Rational Theist? Spiritual Atheist?

[Jeremiahcp]

Are there any rationales and/or spiritual experiences that are exclusive to a person because of their religious views or lack of religious views?

 

[Windwalker]

All thoughts and experiences are unique to each person, due to all factors of their lives. What are you asking?

 

[Jeremiahcp]

All thoughts and experiences are unique to each person, due to all factors of their lives. What are you asking?

All is very strong word.

 

[psychoslice]

What is a spiritual experience, and why does it have to be spiritual.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

What is a spiritual experience, and why does it have to be spiritual.

Feel free to define spiritual experience on you own terms, as long at it not something off the wall that none one else but you can understand. My question is not so much about how to define the terms, and as long as you explain yourself adequately, I don't see a problem with using your own take.

 

[psychoslice]

Feel free to define spiritual experience on you own terms, as long at it not something off the wall that none one else but you can understand. My question is not so much about how to define the terms, and as long as you explain yourself adequately, I don't see a problem with using your own take.

I just don't like the word, as also with the word god, it really means nothing, we all have deep feelings, I do when I look up at the sky at night and see all the stars, I feel a connection with all, and I believe we are all connected as One, this is not spiritual, its what is.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Are there any rationales and/or spiritual experiences that are exclusive to a person because of their religious views or lack of religious views?

Yes. Definitely.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

Yes. Definitely.

Such as?

 

[Jeremiahcp]

I just don't like the word, as also with the word god, it really means nothing, we all have deep feelings, I do when I look up at the shy at night and see all the stars, I feel a connection with all, and I believe we are all connected as One, this is not spiritual, its what is.

"I feel a connection with all, and I believe we are all connected as One"

Is that feeling of being connected because you believe we are all connected as one? Or could someone that does not hold that belief also feel the same connection?

 

[psychoslice]

"I feel a connection with all, and I believe we are all connected as One"

Is that feeling of being connected because you believe we are all connected as one? Or could someone that does not hold that belief also feel the same connection?

Well I don't see my connection as a belief, but an experience, its my truth, I don't need anyone else to belive in that which I have experienced, we all need to experience it for ourselves. But sadly many will just turn their own personal experience into a dogma, and expect everyone else to believe, this is what organized religion has done.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Such as?

A New awareness.

 

[HonestJoe]

All is very strong word.

It strikes me an a entirely accurate one though. Everyone is unqiue with different experiences, knowledge and minds. Those are what influence how we react and respond to experiences so it will be inevitable that each individual reaction will be different to some extent.

 

[LuisDantas]

Are there any rationales and/or spiritual experiences that are exclusive to a person because of their religious views or lack of religious views?

Of course. Although I don't think there is anything to your implied premise that religion requires theism.

 

[Windwalker]

All is very strong word.

In this case it's an accurate word. Do you believe there are people who are 100% clones of another person? What is valid to say is there are similarities, that people of a particular group have a shared worldview, but even that is not 100% the same. Each individual in that group still will be uniquely understanding that common belief. So yes, all individuals have unique thoughts and experiences, even when they are part of a shared collective.

So what was you actual question I'm trying to understand?

 

[Sunstone]

The mystical experience of oneness, which is sometimes interpreted as an experience of god, and which comes about when subject/object perception abruptly ceases while some sort of experiencing continues, is certainly not confined to any single religious tradition or practice. Doesn't matter whether you're Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Daoist, or from some other tradition -- that experience seems to be at its core something that can occur to anyone. However, how one interprets the experience, what they think it was all about -- whether, for instance, one thinks it is an experience of some god or not -- tends to depend on the predominant tradition or practice that one comes from.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Are there any rationales and/or spiritual experiences that are exclusive to a person because of their religious views or lack of religious views?

Well, many atheists have spiritual experiences or whatever name they want to call it. Just going to see family I (an atheist) haven't seen in awhile and realized was just right around the corner for me is a spiritual experience just as someone is being born again in christ.

While a Muslim would probably not experience a spiritual experience from Shiva. I have from christ but probably not from, I don't know, Thor. So, it all depends on the person not whether or not they believe in god(s).

What defines a spiritual experience, really?

 

[Brickjectivity]

Are there any rationales and/or spiritual experiences that are exclusive to a person because of their religious views or lack of religious views?

Your info says you do Math. Would you define it as a spiritual process? I would, in which case only other Mathematicians can share some of your experiences.

 

[Windwalker]

However, how one interprets the experience, what they think it was all about -- whether, for instance, one thinks it is an experience of some god or not -- tends to depend on the predominant tradition or practice that one comes from.

Something to add to this, that that same experience by someone who is say an atheist-naturalist will likewise be interpreted within that framework. Everyone does it. All of these worldviews and belief systems are like I like to describe tree-like structures we hang the ornaments of our experiences on in order to look at them and attempt to understand them.

We need them to "make sense" to our brains, and that is all these models of reality we construct and use are, whether they are religious structures rich in archetypal symbolism, or naturalistic rational structures such as scientific symbols. In this sense, they are all valid so long as they function to help translate experience. When they don't help is when I would say one could be said to be experiencing a crisis of faith, so to speak. The legitimacy of the belief comes into question. And I believe that's due in no small part to the magnitude and significance of the experience itself, such as you describe in transcendent experiences which dissolve our normal subject/object dualities.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

In this case it's an accurate word. Do you believe there are people who are 100% clones of another person? What is valid to say is there are similarities, that people of a particular group have a shared worldview, but even that is not 100% the same. Each individual in that group still will be uniquely understanding that common belief. So yes, all individuals have unique thoughts and experiences, even when they are part of a shared collective.

So what was you actual question I'm trying to understand?

If everything was unique unto the individual we would not be able to communicate with each other. Considering out homogeneous structure it is rational to conclude there is significant overlap. This would be largely in part to contingent causality; the human being would have similar reactions to similar stimulus; due to having a human body which functions like other human bodies. So your question: “Do you believe there are people who are 100% clones of another person?” Not 100% but, to a large degree we are very much “clones” of each other. We share genetic material, we share the same biological structure, and for all the supposed uniqueness, we do have overlap of outside influences. My position is that people are not as different from one another as they like to assume. However, we do have a tendency to focus more on our differences.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

Your info says you do Math. Would you define it as a spiritual process? I would, in which case only other Mathematicians can share some of your experiences.

Do you think someone would be excluded from math because of their religious views or lack of religious views?