Spirituality

Can atheists find spirituality without God?

Depends on what you mean by spirituality. If it means belief in anything supernatural, the answer is no.

 Merriam-Webster says:

the quality or state of being concerned with religion or religious matters : the quality or state of being spiritual

Why ask the question anyway. The implication is that atheists are missing out on something. No, we are not.

Take away the supernatural, and you are still left with everything else. In fact, it's kind of hard to take away the supernatural, because it's not there.

Catholic And Muslim

If your father is Muslim and your mother is Catholic, do you go to heaven?

Leaving Islam: How I became an atheist:

'No matter how many good things you have done before you kick the bucket, if you are not a Muslim, then bad news for you. Even back then, I had a problem accepting that part of the religious teaching' 

Here is the thing, I was born into the Muslim tradition because my father is a Muslim man. However, that was not the only tradition that I was born into.

My mother is a Catholic woman, a devout one in my opinion. When I was very little, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents from my mother’s side. They had to babysit me a lot because both my parents were working back then.

Jesus Would Yell "You're Fired"!

‘Southern Atheist’:

As one Pew Research Center study showed, the percentage of American Christians is on the decline, from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014, and the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, including atheists, is steadily growing (from 16.1 percent to 22.8 percent in that same time).

In much of America, tolerance rules, but in some communities, especially in the Bible Belt, churches can still compel conformity in ways that make atheism a very costly choice. As we have followed the topic, we have met young people estranged from their families and others fired from their jobs. Perhaps most poignant for us are the people we’ve met who sit quietly in the pews every Sunday, pretending to share in a faith they do not have. The time we have spent with Mr. DeWitt has helped us to see that the freedom of religion we cherish in this country is meaningless — unless it is accompanied by an equally valid freedom from it.

Charles Darwin

Letter in which Charles Darwin admits to being an atheist sells for £125,000:

A private letter in which Charles Darwin admits to being an atheist has sold for £125,000.

Charles Darwin is best known for groundbreaking work On The Origin of Species, which set out his theories on evolution and natural selection.

Unsurprisingly, due to the nature of these theories, the British naturalist was dogged by rumous and speculation as to his religious beliefs – of lack of them – however he always shied away from confirming his feelings either way.

Which is why the letter, which has just sold for an astonishing £125,000 at auction in New York, is so fascinating.

In it Darwin unequivocally states that he is an atheist, writing: ‘Dear Sir, I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation and therefore not in Jesus Christ as the son of God. Yours faithfully Ch. Darwin.’

Atheist

God does not exist. The word atheist should not exist.

There is no need for the word. The word nothing already suffices.

I have read quite a bit about atheism. I have just read On Defining Atheism and it has motivated me to write some things I have been contemplating for some time.

I must credit Greg Graffin for these thoughts from his book Anarchy Evolution:

"But I have problems with the word "atheism." It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the band's singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for.

Greg Graffin prefers to call himself a naturalist for this reason. I now prefer the word naturalist to describe myself.

Another problem I see with the word atheist is that many of its definitions have the word God in them. Some use the word deity, or supreme being, or god. Some, however, use the word God as in Christian God.

Simply put, many describe an atheist as a person who does not believe in God. This is problematic. The mindset of a believer is different than that of a non-believer. I believe that deists and theists do not formulate the same meaning of the word atheist that atheists do. To them, God is a truism. There is a God, atheists simply do not believe in Him. To them, atheists do not believe in something that is real.

There is a problem with the construction of the definition. Having the word God in the definition of atheism implies that God exists, and is real. Atheists simply choose to not believe in something that the dictionary defines and has a word for.

The existence of the word atheist elevates the word God and gives it more importance than it deserves. Greg Graffin is a singer, not an ainstrumentalist. People who do not believe in Bigfoot are not called abigfoot. People who do not believe in ghosts are not called aghosts. This is another case of religion being special. It has a special word for those who do not believe.

The word atheist gives an unfair advantage to the religious believer. It is similar to a runner being given a head start or a golfer a handicap. I prefer to think of it as special dispensation.

In nothing we trust.

This Is Good

More Harvard Freshman Identify As Atheist, Agnostic Than Catholic, Protestant, University Survey Finds:

An annual survey of the university's incoming freshman revealed that more students in the class of 2019 identified as atheist or agnostic than as Roman Catholic or Protestant.

An annual survey of Harvard University’s incoming freshman class revealed in September that more students identified as atheist or agnostic than as Roman Catholic or Protestant, suggesting millennials are turning away from traditional American faiths in a country that has long had a Christian majority.

Coming Out As An Atheist

Over at Why Evolution Is True there is a discussion about atheists "coming out". For years I have mulled over this and other related themes.

I agree with Richard Dawkins and his opinion that religion is a form of child abuse:

Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong.

Don't ever tell a child "you belong to this religion" that is child abuse.

I have read various thoughts on this matter, many of which I agree with. I have not discovered anyone who shares some of my opinions on this matter, thoughts that seem to be unique to me, and my way of thinking.

I have read criticisms of the indoctrination of children by a particular religion, criticisms that I agree with. The fact that so many people belong to a particular religion simply because their parents did proves that this indoctrination works. I think that this indoctrination is child abuse. To me this is some form of nightmarish "ovarian lottery".  A lottery in which everyone is a loser. These criticisms are many and varied and well documented elsewhere.

I will try to describe what I alluded to earlier, that which I have not seen described by anyone else. This indoctrination of children is insidious and monstrous. It is a form of institutionalized, immoral propaganda by institutions that claim the moral high ground. Perhaps parents think they are doing the right thing, after all they were indoctrinated as well. The way that this indoctrination is set up gives very little concern for the dissenting or questioning child. In my case, my parents gave very severe signals that dissent or even questioning doubt would not be tolerated. This is all set up in such a way that a child who thinks for himself is pitted against his own parents. How ethical is that? A child wants to believe his parents. To put a child into a position of basically telling his parents that they are liars is horrendous. If a child who disbelieves decides to go along with the status quo the child either ends up lying to their parents or they end up lying to themselves. No matter what the child decides, he or she is left in a no-win situation. That is my position on this matter and it is one reason I have tried not to "come out" to my parents.

Trying to spare my parents pain and hurt worked out in regards to my father. He is dead now and as far as I know never knew that I am an atheist. Somehow my mother found out. She is in her nineties and confined to a wheel chair in a nursing home. Recently, to my surprise, she brought up the topic of my disbelief. "What did I do wrong?" she said. "Did I not raise you right?" she said. This is why I did not want to come out to my parents. I did not want to hurt them. I do not know who told my mother that I don't believe in the God that she believes in.

This has been difficult to write about.

Julian Bond Did Not Believe In God

"You're not a believer, are you?"

"No."