Spiritual Atheism?
March 29, 2008 — C R StameyExperience of the transcendent is universal. Though I do not believe the sensation is supernatural, the experience itself is undeniable. A post at de-conversion.com makes an appeal to understand a skeptic’s right to share in this. I am not completely on- board with the post’s repeated use of the term “spiritual”; I think “numinous” would have been better. Still, I hope it may speak to those in religious traditions that feel awe at the Universe is limited to dogmatic observance.
March 29, 2008 at 7:53 am
It’s always hard for me to decide whether or not to use the word spiritual or not. In fact, this articles ends with this thought:
In writing about spirituality, I find myself wondering if I am unintentionally empowering religious extremists by embracing their words. I’m not sure if those of us who do not believe in a personified deity should use the words that religions use at all. When I use the terms “spiritual,” “transcendence,” and “miracle,” as metaphors, am I causing confusion? Can spirituality be explained without using the terms of religious experience?
I do like the word numinous, but I’m not sure that most religious people would understand what I meant by that term. Numinous, to me, means the feeling of an experience, while spiritual has a larger meaning of living your life in a way that both honors or appreciates the numinous/mysterious and is infused with purpose. For the believer, that purpose comes from God, for the unbeliever, that purpose comes from ourselves.
April 1, 2008 at 8:23 am
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