beliefs"...

...and I give another AMEN.






As do I.



I live life without spirituality....and I don't think my life suffers one bit as a result.

I consider myself one of the very lucky people of the world...as I am almost always content and reasonable happy.

Sure. Lack of beliefs as well. I know where you are coming from, so it is not hard to admit.

But I have always thought that abstract thinking, even about facts, beliefs disregarded, is a form of spiritual activity. But that's just a semantics quarrel I guess.

I think that in order to answer this properly, we need to come to a consensus concerning the definition of terms.



For instance, I would accept definition 1 & 6. I would reject anything that smacked of a supernatural force. I am unsure about definition #2. As man learns more and more about the workings of the human body, there has become an expanding realization that most things that we formerly thought as unknowable phenomenon can be explained by the workings of organs, glands, hormones, etc.

Phoenix

Would you reject the notion of a natural force that you cannot comprehend?

Often what goes beyond comprehension is labelled supernatural. If that is the case, then to reject it is more a testament to pride of one's scepticism than to scepticism itself.

Cyracuz- I would not reject a natural force that I cannot comprehend..........yet, or maybe never. I do reject the concept of the unknowable. I think in time, the mysteries of the universe will unfold to human beings, but right now, we are just in our adolescence in terms of our knowledge of the workings of the world.

Snood...

Good question. I ask you though, leaving Christianity aside, do you believe Renee Descartes could be considered a spiritual person? If so, so am I.

I'm with phon on this.

Spirit, as synonomous with self or being, I can accept.

Spirit, as synonomous with supernatural forces, or some putative non-corpreal life form that inhabits our bodies, is laughable.


But as for 'spirituality' as defined by a percieved sense of 'higher awareness' or 'connectedness' , I believe to be manufactured within ones imagination.

The distinction between the 'material' and the 'non material' is disengenuous to begin with, as nothing has been demonstrated to be non-material.

I don't consider my physical body as "me" but do think of the spirit inhabiting the body to be. So, I guess you could say I am a spiritual person. It's OK with me if some think there's something laughable about that. Laughter is good for physical health.

Just read in yesterday's Austin Statesman that most of our body is made of bacteria, that without the "healthy" bacteria we would become very ill. No, I'm not that. It is amazing, though, that our bodies are like factories in that they keep on operating without us having to push buttons, turn any part on and of.

Religion can be good for some. Who really should be concerned what people do in their religions as long as the people stay within the law.

Thanks to those who have attempted to respond to what was actually said in the launch post - whether or not they live their lives without spirituality.

My beliefs are based partially upon experiences which IMO only the existence of a spiritual realm can explain. The good thing is that we can find common ground, in this way - I also say more power to whatever helps you to live at peace with yourself and live up to the highest in yourself.

I have trouble sometimes when I discuss matters of spirit with people who need to have precisely well-defined terms of evidence provable by the scientific method, in order to proceed. But IMO there is trouble only if one disrespects the other's beliefs, or lack of them.

Yes certainly snood, I know that you have always respected my beliefs to the extent that I have respect yours.

I consider myself an unspiritual person.



cough...

You being serious, or not?

I am a meat puppet.

I lived a life without spirituality for a good long while. In recent times, it has become more and more important to me to make sure I take time for that aspect.

I'm having a hard time with the definition, too.

I have had experiences that I'd define as spiritual that don't really fit with anything that has been said so far. Like, sitting on top of a cliff in the Boundary Waters, watching the sun go down, water and forests as far as the eye can see. There was something so enriching and expansive and fulfilling about it, something that left me with greater reserves of strength when I finally climbed down. In the words of an article I recently revisited, it was good for my psychological immune system.

I didn't connect it to anything paranormal, though, nor was it even about the soul per se. It was a connection with something much larger than myself, but it was pretty much just the physical world and it's astounding beauty -- not that a god created it or even Nature as any kind of entity. Just myself in the world, and the benefits that come of having some of that quiet, meditative, connective -- spiritual? -- time.

I think you are referring to the 'one with nature' kind of spirituality here, Sozobe? I once stopped on a bridge to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed. That felt wonderful, but such moments come very rarely.
I am still not sure what I can put under spirituality. Would Yoga qualify? Perhaps other forms of meditation? Oujia boards?
When I dream away on the gentle tones of Enya, and picture an ancient Scottish landscape, is this spiritual?