The question of what it means to be spiritual as an atheist is never really something I gave much thought. I was wondering today what spirituality could mean if not worshiping something supernatural. I discovered that it is simply the search for meaning in life and a connection to the world around you. My futurist friend who believes that spirituality is the merging of human and machine in the coming decades describes spirituality as " To me spirituality is simply discovering yourself in relation to the universe and existence".
That puts spirituality into a unique perspective, one that I feel gives an unlikely name to something I've been searching for. To me, spirituality could be walking around outside and listening to a really good album, like Tim Hecker's Virgins, or Silent Hill 2 OST, or any album by Coil, feeling at peace with the world around you, feeling as though you have acceptance and ease and calm with the world. I know there's some Budhist Monks who train their whole life to achieve "enlightenment". I've never written off enlightenment, to me it's always represented a higher state of consciousness.
What can atheists do to discover their own spirituality? Bring themselves closer to acceptance of existence on the planet earth? I'd dare say that being at peace with the world around me is "virtuous".
That puts spirituality into a unique perspective, one that I feel gives an unlikely name to something I've been searching for. To me, spirituality could be walking around outside and listening to a really good album, like Tim Hecker's Virgins, or Silent Hill 2 OST, or any album by Coil, feeling at peace with the world around you, feeling as though you have acceptance and ease and calm with the world. I know there's some Budhist Monks who train their whole life to achieve "enlightenment". I've never written off enlightenment, to me it's always represented a higher state of consciousness.
What can atheists do to discover their own spirituality? Bring themselves closer to acceptance of existence on the planet earth? I'd dare say that being at peace with the world around me is "virtuous".
