Spirituality and atheism

[bennyboy]

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.

Okay, look, I smoke a lot of weed and eat the occasional shroom, and I know that a lot of people attach labels of 'mystical' and 'spiritual' to the resulting experiences, but it's really just a fun and interesting way to remix your neurochemistry for a few hours. Meditation and other such exercises is basically doing the same thing in a less radical fashion. Some people need it to be more than that, the way some people apparently cannot function without the belief that the vast machinery of the universe has a conscious operator.

I mean, if that's what you're into, whatever. It's harmless. But, it's still making more out of something than is actually in it.

No. It's just a word for some experiences.

---

So words matter and no words is better. Using words loosely serves no purpose at all. It doesn't communicate and there is no other reason to engage in them. Our ancient mammalian minds do not require them. Language is the new kid on the block. Don't let it take over.

I don't think what your saying holds up to a simple observation of people's interests and activities and the words they use. Harris and others who use the term use it meaningfully, though not necessarily precisely.

The idea that a word has to have a black-and-white meaning to be used, or to be useful, is demonstrably false. We use all kinds of words that don't really have a singe clear meaning-- in fact, almost all the stuff that is important to us: liberty, love, happiness, and even the word "meaning" itself are all imprecise, but this serves as no barrier.

As for the "no language" idea, that's fine. But in order to communicate that idea, you used a bunch of pixellated shapes that we call. . . what's that word, again?