Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Unseen on February 14, 2012 at 2:58pm

What do you base this on?  To me, you sound no different than the people who make up shit about atheists being baby-eating, devil worshippers based off the three supposed atheists they've met.

Let me rephrase, then, using your own approved form of sentence construction: To me when people say they are not religious but are spiritual, it sounds like "I'm so bright that I made up my own religion. It's not one of the dumb religions other people believe that have names. It's MY PERSONAL religion."

So, I guess you have to be satisfied, now, don't you?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on February 14, 2012 at 3:08pm

Yes.  That's a much more reasonable statement.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Unseen on February 14, 2012 at 3:29pm

LOL

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by dragotron on February 14, 2012 at 3:21pm

In my personal experience, people who need paraphrasing to include words such as "in my opinion" are reaching for the bottom of the barrel of ammunition and are usually trying to skew the conversation in another direction.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on February 14, 2012 at 3:35pm

I've deleted my previous reply.  It was too hasty.

Yes, I can reasonably guess that his statement was a matter of opinion; however, that is not how it was phrased.  I will respect the wording people choose because, crazy me, it may just be deliberate.  If I am forced to assume that all such statements are opinion, by what possible means could a person make such a statement as an objective claim without having it interpreted as an opinion?

Or would you like me to merely assign meanings to your words that aren't actually written?  Is this the practice you prefer?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Unseen on February 14, 2012 at 3:51pm

One can't interpret language literally as though sentences are based on a calculus of word meanings and a strict grammar as to how to use them. I can easily give an example of a situation in which someone not only means but expresses a thought entirely different from the uttered sentence. And now I will do so...

Imagine it's shortly before Valentine's Day. A young couple holding hands walks past a jewelry store. They stop and look in the window. The girl notices a very pretty but not terribly expensive necklace. She says "That's a very nice necklace."

Unless you are a total dolt with no sensitivity to how language is actually used, you understand that her actual meaning can't be understood through strict grammatical analysis.

She's actually saying something along the lines of "I'd be happy if I got that necklace for Valentine's Day."

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephen Walski on February 14, 2012 at 3:54pm

I thought she was saying.. 

"Get that for me if you intend to ever see me nekid again"

Interpretation its all in the eyes of the beholder.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on February 14, 2012 at 4:00pm

One can't interpret language literally as though sentences are based on a calculus of word meanings and a strict grammar as to how to use them.

That's not what I'm doing.  In this case, context implies, but does not dictate.  You could have been making a statement of opinion or an objective statement.  While opinion seems more likely, I cannot simply default to that assumption, or else I remove you of your ability to communicate the objective statement.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by igor manzoni on July 23, 2012 at 12:43pm

Hi Dragotron,

I think it depends a lot on what you think this spiritual feeling is.

I look at the universe and feel part of it, in a scientific way.

The atoms composing my body come inevitably from the core of a star.

This sense of being part of all this is what I call my spirituality.

I need no god to feel this, and I don't think there's any secret meaning behind this.

Does it classify me as religious?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Unseen on July 23, 2012 at 12:52pm

I just don't get where spirit comes in. Spirit in what sense? A ghost? Enthusiasm (school spirit)? Why does the word "spirit" apply at all?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by dragotron on July 23, 2012 at 6:49pm

totally. I understand that even Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan identified the cosmos as a "spiritual" thing. As much respect and adoration I have for the two of them. I fail to see any reason to use the word "Spiritual" in describing the cosmos. Sure. We're all connected. But how is the universe "of the spirit". The "spirit" is something that primitive man invented in a means of coming to terms with death. Religion is the mythology of which.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by igor manzoni on July 25, 2012 at 5:07am

I see that it's quite difficult to separate the word spirit from its religious meaning. But for me, the spirit is our consciousness and our emotional feelings when we relate to the rest of the universe. For me, being spiritual means experiencing reality by looking at the bond that links everything in nature. It's something like realizing you're part of a family a long way bigger than you thought. :) I don't see any relation to a religion in this. For sure, I'm not alone in thinking something like that. Maybe, by the fact I'm Italian it's easier for me to get the root meaning of the word, and guess what? It's not religion related. "spirit" comes from the latin word "spiritus" that derives from the verb "spirare" to breathe. In Italian "respirare".

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• Next ›
• Page