RE: Thoughts On Atheism and Faith
October 9, 2016 at 5:45 am
(This post was last modified: October 9, 2016 at 5:55 am by ray3400.)
(October 9, 2016 at 5:18 am). Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Atheists can be, and are often spiritual, but not necessarily the way you understand it. Who are you to impose your definition on such a term, and why should that definition have heft?
ETA: I'm ignoring the rest of the word salad on purpose. Truths don't need hundreds of words.
"Atheists can be, and are often spiritual, but not necessarily the way you understand it."
So by the responses I've gotten I have learned that most atheists are not 100% certain there is no god, and they are often spiritual.
"Who are you to impose your definition on such a term"
I did not at any point claim to be the definitive source of what is and isn't spiritual.
I assumed many atheists were proponents of naturalism, which by definition leaves any possibility of spirituality. According to you I am incorrect in this assumption, in which case I apologize. In my defense, a lot of the time atheists are found mocking people who believe in spirituality (though Christians seem to be at the top the hierarchy, I have seen many proclaimed atheists mock any notion of spirituality). So there are non-spiritual and spiritual atheists, agnostic and strong atheists... So I would go on to think that the only thing that really brings atheists under the same umbrella term is that they all are, no matter what, lacking in a belief in any and all Gods. Which would imply that there can be a lot of diversity of beliefs and ideas under the same group "atheists". I'm not a cultural anthropologist, but it's interesting how atheist seem to share a similar culture and worldview, despite the only true requirement being "the lack of a belief in God" to be part of the group.
Anyways, I have more practical things to do, thanks for the discussion.
