is it ok to call oneself Spiritual when they don't believe in Spirits?
The Spiritual Atheist..
If the purpose of speech is to convey a message. And an atheist calls himself spiritual. Isn't that person misrepresenting himself by using a word that is most largely viewed to be synonymous with "soul"? Even if he himself has his own unique meaning for it (which takes a 5 minute video to understand)
Let's be honest most people hear the word spirit and think soul.. don't they?
It seems like a way of justifying for no reason. If there is a lack of a better word... make a new one. To me I find that people are kind of ridiculed or perceived in a derogatory way if they admit or "come out" with believing they do not have a soul. Like you are somehow less of a person, lacking mystery, etc.. So when someone tries to find a convoluted means of explaining why they call themselves "spiritual". I feel that they are pandering to this unfortunate misperception.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
Actually many liquors are colored with caramel. They're brown.
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Permalink Reply by David Henson on -
By the way, Dragotron, I didn't mention it before, but that was an excellent video. Good job.
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Permalink Reply by dragotron on -
Thanks David, but I didn't make the video, I just posted it... as well... I was posting it to call it into question :)
My FAVORITE video on the Internet which uses a word that corresponds to ghosts in an unfortunate and possibly irresponsible metaphor would be this beauty of a video:
http://youtu.be/r6w2M50_Xdk
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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on -
When discussing the meaning of a word (which is what we're dong), I'd be far more inclined to ask a student of English than a student of philosophy (or certainly, theology). Attempts at being prescriptive (like Entomology) in such matters is not particularly relevant.
Instead try a dictionary! Or, to verify applicable dictionary definitions, ask 100 people. You'll find that a substantial majority will see, understand, use the adjective "spiritual" to mean something non-physical, non-measurable, non-real, non-existent.
No, an atheist should NOT call himself "spiritual".
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Permalink Reply by Gregg R Thomas on -
"No, an atheist should NOT call himself "spiritual"."
Someone should tell Sam Harris that.
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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on
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"By the way, Dragotron, I didn't mention it before, but that was an excellent video. Good job."
I second. A worthwhile watch for anyone.
(I'm curious to see where this post will be placed. I have a feeling that my browser/back-end interaction is not working properly to post this immediately following David Henson's post quoted above.)
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Mike - your browser has nothing to do with it - if others have replied to a particular post before you did, your comment will appear beneath theirs, and there's nothing anyone can do about that.
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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on
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Thanks. OK I'm guessing that no one else will be replying to your post. Let's see if this post appears after yours or before.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Bingo!
(Good looking young lady you have there, Mike!)
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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on
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Well Sam Harris has an opinion, but, in my opinion, he's using the word "spiritual" in a sense he would like it to have - not in its generally-accepted sense.
Sure, words change their meanings constantly. Perhaps in a decade or two Sam Harris won't come under the same amount of fire for his (currently incorrect) definition of the word.
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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on
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archaeopteryx:
Ok I hit the link called "> Reply" directly under your post, I created a reply (which you'll find somewhere), and then I clicked "Add Reply". My post is now being displayed as if it were a top-level post - a reply directly to the originating post. Further my post is not displayed with the indent symbol (the down/right arrow) preceding it. What am I not understanding? Please and thank you.
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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on -
Did you refresh the page, yet?
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