what do you all see in spiritualism?

[Alex K]

Yes, robvalue is right, this is the nature of a discussion. People spend time and brain matter to think about your topic, and it is polite to try as good as one can to clarify terms and what one is talking about in the first place.

[Homeless Nutter]

Yes, robvalue is right, this is the nature of a discussion. People spend time and brain matter to think about your topic, and it is polite to try as good as one can to clarify terms and what one is talking about in the first place.

But Alex... What if that "first place" is the anus?...

[Anomalocaris]

What is spirituality?

Thinking that knowing nothing and making shit up is wisdom.

[FatAndFaithless]

...Has he defined what a soul is yet?

[Mr Greene]

It's arbitrarily assigning extra meaning to emotions and experiences. It's trying to leap-frog science by abandoning any kind of rigor and just making things up. Classic woo.

We can study ourselves perfectly well without having to imbue things with magic. We can have amazing experiences, we can meditate and send our mind to all sorts of weird places. But there's no need to make out that it's more than it is.

It need not be that at all.  My sense of spirituality is the sense being humbled by the scale and grandeur of our Universe, and understanding how insignificant I am in it -- but at the same time understanding that I'm a part of the Universe too, that we are all parts of it. We're the parts that do the thinking. It's not woo, no matter your preconceived notions; that's simply a dramatic oversimplification, so far as I'm concerned.

Being humbled by the scale and grandeur of the universe? Isn't that stargazing?

[tigerlove]

@Greene.you phrase in the way i feel it as well..maybe for me it's difficult to explain what a soul is..or my soul is or for that matter...
i'm beginning to like this forum..a good bunch of people who know what they say and mean..
O.K..i feel that some folks on here analyse each letter and sentence i wrote..Oh...well..that's their GOOD right...
that's what i call a discussion...and now folks will say...come to the core of your thread..
my soul is positivity,the true hippiespirit...love..no war..I'm a flower lover...tattoos..that's me..that's my soul
ridiculous?or does it make sense??or no sense?a soul..is a soul which we feel within ourself...
greetings  to you all...

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600...yaizZY.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/59/6trb.jpg

[chimp3]

@Greene.you phrase in the way i feel it as well..maybe for me it's difficult to explain what a soul is..or my soul is or that matter...
i'm beginning to like this forum..a good bunch of people who know what they say and mean..
O.K..i feel that some folks on here analyse each letter and sentence i wrote..Oh...well..that's their GOOD right...
that's what i call a discussion...and now folks will say...come to the core of your tread..
my soul is positivity,the true hippiespirit...love..no war..I'm a flower lover...tattoos..that's me..that's my soul
ridiculous?or does it make sense??or no sense?a soul..is a soul which we feel within ourself...
greetings  to you all...

Did you get your skin tattooed or your soul?

Positivity? Is it your brain thinking positive thoughts and generating happy emotions?

These things are a part of being human. Why embellish the natural with the supernatural?

[Homeless Nutter]

[...]
my soul is positivity,the true hippiespirit...love..no war..I'm a flower lover...tattoos..that's me..that's my soul
[...]

So your "soul" is just a bunch of your arbitrarily selected character traits, political views and some stuff you like? What's the need for even mentioning it, let alone suggesting it as an entity? Those are all just functions of your brain, except you separate them from all the others and enshrine them, using mental gymnastics.

And why are your tattoos included in your soul and not - say - your hemorrhoids? Seems to me like your soul is just a way for you to aggrandize yourself, by focusing on your favorite aspects of your personality and defining those as the "real" you, the "core" you - a soul, a spirit, while all the stuff you're not too proud of - that's just incidental and irrelevant to who you like to see yourself as. It's a self-serving, escapist fantasy. And spirituality is just a way to be in love with yourself.

ridiculous?

Yeah, pretty much...

or does it make sense??or no sense?a soul..is a soul which we feel within ourself...

If soul is just a metaphor for how you generally feel, then soul is not an entity. There's no difference between what you consider to be your soul and all the rest of your characteristics.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Being humbled by the scale and grandeur of the universe? Isn't that stargazing?

I suppose that depends on how much thought you put into it. Your mileage may vary.

[robvalue]

[...]
my soul is positivity,the true hippiespirit...love..no war..I'm a flower lover...tattoos..that's me..that's my soul
[...]

So your "soul" is just a bunch of your arbitrarily selected character traits, political views and some stuff you like? What's the need for even mentioning it, let alone suggesting it as an entity? Those are all just functions of your brain, except you separate them from all the others and enshrine them, using mental gymnastics.

And why are your tattoos included in your soul and not - say - your hemorrhoids? Seems to me like your soul is just a way for you to aggrandize yourself, by focusing on your favorite aspects of your personality and defining those as the "real" you, the "core" you - a soul, a spirit, while all the stuff you're not too proud of - that's just incidental and irrelevant to who you like to see yourself as. It's a self-serving, escapist fantasy. And spirituality is just a way to be in love with yourself.

ridiculous?

Yeah, pretty much...

or does it make sense??or no sense?a soul..is a soul which we feel within ourself...

If soul is just a metaphor for how you generally feel, then soul is not an entity. There's no difference between what you consider to be your soul and all the rest of your characteristics.

Exactly. All this stuff, "soul", "spirituality",etc. is metaphorical or unevidenced woo. The first use is very handy when using language to describe the wealth of the human experience; the second is for people who make claims of knowledge about reality that they can't back up with evidence.

It appears to me tiger that you're probably using the first. I have no problem with that. I often use such words informally, which is most of the time. I only stop using them when I'm having a precise sceptical discussion. Kudos for putting thought into it and engaging with us steely sceptics

If that is indeed the case, the question of what happens to your soul becomes moot. If you're dead, you no longer have any characteristics. Of course, you do live on metaphorically in memory and in the differences you have made to the world. That is the real legacy, and the real "afterlife". And it's one worth fighting for, in my opinion. If I can make the world a tiny bit better, make some people happy and change some attitudes for the better, I will die happy. I'd much rather that than go into some celestial garden for all eternity.

I'm glad you like the forum, I like you too and I hope you stick around! Rep point incoming