What from r/atheism at the old place do we want to avoid here in c/atheism?
What from r/atheism at the old place do we want to avoid here in c/atheism?
I'll start! There was a lot of absolutist rhetoric there that said things along the lines of "All Christians are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad people!" I think a little nuance is in order, no?
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By "bigger than one's self" I mean things like community, family, etc. A group of people is larger than one person. Or nature: you're a part of the universe at large, and are ontologically connected to it in a variety of ways. You're part of ecological systems bigger than yourself. Life and death and all that naturally implies. You don't feel in any way connected to anything beyond your own body that's larger than you? Not your source in space, your inevitable demise, or even this community?
I don't feel emotionally connected to groups or "the universe at large." I feel emotional connection to individuals.
I think you're playing semantic games here. Feeling connected to individuals in a selected group is exactly what I mean when I say a feeling of connection to a community. You're trying to tell me your brain does not make you feel connected to any system of which you are a component?
And if your answer is "no," a human incapable of sensing that they're part of a system doesn't negate how natural it is, generally.
You said an emotional connection. Of course I'm part of many systems. That doesn't mean I have emotional stakes in them.
Exactly. I'm only talking about the things your limbic system responds to. Spirituality concerns inner life, and emotional stakes are part of that. Emotional stakes in systems of which you are a part, is human. That can be connections to other components of that system, or some other aspect of that system, but a sense of connection is a sense of connection. Spirituality concerns itself with these inner, emotional experiences. Not all humans are or necessarily should be concerned with these experiences (though mental health can benefits from awareness in this area), but the limbic system/parietal lobe are demonstrably involved with these experiences, and it's an odd argument to say you don't have these common, human structures, or any relevant experiences.
In short, I'm not calling you subhuman. I think we just haven't yet found common ground on these terms.
Spirituality =/= superstition
Emotional connection is an inner experience (a phenomenon of our bodies), and caring about inner experience, including its relationship with systems outside the body proper, is quite human.
I’m a big fan of the sun, but I don’t have any illusions that it’s my friend.
I really don’t see how an emotional connection to something bigger than my self would do anything valuable. If I did, I would just be religious.
This has nothing to do with something like thinking the sun is your friend 😅 That sounds more like superstition than mere spirituality.
(I mean, the sun will destroy you given the chance lol... some friend!)