I see more people saying they're spiritual and not religious.
Seems that people are keeping distance from tradional religions but using the term "spiritual" to keep distance from atheism.
Do you think it's the same sht or there are important differences?
It's completely different. Religion serves as the civilizational drive that actually moves people and events. Could you imagine Spain or Portugal without their Catholic goal of evangelizing the New World or Protestant rebels moving to North America?
The people who are "spiritual" dont actually feel anything, and certainly arent superstitious. It's a benefit of modern society to check out of religious purposes which they are doing.
Hey Doc.
"Spiritual" is an internal electrochemical response to either an external or self generated stimulus.
And then we use all sorts of verbiage to describe all sorts of shit.
And for sure, back in the day Religious ideology became the basis of social systems, and still is to this day in certain places.
Such was ignorance and the need for social stability.
There's obviously overlap between religious and spiritual practices. But religion does imply in organized group, worshiping someone or something. Spiritual implies that you are doing things to improve yourself without involving the regimented practice of a group and probably could imply not working with a deity. Religious practices would be prayers, worship service attendance, holy day observance, probably even a hierarchy of priests to worshipper. Spiritual would be things like meditation, perhaps a physical practice like tai chi or yoga, mantras. Like I said, there can be overlap. You can be Buddhist and meditate, and you can be Hindu and do Yoga, and you can be Christian and work with crystals.
Hey man, I figured it out, weren't you zedvictor4 on Debate Art?
I am both spiritual and religious.
Can an atheist be a spiritual person?
Yes, an atheist can be spiritual by finding a deep sense of meaning, purpose, and connection in life without believing in a deity. Atheism, the lack of belief in gods, is separate from spirituality, which can encompass non-religious practices and feelings like awe, interconnectedness, mindfulness, and finding profound experiences in nature or art.While many atheists are skeptical of supernatural concepts, a secular approach to spirituality allows for a fulfilling life focused on inner well-being, human connection, and a sense of the vastness of the universe.
There is a very important difference.
Spirit unites and religion divides.
Voltaire explained that the problem lies in the institutionalization of religion. To become an institution a religion must "harden" into a fixed structure, they must command loyalty, be defended and kept "pure" so they can decide who's in the institution and who isn't. As a result, religions are just too divisive and quarrelsome and I don't believe for a second the founders would approve of what we have done and are doing in their names, none of them.
Religion has become a form of one-upmanship because of its dependence upon separating the "saved" from the "damned," the true believers from the heretics, the in-group from the out-group. We all need to listen to what the founders of our faiths had to say, stop talking about religion, and start listening to the Spirit that transcends the dogma.
Beneath the boastful contrasts and trifling quarrels there is the fellowship of internal life, it is a single life that cuts across ecclesiastical boundaries and makes us One. That is the Spirit that lurks beneath the external surface of all of our divisive religious doctrines, it is the Spirit that cannot be grasped in any fixed form, it isn't about what we do or believe, it is about what we are, and it establishes in us an intrinsic connection to all of life and to all of the forces of spirituality. That Spirit is common to every man, it takes as many forms as there are men perhaps, but we are connected to all men by it.
It does not matter what our background, faith or religion is, the Spirit is the voice of a higher state of consciousness, one that transcends religions, and when we transcend, we move beyond all dogma and differences.
We are all in this together, groping our way towards the future, in the direction of greater awareness and higher consciousness, towards understanding each other. More than anything else, we want to feel connected, we want to know we are part of something greater, and when we are very quiet and able to listen to the voice within, we can hear that Spirit telling us that we are not alone.
Spirit unites and religion divides.
Lots of cliches on this one. There's all kinds of religions that have nothing to do with anything you posted.
Religious people: My God wants me to kill all you people. NO my God wants me to kill all you people.
Isn't Religion the Designers evolution function to eliminate stupid people?
I wasn't referring to the role the religions have played in our society but in us as individuals. It's different.
The people who are "spiritual" dont actually feel anything,
What is it supposed to mean? If you refer to meditation, people who practice it actually have feelings as any human does. Meditation is just to transcend pain, it doesn't cancel it out.
