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Goodbye Jesus

Atheists With Spirituality


greylight

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So, it's been a few years since I feel like I have fully decinverted and finally put the relgion behind me. There was a brief time where I was intrested in the supernatural, but eventually I became an atheist. However, I feel there is still part of me that needs some sort of connection to the spiritual. Even though I don't believe in the supernatural, or anything like that. For a while this really bothered me, because it felt like a betrayal to myself. I don't know if this has to do with my emotional personality, or maybe I am trying to connect back to my childhood sense of magic, that was taken away by xianity. In either case, I very recently came to accept this part of me, and I'm not trying to fight it anymore.  I read a book that was required from my graduate class, and it kind of solidified for me. So, what I found for myself is art-making can bring a sense of self-knowledge and peace, similar to meditation. There is the ritual of using the art materials, and creating an art work is a meditative practice. Even tapping into certain symbols and metaphors in your own life and creating images to aknowledge these aspects of yourself. I can call  these personal myths or symbols which is freeing to me,  because I am aknowledging my idenity at an atheist.

 

This is still a bit of a paradox for me, since I am a non-beliver who has found an particular outlet for spirituality. I am wondering, if there are any atheists here who found they still want to practice some sort of spirituality, and what kind do you practice?

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Guest MadameX

I am totally an atheist and I see no contradiction between being one and in appreciating the soothing that can come from ritual, quiet contemplation, the ecstasy of dance, or joy of music, of feeling connected to people and to nature around me.

 

:-)

 

On a more practical level, I am a Unitarian Universalist. Through the church community there I have found like souls, a sense of community (*very* important), intellectual challenge, the gift of singing with others, Zen meditation classes and more.

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I see spirituality very closely related to art. Why should I give it up just because I don't believe in BibleGod? I would see that as diminishing my life to a considerable extent.

 

I decided to focus on Buddhism for the last 8 years, but I am on a very individual journey and would not really promote it for others, unless they are interested.

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I wouldn't say I'm spiritual, per se, but I have found the route to deconversion to be very difficult so far (at least emotionally) and have delved into some more spiritual, inward kind of things since.

 

For example, meditation. I have been meditating nightly and it always puts me in a calm trance. I get to sleep much quicker now. 

 

Additionally, I kind of make psychology and philosophy my "spirituality". Learning how the mind ticks and subsequently interpreting what fills mine is my method of getting over many of the fears that Christianity has induced. Additionally, researching philosophy helps make me comfortable about abandoning Christianity, because it opens my mind and shows me that absolute certainty is a lie. I don't know if that makes full sense, but it helps "enlighten" me so I don't feel like I'm ignorantly leaving Christianity. :-)

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I wouldn't say I'm spiritual, per se, but I have found the route to deconversion to be very difficult so far (at least emotionally) and have delved into some more spiritual, inward kind of things since.

 

For example, meditation. I have been meditating nightly and it always puts me in a calm trance. I get to sleep much quicker now. 

 

Additionally, I kind of make psychology and philosophy my "spirituality". Learning how the mind ticks and subsequently interpreting what fills mine is my method of getting over many of the fears that Christianity has induced. Additionally, researching philosophy helps make me comfortable about abandoning Christianity, because it opens my mind and shows me that absolute certainty is a lie. I don't know if that makes full sense, but it helps "enlighten" me so I don't feel like I'm ignorantly leaving Christianity. :-)

 

Oh, yes - music is my life. I find a spiritual bliss in music far better than any god could satisfy. When I listen to music I get caught up in the sounds. I have perfect pitch. It's literally quite innate. Artistic expression is very, very "spiritual" for me, in that it makes me feel myself. 

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A book that helped me was "The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality" by Andre Compe-Sponville. There was a point when I thought that being an atheist meant not believing in any type of wonder at all, and I found it to be quite unsatisfactory. At the present time, I guess I'd call myself a pantheist with some pagan leanings. Not in the sense of having many gods, but an appreciation of Mother Nature and the different beauties that she provides us - recognition of the lunar cycles and the solar cycles, a new view of how we need to preserve the earth, not abuse it, and a whole different look on animals than I thought I'd ever have. 

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Here's a few similar threads: 

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/54536-the-primacy-of-consciousness/

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/60888-natural-panentheism/

 

Similar in that the spirituality being discussed is a naturalist based one as opposed to the usual supernatural versions. 

 

But to the point of this spiritual art outlet you have going, I'm behind it 100% 

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From my perspective, atheism is simply a lack of belief in a "god". Typically gods are projections of a kind of super-human on king-like throne, or some other such thing. Some atheists are also materialists and deny anything that cannot be handled or proven to exist. Spirituality is much more general, and is open to possibilities while still saying "I don't know". Many of us who have deconverted also have some kind of spiritual practice, though the practices don't always have a name. Some have had near-death experiences that led them in a certain direction, others found themselves gravitating towards other ways. But typically all of these paths recognize the validity of the other paths and find joy in the diversity. My own way finds connection with nature, and through meditation I sometimes connect with what seem to be other beings, but then again they are part of me and vice versa.

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This probably sounds harsh, but the way i see spirituality is like "bullshit in a new jacket".
Same a Christianity but for people that have a little more common sense.

 

No offense meant, i have been there to, so i can relate.

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I think that you may be onto something, greylight.  It doesn't sound like you associate any this with religion, but I see secularized Hindus doing similar things, choosing a god symbol which represents something they wish to embody.  As far back as we can see into human history we can see that the arts have been closely tied to and emerging from cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices.  I'm still attracted to those cultural elements.  I've followed the writings of progressive Christians who have redefined Christian dogmas as poetry and blurred the line between Christian faith and atheism.  They've applied Christian symbolism to secular humanism.  I wish that I saw more cultures continue to embrace positive aspects of their religious heritages while adapting to new information.  I fear that modernism is still robbing people of their culture as it spreads.

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I can reach the 'flow' very easily when creating art, and artistic expression can be a spiritual experience. Did it long before I understood what it was, or that people use meditation, religion and ritual to do it also.

 

I never considered it a spiritual thing, but now that it's mentioned, sure… ya, it could be.

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I think so too. When engaged in art or music there's a flow of energy pouring out from within you that can come off as pretty spiritual 

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This is pretty much how I am now. I'm nothing in particular. I've gotten to a point out past all the labels and definitions of theist, atheist, religious, areligious, philosophy, dogma, etc. It doesn't matter. I think feelings of reverence, sacredness, and connection to the grand scheme of things are very healthy to practice, however you choose to do it. They don't have to be attached to religion. 

I pretty much take religious ritual, symbolism, prose, music, and imagery as a tool to help sort out and understand very abstract thoughts that are otherwise impossible to describe. I'll borrow stuff from whatever catches my fancy and best helps me understand whatever concept I'm working on at the moment. Most often that's various New-Age pagan traditions, Buddhism, and even Christianity.

I honestly can't answer the question "Do you worship (a) God?" to myself or anyone else. There are so many definitions of what a god is that I either do or I don't depending on what you pick.

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