I've been on steemit for a very short time so far and I notice allot of spirituality nonsense posts and I couldn't stop myself from starting fights in the comment section of most of these posts.
Religion
It's bullshit cause it was invented by humans thousands of years ago cause we didn't know any better, maybe their first intention was a way for people to start living together peacefully or whatever, but after a while, somebody saw how powerful the idea and started using it to control the people. I'd like to think that in 2017 we are smarter than that.
What we really know?
a set of scientifically supported claims.
- The universe started with the Big Bang.
- The universe is 13.8 billion years ago.
- Our Planet is 4.6 billion years.
- Dinosaurs ruled Earth for 200 million years until their sudden extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago.
- Humans by far existed on the planet for the last 300k years.
What Religion Claim to be true?
a set of unsupported bullshit claims.
- God created everything.
- The universe is between 6k - 9k years old.
- there is a fucking tree in Sweden called Old Tjikko which is 9550 years old.
- Some religious groups think humans actually lived with Dinosaurs.
- and many other bullshit toxic ideas.
Spirituality
a set of unsupported bullshit claims.
Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In general, it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, and it typically involves a search for meaning in life. As such, it is a universal human experience—something that touches us all.
So for fuck sake, it's 2017 our progress as human beings is under attack from such stupid bullshit ideas. to all the religious spiritual people out there we need your brain power to actually evolve to the next level of smartness.
Remember everyday people are killed in the name of religion, and so many people are cheated out of shit loads of money in the name of spirituality. I am ranting about this coming from a part of the world where religion destroyed everything dear we hold to our brains as humans.
anywho I am open to talk to anybody who can prove that spirituality exists.
According to your own definition of spirituality, Einstein was spiritual:
"“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe … We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” -- Albert Einstein
"it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves" i.e. The universe
"and it typically involves a search for meaning in life" i.e. : "Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"But, on the other hand, every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive." -- Albert Einstein
As a declared atheist I'm often asked to change my position to agnosticism based on an argument that 'while science certainly provides us with our best guesses, in the end we can never be 100% sure what is real and what is not'. I'm not so sure about it. Our best guesses about the Cosmos begin with Galileo and rejection of 'nature' of things. About the life with Darwin and evolution. About the mind and culture with Turing and information maybe? Anyway, religion (and spirituality for that matter) weren't especially helpful with those best guesses. I think is important to notice that.
For me being agnostic is saying: I believe in science, as you believe in God. I don't believe this way. I'm looking at the history of human ideas and cultures and drawing conclusions.
Anyway, great well- balanced answer for my atheist brother somewhat emotional post. Thank you, @echion!
I'm not sure if "religion (and spirituality for that matter) weren't especially helpful with those best guesses" in the past. You're right if you say that a lot of religions were often wrong in the past if they made guesses about the physical universe we inhabit, some times they were spot on though in that regard. Fair enough, when religion was right about our material universe it is more likely to have been because they were heavily inspired by the prominent historic (proto-) scientists of the time, and not necessarily through religious-divine revelation. As such, hard science has never been and still isn't most of the major religions forte.
But then again we can learn a lot from religion if we like to learn more about the mind of ancient men and consequently about our own inner psyche and its evolution. Often these are just ancient forms of psychology and philosophy, some of which are still very applicable and relevant today. Those who don't follow dogma can learn a lot about our current inner realities through religion (and legend, and myths, and fairytales etc.)
And then I definitely wouldn't lump religion and spirituality together. While at one point in time they were one and the same, nowadays there has grown a huge divide between those who consider themselves religious and those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. Spiritual practices like meditation have become mainstream for example, and are because of their proven scientific benefits - which are huge and lifesaving - practiced by people all over the world regardless of their religion or irreligion. I guess in this regard the ancients guessed it right after all.
“Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children.” -- Carl Sagan
Worship of the Sun, ancient gods, God etc. make some sense for me too. You said that we 'can learn a lot about our current inner realities through religion (and legend, and myths, and fairytales etc.)'. I would rather say 'social realities'.
