Enlighten Me

I think the term "spiritual" is used metaphorically in reference to such things as love, compassion, and appreciation of beauty and nature...

Starboy

Perhaps but it leaves open the question what is a metaphor for what? Better to use the down to earth terms.

Starboy

rfwu

That would be an Agnostic. The only admittingly ignorant people who are ironically the least ignorant.

When I think of spirituality (not the English definition kind), I think that secular humanists are the closest to being spiritual.

joedad

I certainly consider myself a spirited person, but not spiritual.

Eudaimonist

If by spiritual you mean "having an interest in supernatural or disembodied intelligent beings", then I suppose this is possible. Atheists don't believe in God, but an atheist might believe in ghosts or life after death.

If by spiritual you mean "having non-materialistic interests", such as seeking deep feelings of being alive, or self-esteem, or some other "internal" goals relating to one's self, then this is certainly possible. I consider myself spiritual in this sense.

Krieger

Since "atheist" just means that you do not believe in deities, then you could believe in other supernatural things and still be an atheist.

A materialist is of course one who does not believe in anything supernatural.

captainpabst

In order to consider myself spiritual, I would have to define spirituality as: The part of the personal human experience that is not immediately dependent upon the external senses; the isolated workings of the mind; thought. Then, yes, I can say that there is more to the human experience than what is objectively real, and this subjective element functions in our individual experiences and is worth noting. This, however, in no way posits a god or the supernatural.

Walross

rfwu wrote:

Yup, I'm agnostic as well. I don't mean to get all semantical (I know, I know, that's not even a word) but, since they don't quite address the same things, agnosticism and atheism are not mutually exclusive.

Anyhoo...sorry to get off topic .

iridium

I think people use the word spiritual without having the first clue what they mean by it. It's a buzz word and nothing more to try and make people feel like they sound less cold as they may see "true" atheism (? ) to be, or lamely to sound cool and trendy.

If you are an athist you can't be spiritual in a religious sense obviously. The only other sense really is in the idea of a human soul which in itself is yet another self indulgent fantasy created by man to make us feel better as far as I can see.

So can you be and spiritual atheist, no.

Ebonmuse

I agree with the other posters that if "spirituality" is defined in the traditional sense as "having an interest in the supernatural", then no, atheists can't really be spiritual. I don't define it that way, though. If you strip away the religious connotations, I think spirituality can more properly be defined as the feeling of cosmic wonder and awe you experience upon looking into something much greater than yourself, and in that sense, yes, I think atheists can be very spiritual.

Ed Weathers said it best in his article "The Empty Box" (http://www.memphisflyer.com/MFSearch...rom=2&aID=2277):

"A man truly awake does not need religion. He doesn't need gods. He doesn't need miracles. He doesn't need holy lands here below or celestial heavens up above. For him, life in this universe is itself holy, as is every patch of ground and every path he walks. Life itself is enough of a miracle. To believe in a god who made this life is to believe in a miracle even greater than this miracle. Who needs more than one unfathomable miracle? Existence is a fluke, a freak, a wonder, a dream, a bizarre uncanny thing. Our own consciousness of this existence is so incredible a phenomenon that I don't understand why anyone feels the need to believe in anything else more "spiritual." It's all spiritual. It's all true magic. Why add imagined magic to explain the magic that is right before us?"