sighhswolf

Perchance,
For what it's worth, "spirituality" does not necessarily mean organized religion.
It is only my personal opinion and I am pretty much in the minority when I say this but I think a person can be "spiritual" without a belief in a supreme being.
I see spirituality as an appreciation for art,
for poetry, and for fiction, and even word of mouth storytelling.
I equate spirituality with a reverence for the earth on which we live and the natural wonders it contains.
We cannot take the human spirit out of our existence and replace it with total rationality
and reasoning, logical thought processes without emotion, we would doom ourselves to a very hard life without the beauty and enrichment of our human "spirits".
This is not god, it is not Jesus, it is certainly
not organized religion, it is the awe and respect
we have for the Eagle in flight.

It is the majesty of the mountains, and coolness
of mountain streams filled with trout.
It is the call of the Owl in early morning.
It is the quiet softness of a fresh fallen snow.
It is the warmth we feel when with our loved ones.
It is the pride we feel when our children gain their own lives and the respect of their peers.

The Holy Bible is a fine and beautiful work, a work of fiction that can be enjoyed for what it is.
Only when it is perverted into something it is not
does it become unacceptable.

Wolf

Gurdur

Only where religions or ideologies transgressed.

For example, I live in a society where it is illegal to make the Nazi salute in public.
There are good reasons for that.
I happen to like the society I live in, (despite not being a citizen); despite the limitations (such as public incitements to violence or racism being forbidden), the society has a great deal of freedom.

IOW, I can't see what you're so worried about, especially since with the demise of Stalin and Mao, atheists don't seem much to be actively repressing or destroying religious culture anywhere as such.

You already have limits; hard child pornography, for example, would probably not be allowed as "art" in many places.

So what ?

It's only a question of decideing what the limits are.
In which case it would no longer be humanism --- in my terms.

While I kinda like your questions, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

Perchance

Wow. That was beautiful.

It expressed feelings that I've had, but which seem to have little to no place in most "religion vs. secularism" discussions. I sometimes feel as though anything less than "total rationality and reasoning" is not welcomed by the non-religious, and anything less than complete belief is not welcomed by the religious.

It's nice to know that there's at least one other person who thinks it's all right to stop breathing when you see a sunset, or feel that something's struck you in the heart when you read a good piece of poetry.

Thank you.

-Perchance.

Perchance

Originally posted by Gurdur:

I've been told in the past that I tend to do that. I suppose I'm so detail-obsessed that I keep digging into things, and running thoughts to ground, that have no real way of happening.

Thanks for responding.

-Perchance.