enlighten me please!
So God is non-exist ant but we have spirits that came from amoeba? Lil...kinda sarcastic, but I don't understand the spiritual aspect of it. Help
Atheism is one thing and one thing only: The concept that there is no deity by any name of any kind.
All else is on a person-by-person basis. For example, some atheists here had harsh words for me when I asked a question wondering if anyone else did rituals to honor various deities even though they don't believe in them, as I do rituals often to honor the symbol of Fenris, Grandfather Wolf, Geri and Freki, and all the other cultural symbols of the Deified Male Wolf... but I understand them as symbols, not gods, concepts that are so deeply significant to me that they speak to the deepest parts of me, the parts of me that are so intense that they go, to me, beyond human, the parts of me that feel more lupine than hominid, the parts that crave to run through the woods under a full moon for no reason other than to feel free and whole.
I don't begrudge them their harsh words. They are likely still recovering from religious pasts. Many of them do not understand the concept of a psychodrama or the deep and powerful impact it can have on a participant. They know where I stand, if they wish to experience or discuss, they may, if they don't, that's for them.
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No, I don't believe that there are spirits either. I suppose I define spiritualism differently than you, so let me define it as I define it, not as perhaps you or the dictionary define it -- Spiritualism is, to me, the exploration of what it is to be me, as I was, as I am, as I will be, as I wanted to be, as I want to be now, as I want to be in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years from now.
Neither. Atheism is ONE thing: being without belief in the existence of gods. After that, EVERYTHING ELSE is left up to the individual atheist. I'd like to stress that atheism is not a "religion". It does not in any way qualify.
Depends on your definition of spiritual. I think so.
And a lot of theists apparently think atheism is its own religion anyway.
FOLLOWING up on your spirituality question -- it depends very much on what you mean by spirit. A lot of people claim that super naturalism is synonymous with spiritualism, but I think talk of ghosts and spells cheapens spirituality in some sense.
There are plenty of religions that don't adopt super naturalism in their spiritualism. For example, Buddhism and Taoism are both generally atheistic, but very spiritual.
There are certainly spiritual belief systems that do not believe in a god or gods. In addition, atheism is certainly an important component of religion and spirituality. The lack of something is just as valid a topic within that category as any other belief or explanation or point of view.
You can still feel spiritually connected to the earth and to other people without believing in one omnipotent being or the christian conception of god.
I define spiritual as striving towards a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it. I define religious as all of the trappings people use to achieve that understanding (God, the bible, church, praying). I guess that's a pretty optimistic view of "religious" since I don't believe most people who go to church are after a deeper understanding, but that's beside the point.
I am atheist and I consider myself spiritual. I am not religious and I think religion is all man-made and pointless.
I am opposed to religion. It is destroying this country, and is the source of just about every violent act in the world today. And that concerns me. The warm fuzzier you get from believing in a magic man in the sky does not. It is a subject that I debate all the time. If you are questioning why an atheist would be in this section, there is your answer.
And actually, Soulfire... an atheist denies the existence of a god, nothing more. I'm a Taoist, myself.
Whoever just said an atheist can be Buddhist has a very poor understanding of the word atheist, and an even worse understanding of Buddhism.
That's like saying you can be vegetarian and still eat chicken and pork.
Atheism is the belief that there is no spiritual component to the Universe. Atheists believe there is no God or deity, no Angels, no soul or spirit, or anything else along those lines. They see the Universe as a huge cosmic accident, a big complex machine basically, and everything that happens in the Universe is just a bunch of physical occurrences and chemical reactions and "you" as a being do not exist, except as the result of all the electrochemical reactions going on in your brain.
It's really an interesting idea, but once you start to understand quantum physics, you will see the fabric of the Universe is not a sterile lifeless mechanical thing. I don't know if there is a "God" per SE but there is definitely more going on here than what it would appear to be.
I think it is religious.
Here is why:
Let's examine the word, "atheism."
The "ism" means that it is a philosophy, or way of thinking, so we are dealing with a worldview.
"A" is the Greek privatize, meaning that it negates the meaning of the word it is attached to.
???? in Greek, transliterated as "Theo's," is "God."
Thus the word "atheist" means someone with a worldview of affirming a negative, that there is no God.
Since God is spirit (John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."), and the atheist has denied the existence of God, therefore for the atheist, atheism cannot be spiritual. The only conclusion you leave is that atheism is religious in nature.
This also assumes that the atheist knows everything, in order to state that there is absolutely NO poss ability of God.
Atheism is the religious belief (requiring faith - to believe without solid proof) that there is no God or gods.
This does NOT mean that there could not be a Prue-life, an afterlife, or spirits that fit outside the definition of "gods."
Technically speaking, a number of Native American spiritual beliefs are atheistic, with "the great spirit" being a cover to explain their belief system to monotheists, but is probably more akin to the Tao (Dao), which is also, technically speaking, not a god.
Is Atheism Spiritual or Religious?
