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Do you consider yourself spiritual?

Senex

Philosopher
Senex
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
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Location
The Connecticut School for Rumpology.
Last night I had a late night discussion with friends who don't believe in god. I asked them to affirm that that they were not spiritual people. That was an unpopular position to take. My position was that if you don't believe in spirits you can't be spiritual.

I know it is an issue of definition so please don't look it up -- just state if you believe you are spiritual or not and why.
 
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I wouldn't call myself spiritual, because although I don't reject the idea that I might consist of body, mind and spirit, I don't pay my possible spirit much attention. I'm mostly concerned with my mind.

But since it appears to be the ethereal equalivent of good-looking, I wouldn't object if anyone else called me spiritual. :D
 
Not spiritual. My new god isn't some imaginary phantom, so all of my sacraments are empirical.
 
I've always found the term spiritual odd.

Isn't that like asking whether people are physical? Or biological?

Either everyone has a spirit, or they don't. If they don't, then no one is spiritual. If they do, then everyone is spiritual.

Not believing I have a spirit, I'd have to go with non-spiritual. But I don't consider anyone else spiritual either, so it does't bother me much that I'm not.:)
 
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Nope. And I get really annoyed with people who say "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." When sincerely asked to explain what they mean, it is obvious they don't even know what they believe.

I agree with George Carlin:
"spirituallity: The last refuge of the failed human. Just another way of distracting yourself from who you really are."
 
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'Spirituality' is a concept put about by 'spiritualists'.

The rest of us have to put up with reality.
 
No, I'm an atheist and don't use the word "spiritual". I don't know what other people mean when they use it - it sounds like fluffy bollocks to me.
 
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If spiritual means "having a deep appreciation for the beauty and complexity of life, the universe, and everything," then yes. If it means "prone to belief in, and promotion of, a cobbled-together collection of irrational, unprovable concepts and soundbytes of feel-good philosophy" (which, in my experience, is what it tends to mean in practice), then no.
 
I'm not "spiritual" because I don't believe that "spirits" (gods, souls, angels, demons, fairies, etc) exist to begin with.

Philosophical? Yes. Contemplative? Yes. However, you don't need supernatural silliness to be either of these.
 
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"Spirituel" in French can also mean "witty". Do you also have that alternate definition in English?
 
40 proof spiritual maybe...

All kidding aside, no fluffy metaphysical nonsense is going to steal my humanity from me.


I could buy much more spiritualness I could be if I were to...

Win Powerball!!!
 
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"Spiritual" is the new "Agnostic". It is what nonbelievers sometimes feed to the theist public in order to not be hated. As several prominent Republicans, including Bush and Romney have demonstrated, it is still okay to disparage secular people. But so long as you have anything that vaguely resembles religion (like spirituality) then you're okay.

Spiritual, unlike religious, doesn't require that you pick any particular spirit to believe in or really even define what "spiritual" means. It is just accepted by the masses that it means that you aren't totally godless. In other words, there's hope for you.

***
When I was typing this post I mistyped "agnostic" as "agnonstic". I wish to now define a new philosophy called "Agnonstick" because you can put any kind of belief into it and it all just kind of slides off.
 
The meaning of spiritual is more complex than believing in spirits or not. 'Spiritual' is sometimes more caught up in the recent term 'cultural creative'.

There is a poetic sense to the word 'spiritual' that is more complex than merely asserting a belief in spirits or not. Describing yourself as spiritual might be as correct or incorrect as saying 'I follow my heart', or 'I enjoy the sunrise'.

I don't think that labels like 'spiritual' or not are all that important though.
 
Quinn said:
If spiritual means "having a deep appreciation for the beauty and complexity of life, the universe, and everything," then yes. If it means "prone to belief in, and promotion of, a cobbled-together collection of irrational, unprovable concepts and soundbytes of feel-good philosophy" (which, in my experience, is what it tends to mean in practice), then no.
Click to expand...

I fully agree. Well said.
 
Quinn said:
If spiritual means "having a deep appreciation for the beauty and complexity of life, the universe, and everything," then yes. If it means "prone to belief in, and promotion of, a cobbled-together collection of irrational, unprovable concepts and soundbytes of feel-good philosophy" (which, in my experience, is what it tends to mean in practice), then no.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Quinn!

I was going to say, 'No', but I like your response better.

It is important not to let the fools define all of our terms.
 
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