Question for the Atheist

Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
Location
Central NY
Do you have a need to worship/support a higher power?

Do you replace god with something else?

Do you believe in spirituality?

Can you be spiritual and not believe in god?

Do you have/attend a formal group for discussion and socialization?
 

I'm an atheist but pray every day. Not to a God, or Jesus, or any higher power, I pray to the cosmos. The reason I pray is it forces me to reflect, I pay gratitude for the good in my life and express regret for the sins of my life.

I don't expect my prayers to be answered but I hear my own prayers with the hope of making me a better human.
 

C50 said:
I'm an atheist but pray every day. Not to a God, or Jesus, or any higher power, I pray to the cosmos. The reason I pray is it forces me to reflect, I pay gratitude for the good in my life and express regret for the sins of my life.

I don't expect my prayers to be answered but I hear my own prayers with the hope of making me a better human.
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As far as Praying it is important to me to vocalize care and concern for things that come to mind such as circumstance, people and myself health wise
 
Mr. Ed said:
As far as Praying it is important to me to vocalize care and concern for things that come to mind such as circumstance, people and myself health wise
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I laugh at the hypocrites ( of all religions ) who act as if they have access to some secret knowledge. The foundations of most religions are..Get the kids when they are young and indoctrinate them, before they develop independent thinking ability. Make the faithful feel GUILTY, and play on that for all it's worth. GET THE MONEY. PROMISE them everything you can think of, but all ways have the "weasel words " handy if the flock starts to ask " difficult questions " about the leadership of the sect. Make the dogma as complicated as possible, so the simple minded will be happy, and not asking WHY?

The signs are all there, if you bother to look. JimB.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Well, since there is no god, there is no need to worship it. No god also means the trappings of a god- heaven, hell, salvation, angels, etc., do not exist.
If by "spirituality", you mean ghosts and the like, there are no such things.
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Stand by for incoming hate messages from the "faithful " . I fully support your points, fuzzy. JimB.
 
I'm not a religious person, but a spiritual person.

Reality is quite different from the way we experience it. We perceive colors, and yet there are no colors in the things we see.
The human body is made up of 50 to 60 percent water, but we don't experience it that way. The sun doesn't rise or set, and yet we still perceive it that way.

How can people know the nature of reality when all that people have immediate access to are appearances?
In many ways, we are actually cut off from true reality, and all that we have is our interpretation of it. We have all heard the phrase that things are not what they seem. Our experience of reality is constructed by our brain. It generally works well enough to survive, but it is far from accurate.

Many involved in deep meditation take a different path, and set aside the physical senses in favor of letting their mind simply focus on the energy that is pervasive throughout the universe. We are also entirely made up of that energy (Again despite appearances), so it makes sense that energy can relate to energy. This is spiritual awakening or enlightenment. It is becoming aware of, and being synced up with the ocean of energy that is everywhere.

Personally, I experience it in nature (Eco-spirituality). One has to give time for their mind to come to a complete rest (Which may take up to 20 minutes until the mind quiets), but after that happens, you begin to merge with the energy there, and soak it in. It is an extra-sensory experience. That being said, I don't interpret it as "God" in the classical sense, but it is renewing and extremely fulfilling. I won't attempt to put a label on it, nor do I fully understand it. It's just there and deeply satisfying.
 
bobcat said:
I'm not a religious person, but a spiritual person.

Reality is quite different from the way we experience it. We perceive colors, and yet there are no colors in the things we see.
The human body is made up of 50 to 60 percent water, but we don't experience it that way. The sun doesn't rise or set, and yet we still perceive it that way.

How can people know the nature of reality when all that people have immediate access to are appearances?
In many ways, we are actually cut off from true reality, and all that we have is our interpretation of it. We have all heard the phrase that things are not what they seem. Our experience of reality is constructed by our brain. It generally works well enough to survive, but it is far from accurate.

Many involved in deep meditation take a different path, and set aside the physical senses in favor of letting their mind simply focus on the energy that is pervasive throughout the universe. We are also entirely made up of that energy (Again despite appearances), so it makes sense that energy can relate to energy. This is spiritual awakening or enlightenment. It is becoming aware of, and being synced up with the ocean of energy that is everywhere.

Personally, I experience it in nature (Eco-spirituality). One has to give time for their mind to come to a complete rest (Which may take up to 20 minutes until the mind quiets), but after that happens, you begin to merge with the energy there, and soak it in. It is an extra-sensory experience. That being said, I don't interpret it as "God" in the classical sense, but it is renewing and extremely fulfilling. I won't attempt to put a label on it, nor do I fully understand it. It's just there and deeply satisfying.
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Its called "life"
 
jimintoronto said:
Stand by for incoming hate messages from the "faithful ". JimB.
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Not from me. I respect all choices of spirituality that aren't dark or hurtful because no one has all the answers.
But I have found what I was once looking for...I'm a Christian and don't belong in this thread so I'm out.
 
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Do you have a need to worship/support a higher power?
No.

Do you replace god with something else?
No.

Do you believe in spirituality?
I don't believe in spirits.

Can you be spiritual and not believe in god?
See previous answer...

Do you have/attend a formal group for discussion and socialization?
No.
 
Do you have a need to worship/support a higher power?

No, I can't empathize with the impulse to worship. I do think there is something greater which may correspond to what some call God but it doesn't seem in need of worship to me. Likewise I don't worship any sports, literary or political heroes. Guess I just don't put much stock in worship generally.

