RE: The need to believe?
July 9, 2017 at 5:39 pm
(This post was last modified: July 9, 2017 at 5:52 pm by Thumpalumpacus.)
(July 9, 2017 at 2:15 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(July 9, 2017 at 2:09 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: My sense of spirituality is simply a sense of being connected to something unimaginably larger than myself -- the Universe. It requires no faith on my part to feel that humility, and no woo for me to find comfort in it.
I never use the word "spirituality", it is highly subjective and started in a very superstitious past.
So what? Words are repurposed all the time. That's the word that fits my obviously subjective feelings. Whether or not you agree with my usage, enough people are generous enough to extend to me understanding when I use it this way that I find the word itself useful. I'm doing so in this case because I think Deidre understands my usage, and I was trying to communicate my take on it in reply to her question. You're welcome to see it this way or not as you see fit, but applying your definition to my sense of it is obviously inaccurate (as I've already made clear in the post which has garnered this reply of yours).
(July 9, 2017 at 2:15 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I get the same feelings too. But that to me is merely my body having a positive reaction to stimuli. My "sense of awe" and yes, that can be intense.
But knowing that while the universe has some really awesome things in it, it also has lots of extremely destructive and deadly things in it too. I am extremely amazed with all the countless factors that could have ended up with a different result but didn't, that we are here. But I see no grand design in the universe and do not see it as a giant living thing. I simply see both the good and the bad in it as natural with no super cognition behind it. But certainly our planet and universe have some damned amazing things in it, certainly.
Yeah, as I already said, I attach no faith nor woo to the word in my usage. If it still offends you, oh well. Your offense is not my responsibility.
(July 9, 2017 at 2:22 pm)*Deidre* Wrote:(July 9, 2017 at 2:09 pm)lol Thumpalumpacus Wrote: My sense of spirituality is simply a sense of being connected to something unimaginably larger than myself -- the Universe. It requires no faith on my part to feel that humility, and no woo for me to find comfort in it.
I wish I could give you 1000 kudos! I love this, it has the makings of a great religion.
Oh wait
No seriously though, I think this is how I'm feeling and the need in me to call it god, well it's just a need in me based on habit.
Call it what you will, ma'am. You're a good person and that's what is really important so far as I'm concerned. I know how hard it was for me when I lost my faith ... so I don't hold anyone else's struggles with preconceived or preprogrammed notions against them.
(July 9, 2017 at 5:36 pm)mordant Wrote: So sure you have little doubts / regrets now and then until you re-acclimate fully. Atheism is a "new reality" or "new normal". A new relationship with reality, actually. It takes some getting used to. No sane person would deny that, although it's been my experience that in the long run, it's a far better relationship with reality.
I spent the first five years of my disbelief wandering through fields of woo and charlatanism and other forms of superstition. Dispensing with my beliefs wasn't hard, but dispensing with the need to believe was indeed difficult. And to Khem's point, I do find myself at times thinking, "Of course I don't believe this crap any more, but what about this coincidence, or that lucky ending ... and that old siren song still clearly echoes in my brain. And I've been an atheist for almost four decades. "What are the odds?!" I ask myself. And then, well, I pick up a calculator and get to work.