Spirit unites and religion divides.
To an extent, yes.
I once heard that before religions, people were spirituals as a way to live well. It's the human nature that led people to corrupt the spiritual practices, like making hierarchies, superstitions and all kind of fuckery that religions are know for.
But where did people get all the spiritual knowledge and practices? Allegedly from the aliens, who were taken as "Gods" in the past, the ancient "Gods".
I did talk about how it effects individuals. Individuals place themselves into higher religious purposes.
once heard that before religions, people were spirituals as a way to live well. It's the human nature that led people to corrupt the spiritual practices, like making hierarchies, superstitions and all kind of fuckery that religions are know for.
This is just reddit tier cope. Before organized religion, dreams and ancestor worship were the most important part of tribal life and it was absolutely superstitious, hierarchal, etc.
The relationship between religion and the start of civilization is complex and debated; while some theories propose that organized religion fostered social cohesion and thus enabled civilization to develop, new research suggests religion, especially moralizing gods, may have been a result of increasing social complexity, not a precursor. However, evidence from sites like Göbekli Tepe indicates organized religion could have predated agriculture, suggesting a reversed sequence where the human drive for religious gathering spurred the settlement necessary for civilization
Ok. Just the same, people who are not religious also look for something bigger to do or to leave in this world. It's not that they lose the purpose. I'd say it's a natural behaviour. It's this same human tendency that made religions arise.
Before organized religion, dreams and ancestor worship were the most important part of tribal life and it was absolutely superstitious, hierarchal, etc.
This is if you believe our civilization arouse from a tribe.
No its not at all the same. People who say they are "spiritual" do it for selfish reasons. There is absolutely no higher purpose.
Hunter gatherers were pre-civilization
See this is assuming we know religion as what it is today, but people back then had a bicameral mind meaning that religion was just auditory delusions and dreams.
Religion as a higher creative function rather than schizophrenia only begins with the Axial Age
Have you only just worked that out.
Hey Doc.
"Civilization" is always relative to any society at a given moment in time.
So "pre-civilization" was when exactly?
The seeds of religion were already planted before early civilization.
No its not at all the same. People who say they are "spiritual" do it for selfish reasons.
People are spiritual beacuse they're tired of all the fuckery religions teach.
Spirituality is not so different to religiousity. I'd argue the only difference is that spirituality is a very personal path, whereas religiousity implies a hierarchical organization and so it's mandatory to obey and not question anything it's told.
Spirituality is more flexible, more intuitive. It's not tied to what a book that nobody knows how it appeared says. Spirituality doesn't coerse, religions do. Spirituality doesn't judge, religions do.
I'd be glad to know in what way spiritual people are selfish.
Whether spiritual people are "misguided" as much as religious people is a subjective viewpoint; some argue that a lack of structure or accountability in individual spirituality can lead to inconsistencies or self-centeredness, similar to how the rigid structures of some religions can lead to unquestioning adherence to dogma, while others see spirituality as a valuable path to personal meaning, hope, and connection to something larger than oneself, whether within or outside religious frameworks.
Arguments that spiritual people can be misguided:
The people who are "spiritual" are just hippies who want to be promiscuous and hedonist. Let's not pretend like these are sophisticated philosophers.
I am open to entertaining anything that doesn't defy the laws of physics or contradict basic biology and reproduction.
That might have been true back in the sixties, but it's not like that anymore. Your average new ager is a housewife with kids.
The people who are "spiritual" are just hippies who want to be promiscuous and hedonist.
You say that like it's a bad thing?
The people who are "spiritual" are just hippies who want to be promiscuous and hedonist. Let's not pretend like these are sophisticated philosophers.
Come on, Franklin. You're generalising.
It's true that hippies were the first to catch the trend but nowadays you can find people of any kind being spiritual, which usually means following Jesus' teachings but not belonging to any church, nor being submissive to religious leaders, nor practicing stupid rituals.
Those are the new hippies
It is
No they're just hippies. Maybe not as hedonistic now, but still are.