Hard science is making up some hypotheses in order to check out if ensuing predictions will be accurate. Religion is mostly organizing humans around belief in some 'higher' powers in order to check out if ensuing social order will work out (at least for the elites). I think religions are experiments just like sciences.
A lot of these social experiments succeeded for the elites and sometimes also for the masses. Our species build the biggest and most effective social structures on the planet (Harari, Sapiens). We need to be grateful, yes.
P.s. Atheism and agnosticism aren't necessarily mutually exclusive:
And ignore the Einstein was a Deist bit. Einstein was a Pantheist
Thank you very much for this video, now I know I am an agnostic atheist.
"and so many people are cheated out of shit loads of money in the name of spirituality." Yes, and that's not right. But it doesn't make spirituality any more or less true. People are cheated out of a shit load of money in the name of science too. Think of the malpractices of big pharma, or the many supplements sold in the name of science while there's no evidence at all or scarce evidence that such supplements even work and don't do more damage than good. Neither do such practices make science any more or less true.
Spirituality definitely exists, as many people claim to be spiritual and practice some form of spirituality. It would make as little sense to ask if religion exists, because we can clearly observe its existence.
What I think you wanted to ask if is spirituality is real or not. This question would be difficult to answer since there isn't one clear and agreed upon definition of the word. To a religious person who considers himself spiritual, spirituality means something entirely different than it would mean to someone who considers themselves spiritual, but not religious, or someone who is a spiritual Pantheist for example. The religious person would consider their spirituality to be his or her relationship to a supernatural being of which we have no evidence, and the latter would in his spiritual philosophy fall more along the lines of Einstein and Carl Sagan, and would take his humble position as being part of an infinite universe filled with mysteries to be uncovered. And while science certainly provides us with our best guesses, in the end we can never be 100% sure what is real and what is not. Science deals with likelihoods, and some guesses just seem a lot more likely than others, based on the evidence we've gathered. Now let's just hope that our senses aren't deceiving us and we're really not just brains in vats suffering from mass hallucination.
"“Science has beauty, power, and majesty that can provide spiritual as well as practical fulfillment. But superstition and pseudoscience keep getting in the way, providing easy answers, casually pressing our awe buttons, and cheapening the experience." -- Carl Sagan
"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual ... The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both. " -- Carl Sagan
so that's what you think when you move to Malaysia...
hehe nope, that is what I think since forever.
In fact, spirituality have nothing to do with religion, the problem is that most of yall think that to be spiritual means to be connected with the universe and shit, that's the misconception, but it means to be connected whith yourself. First of all to be spiritual means to know yourself to know your borders and elevate yourself.
There's no meaning in life, you make your own way.
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STOPAs another reply pointed out- Einstein actually supported the merging of science and spiritual studies, as one is complimented by the other. ( I have a link below to an article with some of his musings.)
https://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/einstein/
In the simplest terms- Our brains run on electricity- an energy that uses our nerves to send messages to the rest of our physical body for functioning.
Electricity cannot be created or destroyed- it only changes form
When we are born, energy comes from the whole/collective/source and animates our body. When we die, that energy returns to the whole/collective/source.
It is that energy that we all share, that cultures have referred to as their gods-
We are a singular expression of the plurality that is Life Source Energy.
The frequency of that energy is the same frequency as unconditional love.
It is connecting to that energy through our own self awareness and self discovery that is the practice of spirituality.
'Faith' has been hijacked by the ego of man for millenia.
This does not necessarily negate the validity of the spiritual path, it just shows us the frailty of the human aspects and gives a cautionary tale on the spiritual path against embracing the ego and the material. True spiritual seeking is solitary in many ways and doesn't require wars or money to discover the source within us...
Each of us has free will to choose to follow our own path-
i respect your choices and your expression
this post is not intended to convince you otherwise, but rather to share my perspective. I enjoy respectful thoughtful discussion. thanks