Dualism

[josef rosenkranz]

"The belief that there is a "physical world" and a "spiritual world"."

(I always came to this conclusion when I was...otherwise intoxicated. >_> )

Okay. So, if there WERE a spiritual world, i.e., an afterlife, a place where your soul rests before being reborn, whatever, how would you know? If it wasn't physical, how would you be able to prove that it was there? And if you DID prove it, wouldn't it be then a physical thing?
But, since it isn't physical, wouldn't that mean that it doesn't exist in the first place, not to mention, you would need proof for souls and a whole bunch of other crap.

Indeed, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!

I don't think that there is a contradiction between being atheist and accepting the two notions of "physical world" and "spiritual world".
It is a matter of interpretation.
Of course if you equal "spiritual world " to the existing of a soul given to every newborne which lives everafter in heavens ,it is sheer nonsense.
On the other hand we know that the world we perceive is divided in a part which contains measurable entities ,governed by phisycal laws which we conventionally call the physical world and other parts ,although basically phisycal as well, but characterized by non measurable entities and governed by a lot of undefinable laws.
We use to call our individual thoughts ,emotions, all which is related to our mind as our spiritual world.
It doesn't matter if all of these human activities are located only in the brain, which for sure most of them are,or also in other parts of our body.
A typical characteristic of our spiritual world is the coexistence in a mixed up matter of rational and irrational thinking
We can name all of our mind activities as being our soul and not contradicting by that our atheistic convincing, as long as we don't atribute it to be a gift from God or that it has the capacity to live after our death.
I will go further to the link existing between this spiritual world and the power of religion.
Let's leave to historians,archeologists,theology scientists and so on, the task of of demonstrating the origins of religions or as put most simpler the creation of God in history,and reffer to the spiritual needs of our contemporary humans.
One can not deny that pople are seeking in their daily life for help, comfort,happiness,health,and so on from outer factors to their personality.That they are seeking for fullfilments of their spiritual lives.
It is a struggle for existence and survival for every human being.
Religion succeeds in giving to the great majority of humans the right answer which they actually expect in their minds.It's so convincing that all your life is governed by God,if you are okay-thank God who helped you,if you are in need -pray for his help,if a tragedy occurs-it is his will.
The believe in afterlife is a most powerfull weapon in the hands of clerics of all religions.
What I'm saying is this:
-the existence of an individual spiritual world ,call it soul,or whatever you want, is basically a physical
atribute to humans (also to animals) but totally different in it's form from the "physical world" as conventional defined my measurable entities.
- may be that sometime in the future all or part of the spiritual world will be also measurable but to day,except electrochemical measurable activities of the brain with little interpretable results,the spiritual world is not measurable.
-religion in it's spiritual aspect,combined with it's social/political aspect is a major component of the spiritual world of millions of people.
-atheism could see itself only as a phylosophic believe and let religion govern the minds of people,
or it coud see itself also as social protagonist contributing to the development of modern society.
-in this last task ,if desired,atheism should come up with simple answers contradicting or anihilating the spiritual answers given by religion