Do you replace god with something else?

No, what I think of as greater isn't anything like another, separate being to me. Sometimes I think many religious traditions have substituted something simplistic like a beardy guy in the sky for what is really greater. I don't think of it as anything like a person. It is something deserving greater esteem and respect than any person possibly could ever earn.

Do you believe in spirituality?

That word has a negative connotation for me as something essentially escapist, a perspective from which one regards their life and the world with detachment as something abstract. Of course not everybody who identifies as spiritual embodies that quality and I like many other qualities of people who are spiritual.

Can you be spiritual and not believe in god?

Who knows? That would depend on what one thought "God" and "spiritual" referred to.

Do you have/attend a formal group for discussion and socialization?

I haven't and probably won't but I have a little holy envy toward those who do and find fulfillment in it. Mostly I am pro-faith and believe everyone has faith in something, whether that is a deity, a higher power, materialism or the adequacy of science to ultimately answer all questions. I think we all have aspects of our worldview which cannot entirely be justified on more general terms. Life kind of requires us to have some sort of template by which we make some sense of our experience. Those provided by religion have the advantage of having evolved naturally along with our capacity to form civilizations.
 
Do you have a need to worship/support a higher power? No. My higher powers were my parents until I could adequately function under my own power.

Do you replace god with something else? No. I do my best to abide by the laws that govern the society I'm a member of, but I don't consider the creators of laws gods of any sort. Wise men, some of them.

Do you believe in spirituality? Are you asking if I believe we have a spirit? I believe we might have a spirit of some sort.

Can you be spiritual and not believe in god? Ok, so you're not talking about a spirit inside us. Well, then I'm going to say yes, because I'm sure that not all people who define spirituality differently than I do believe in God.

Do you have/attend a formal group for discussion and socialization? My family and friends are very informal. Based on that, this one's a no.
 
Do you have a need to worship/support a higher power?

The word Atheist means: a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

So I'd need to understand what you mean by "higher power". I mean, what we know as Mother Nature is something I believe in, and the general rule seems to be that nothing gets off this planet alive. It's a system of which we're part, but is it a "higher power"?

Do you replace god with something else?

See above.

Do you believe in spirituality?

Spirituality is defined as: the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

This is a more complex question. I think there's a lot of confusion and questions about what someone means by "spirit" or "soul". I tend to think of it in terms of the spark of life within us, the things that wakes up this mass of atoms that make up the human being. We don't have to try to live, we simply do. So much of what keeps us alive is done automagically within us, and that's truly amazing to me. Is that my soul?

This also delves in consciousness, what is it, where is it? A whole other minefield!

Can you be spiritual and not believe in god?

Should this have ended with "a God"? I mean, across the globe, not everyone believes in the same God. If you meant to infer the Christian God, then it stands to reason that the answer is "yes", because people do it all the time. If you mean generically, perhaps not. But then, to really be sure, you'd have to have a clear definition of what you mean by "spiritual".

Question - if we someday discover Earth was seeded by an alien race from another planet, would they be our Gods?

Do you have/attend a formal group for discussion and socialization?

For what, worship? What group meets to discuss non-belief? :D

For the record, I don't consider myself an atheist, though I have no God belief. I simply have not seen any evidence of a God, so have no reason to believe one exists. As such, I'm more an agnostic. If I were to be visited in the night by God, then I'd be a fool not to believe in him. I have been around religious folk, and in my teens dated a VERY religious girl with whom I attended church three nights a week. My own doubts were never appeased.
 
Lara said:
I'm "faithful" and my response is not at all "hateful"...but what about your post?

I respect all choices of "spirituality" because no one has all the answers.
What I have posted here is what I personally have chosen to believe by faith.

1. Yes. I need a Savior from all things I've done that aren't pleasing to my Creator.
2. Sometimes I unintentionally replace God when I lose focus and try to direct my own path which never works as well.
3. The definition of "spirituality" has developed and expanded over time.
4. No
5. Just moved. Looking now for a group of Christians and non-Christians searching for answers
.
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I hope you find what you are looking for
 
The concept of god was a construction of mankind to provide an answer for the unknown. How did we get here? God created us etc. Why do bad things happen to good people? god’s will. god, let me win the lottery. Answers for the unknown, nonetheless do not confirm or deny the existence of god, but the meaning of god gives an answer.
 
VaughanJB said:
Spirituality is defined as: the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
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To deny our spirituality can lead to overbalancing on the side of our animal natures, which were early described as: Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Sadness. Sadness because it can be self-maintained, addictive, dragged out, destructive, and otherwise too much enjoyed.
 
gruntlabor said:
To deny our spirituality can lead to overbalancing on the side of our animal natures, which were early described as: Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Sadness. Sadness because it can be self-maintained, addictive, dragged out, destructive, and otherwise too much enjoyed.
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oldaunt said:
I once read somewhere that a human is an animal with morals. I never forgot that, and to this day, I wonder about many humans. They claim to be godly yet they have little on the side of morality.
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These two posts go together perfectly. I can't see how or why denying "our spirituality" necessarily leads to anything negative. What I do see, all the time, are people and countries who claim a religion, but act against its basic tenets. For example, I live in the West, and I see a whole lot of Christians doing things Christians shouldn't be doing. As such, I don't see how a spiritual belief negates the issues listed by @gruntlabor.
 
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