When I was a child I saw beauty and astonishment in life without the need of god or any other believe. As I have grown older I got introduced to different ideologies one of them was spirituality and as soon as I have entered that path the beauty and magic I saw as a child disappeared. I was living in spiritual fantasy and I have overlooked the beauty that was right in front of me,I was spending more time in my head thinking about spirituality,god,afterlife,...and I just overlooked the magic that was right here the whole time. I can say that I'm getting back to the point where I saw beauty and magic in everyday life just as I did when I was a child.
Spirituality and religion does not make life richer they make life poorer they abuse you,enslave you,... Because of this ideologies you miss the beauty of life and instead of appreciating,exploring what you can perceive you spend your time thinking about stuff that make you miss out of life. You think about comfortable fantasy stories and because of this you can't see or experience the real reality (where your life is really at)
I can say that atheism liberated me from pointless thinking and worrying and to just appreciate and to really see the beauty of our universe,just as it is,and for this I will be forever thankful.

Hope that this makes any sense.


Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.
-Carl Sagan

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-Douglas Adams

Death is certain replacing both the siren-song of paradise and the dread of hell. Life on this earth with all its mystery and beauty and pain is then to be lived far more intensely;we stumble and get up,we are sad,confident,insecure,feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more,but I want nothing more.
-Christopher Hitchens

If you can't find beauty where you are right now,where do you then expect to find it?

RationalPoet(thats me)........Be sure to barbecue kittens, record the NFL without their permission and rip the tags off of your mattress.

Always thrilled to see someone wake up out of their delusion. Congrats!

To me, spirituality is closely tied to emotion. And we are emotional beings. If a person wants to call that spirituality and assign it a deeper meaning, they can reap emotional rewards from it. I am no less moved by a thundering waterfall or massive cloud formation than I was as a theist, because my reaction to those was always emotional. Realizing that made the process of deconversion a bit easier, because the things that made life enjoyable were not lost when I removed god from the equation.

(October 5, 2014 at 9:07 am)Tonus Wrote: To me, spirituality is closely tied to emotion. And we are emotional beings. If a person wants to call that spirituality and assign it a deeper meaning, they can reap emotional rewards from it. I am no less moved by a thundering waterfall or massive cloud formation than I was as a theist, because my reaction to those was always emotional. Realizing that made the process of deconversion a bit easier, because the things that made life enjoyable were not lost when I removed god from the equation.

It is not closely tied, it IS emotion itself. It is a woo word and gap answer from ignorance. It is our natural evolutionary "sense of awe". I have that too. I get it when I think of my mom, or my cat or the awesome power of nature.

"Spirituality" is a bullshit word rooted in mythology and superstition. I have absolutely no value for that word.

@MountainsWinAgain

At the risk of sounding like a sunday school special, that's a very nice testimony. Fortunately, I left out the "spiritual" part completely the way you describe it.
Although it would interest me what precisely it did encompass for you.

(October 5, 2014 at 9:11 am)Brian37 Wrote: "Spirituality" is a bullshit word rooted in mythology and superstition. I have absolutely no value for that word.

Yes, yes. Yet - the OP used it to describe a certain way to view + approach the world (or not...), and for that it seems to be a useful.

(October 5, 2014 at 10:15 am)Alex K Wrote: @MountainsWinAgain

At the risk of sounding like a sunday school special, that's a very nice testimony. Fortunately, I left out the "spiritual" part completely the way you describe it.
Although it would interest me what precisely it did encompass for you.

(October 5, 2014 at 9:11 am)Brian37 Wrote: "Spirituality" is a bullshit word rooted in mythology and superstition. I have absolutely no value for that word.

Yes, yes. Yet - the OP used it to describe a certain way to view + approach the world (or not...), and for that it seems to be a useful.

Seems to be? Yea and that ink blot is also a butterfly in reality.

(October 5, 2014 at 10:31 am)Brian37 Wrote: Seems to be? Yea and that ink blot is also a butterfly in reality.

And there I thought it was a blood stained virgin... But maybe that's just me.
But in seriousness, I understand your sentiment, for the word is ill-defined to an annoying degree and can be somewhat of a catch-all for that warm fuzzy feeling, or the opposite. You'd agree that the OP meant something by spirituality, so let's try to clarify what, and how to better express it without using the S word.

I'm glad you found happiness in reality. It's the healthiest and most pragmatic way to experience life.

I see religion as a sort of Matrix dilemma in which one either stays in a state of complete delusion, bordering on psychosis, living their hopelessly oblivious lives in what they believe to be reality or refusing to swallow that symbolic pill.

You mean "reality" as described by science.
Is that the only reality? The one we can see, measure and document.
Living in "that" reality is a safe place to be.
That's where I live exclusively, but it doesn't stop me from thinking about "other" things. Nor should we. Why I hate all religions is because of the "masters" hidden agendas. Can you be "spiritual" and an atheist? Or is that the definition of a "hippie"?
He he ... Hi to all...

I agree that there is much beauty in the world and we can all enjoy that, but I think you have your rose-colored glasses on. It's much easier for someone that has freedom and is clothed and fed to see the world as a beautiful place. How about those who are living under oppression, living in the streets, scratching around for their next meal? I'm sure that they don't think that the world is a wonderful place. How about those suffering from chronic conditions and diseases or those rotting in prisons because of their political or religious beliefs? We need to step out of our beautiful worlds and lend a hand a hand to those whose worlds are not pretty, and help feed and clothe them. Maybe we could also help them by handing out the lyrics to John Lennon singing "Imagine" or, better yet, we can tell them about the truth of the gospel and they can have hope for eternity.