RE: Spirituality and atheism
February 8, 2014 at 5:29 am
(This post was last modified: February 8, 2014 at 5:32 am by bennyboy.)
(February 8, 2014 at 12:27 am)whateverist Wrote: I fail to see how using imprecise language will help to understand anything.I think you probably are not a big fan of sitting for hours trying to turn off your conscious ego and connect to the universe, either. And yet this is an activity that people engage in, and since it results in an experience that is far removed from our normal perception of our physical surroundings, they call it a "spiritual" experience. I don't see why it's a big deal. People like to play with the mind in ways that have no useful impact on their ability to build bridges or to keep a car safely on the road or whatever, and they use the word "spiritual" to describe that mental play. Just like a person doing LSD isn't literally on a trip, but his experiences can be somewhat poetically described as a "trip." To me, the right approach to this is to let it go. We know what Harris is talking about, I think, and fighting about etymology or semantics isn't really as useful as just saying, "Okay, if that's what you mean by it, then whatever. . ."
The only big deal is when people start equivocating to support bullshit, a la: "Sam Harris is a strong proponent of spirituality, so at least some scientists accept the reality of an incorporeal spirit. So God." That would be an epic fail, and would require at least 20 insulting "Double faceslap" meme pictures to correct the poster's behavior.
