Can an atheist be spiritual?

[muriel_volestrangler]

Some people who say they have no belief in the supernatural nevertheless describe themselves as 'spiritual'. Is there a commonly accepted meaning of 'spiritual' that can match this? Alternatively, am I going to far by describing anyone with no supernatural beliefs as atheist?

My personal position is that without the supernatural, 'spirituality' is too amorphous a term to be of much use - does it mean "awe of nature", "compassion", "empathy" or what?

[Modem Butterfly]

1. It depends on what you mean by spiritual

I agree, it's an amorphous term. I've always understood the term "spiritual" to mean anyone who's in touch with an unseen spirtual realm, whether that means diety/ies, Mother Earth, departed ancesters, or The Force, and in that sense, I'd say no, someone who has no belief in the unseen realm can describe themselves as spiritual. On the other hand, some folks define "spiritual" as being in touch with one's own consciousness (what theists might define as the "soul"), and in that respect, I suppose that one who has no belief in the supernatural could describe themselves as being spiritual, though I suppose it would cause quite a bit of cognitive dissonance for others.

[Longhorn]

2. Well, you got me thinking, as posts in the groups usually do!

So I went to www.dictionary.com to look up the definition.

spir·i·tu·al, adj.

1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.

2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.

3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.

4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.

5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.

Of course, to understand "spiritual," one must know what "spirit" means so I looked it up next.

spir·it, n.

1. The vital principle or animating force within living beings.
Incorporeal consciousness.

2. The soul, considered as departing from the body of a person at death.

3. Spirit The Holy Spirit.

4. A supernatural being, as: an angel or a demon; a being inhabiting or embodying a particular place, object, or natural phenomenon; a fairy or sprite.

5. The part of a human associated with the mind, will, and feelings: Though unable to join us today, they are with us in spirit; the essential nature of a person or group.

6. A person as characterized by a stated quality: He is a proud spirit.

7. An inclination or tendency of a specified kind: Her actions show a generous spirit; a causative, activating, or essential principle: The couple's engagement was announced in a joyous spirit.

8. A mood or an emotional state: The guests were in high spirits. His sour spirits put a damper on the gathering.

9. A particular mood or an emotional state characterized by vigor and animation: sang with spirit.

10. Strong loyalty or dedication: team spirit.

11. The predominant mood of an occasion or a period: “The spirit of 1776 is not dead” (Thomas Jefferson).

12. The actual though unstated sense or significance of something: the spirit of the law.

13. An alcohol solution of an essential or volatile substance. Often used in the plural with a singular verb.

14. An alcoholic beverage, especially distilled liquor.

To me, definitions 1 and 5 hold the most meaning so I believe I am spiritual in that sense. When I first realized that I was an atheist, part of my rationale was that I look to within myself for strength in times of trouble and I always have. My Christian family cannot understand how this is possible and they have this, "You just wait until something really bad happens" attitude -- the old "there are no atheists in foxholes" lie. And I always told myself that if I ever found myself praying to a god, "just in case," then I would quit being a hypocrite and profess a belief. However, it has never happened and the idea seems ludicrous to me now.

[fshrink]

4. I vote for definition # 14!

And again.

[leftofthedial]

3. "atheist" disbelieves the existence of deities

an atheist may or may not believe in the existence of a "spirit." A belief that people have a "spirit" does not require a belief in a deity.

Personally, I believe that people have brains and other organs. They do thing throughout their lives that have an impact on others and on the world around them, but there is no entity that exists outside or beyond their physical body. When the physical body dies, the memories we have of that person live on, the "residue" of how they lived their life lives on, perhaps their works live on. but the person is gone.

Our language has insufficient vocabulary to describe the consciousness, animation, "life force, connectedness, essence, substance, or whatever else you want to call it, of a person., so we use "spiritual" to mean whatever we want it to mean. The word "soul" has even stronger religious connotations, but it is still a valid word to describe the characteristics of a person that inform their actions and transcend any one particular event in their life.

[robbedvoter]

5. "Awe for the wonders of the universe" - I remember the words

from my membership card in the American Humanist Society. I suppose that would be the part in the definition of secular humanism that makes room for the need to look beyond the tangible.

[fshrink]

6. At bottom, this is a philosophical issue.

It's the old Platonician debate about things as we perceive them and things "in themselves". One could name the second term as an essentialist perspective, since it assumes that the essence of things is what defines them, while the first term could be named phenomenological, since it assumes no more than we can perceive.
Beliefs grow out of the essentialist perspective, as does racism by the way.
But! The phenomenological perspective is also divided into the empiricist and the rationalist perspectives. The latter assumes the existence of an underlying order (Descartes, Kant), accessible to our perception, while the former assumes strictly nothing (Hume) but coincidences.
Now, you can slip easily from rationalism to essentialism, from one sub-perspective to a full perspective, and the other way around, although this is not rigorously valid, which I think most people on GD do, without being aware of it of course.
In that context, I would say that the notion of spirit sits right in the middle: could be essentialist concept, could be rationalist concept. Which is pretty well reflected in the dictionary definitions.
Moral of the story, one has to define , first and explicitly, the perspective under which one is speaking, and, in fact, it would be way more productive to oppose one perspective to the other without involving sub-perspectives.
But when people fight on the momentum of unconscious fantasies, they will tend to aim for the gray zone because they feel that it allows them to fulfill both aspects, the real and the fantasized. A compromise.
Sorry about this heavy block!

[Biased Liberal Media]

7. Absolutely

I believe in meditation and cleansing your soul, I believe in karma, I believe in reincarnation (particularly souls that have just died going into the souls of newly born babes). I am trying to become more spiritual in the sense of loving the earth and protecting and taking care of it, as well as learning more about my own soul. Has not a thing to do with any god.