"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life"

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by VitalOne, Nov 19, 2006.

  1. VitalOne Banned Banned

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    How do Atheists feel about this Quote by The Buddha

    "Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life."

    How is life without a spiritual life? No real spiritual motivation to do anything. No mysteries in life, no wondering, etc...
     
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  3. imaplanck. Banned Banned

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    Theres plenty of mystery and wondering in my life thanks.
     
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  5. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    Like: "Where is my mind?"
     
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  7. imaplanck. Banned Banned

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    No more like"Is your girlfriend wearing underwear?"

    I've grown beyond having to believe fantasies to make it through the day. Moreover I couldn't believe in a god if I forced my self really, really hard until my tummy wummy hurt.
     
  8. KennyJC Registered Senior Member

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    More assumptions on atheists "lack of feeling" which I alluded to in the thread I made yesterday.

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  9. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    The ones you refer too cannot comprehend what you ask. I think they lack spiritual abilities.
     
  10. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    I'm pretty sure everyone has an imagination, sam. The 'ability' is not letting it rule our lives.
     
  11. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    That you cannot tell the difference between imagination and spirituality is very telling in and of itself.
     
  12. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    It has been my problem all along.

    But, please, do elaborate.
     
  13. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    I doubt its something you can read about and understand, its something you practise.

    Maybe you could try meditation?

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  14. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Ah, so you have no idea either, as suspected. Just throwing stones at glass houses, sam?
     
  15. SkinWalker Archaeology / Anthropology Moderator

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    I think this is a common fallacy that the religious have when they think of the non-religious: they think that because they have a god or gods they believe in, somehow those that don't believe in supernatural agency in the universe are without any "spiritual" sense. This is an understandable assumption since the term "spriritual" has the root of "spirit," at supernatural/paranormal entity in many definitions. But it also holds the definition of the driving force and motivation among people: team spirit in sports and competition; esprit de corps among those same sports teams or in a military unit or any team that has a common purpose; and the spirit of wonder and awe that envelopes youngsters as they discover the world around them.

    One need not be deluded by a religious doctrine to be spiritual. One need only not be satisfied or content with what is known. I find many atheists to be far more spiritual than many theists because they're skeptical and not willing to settle on magical answers like "god did it."

    Richard Feynman, physicist and atheist, once wrote a poem that included:

    There are the rushing waves
    mountains of molecules
    each stupidly minding its own business
    trillions apart
    yet forming white surf in unison

    [...]

    Out of the cradle
    onto dry land
    here it is
    standing:
    atoms with consciousness;
    matter with curiosity.


    The full poem can be found here, along with links to others.

    And it was Carl Sagan, astronomer and atheist, who commented "There is a place with four suns in the sky — red, white, blue and yellow; two of them are so close together that they touch, and starstuff flows between them. I know of a world with a million moons. I know of a sun the size of the Earth — and made of diamond. There are stars leaving the Milky Way Galaxy... there are perhaps, places outside our universe. The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming part of it. No longer does 'the world' mean 'the universe'. We live on one world among an immensity of others. The cosmos revealed to us by the new advances in astronomy and biology is far grander and more awesome than the tidy world of our ancestors."

    It doesn't take a belief in a magical being to have a spiritual sense. One need not believe that magic was at work to be in awe of nature. Nor does one need adhere to superstitious doctrine in order to be completely awestruck by the sheer number of particles in the universe, that we are made of those same particles that stars are formed of, and still allow oneself to be in love, regardless of whether its understood to be a trick of evolution to ensure that one's DNA is propagated and protected. The "star-stuff" I'm hopelessly in love with just turned five yesterday and I don't need to think that it's a supernatural cause that gives her 23 of my chromosomes and 23 of those that belong to the other collection of "star-stuff" I'm in love with.

    And I truly feel sorry for those that need supernatural explanations to satisfy them; those who cannot allow themselves to simply be in awe and wonder about that which is mysterious or even relatively explainable.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2006
  16. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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  17. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Its also common for Westerners to think that their definitions must supersede all cultural thought.

    Eastern spirituality is geared toward mental health such as yoga and tai chi and religion is intricately interwoven into it.

    There is no real Western counterpart and science has no real analogue to provide that mental health only the means to dissect or study it.
     
  18. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    By far, that is the biggest pile of crap you've posted thus far... today.

    Why must you resort to lying, now?
     
  19. SkinWalker Archaeology / Anthropology Moderator

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    Fixed the link... thanks. And, to be fair, the link is to a post at my own blog, but I thought some might be interested in seeing the whole poem.
     
  20. SkinWalker Archaeology / Anthropology Moderator

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    Actually, as an anthropologist, I'd have to agree with Sam on those points. When you take all the magical/supernatural mumbo jumbo out of philosophies like Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies, they make much sense. But then, real Buddhists are atheists.
     
  21. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks, its sometimes hard to cross the cultural barriers in concepts.
     
  22. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Sorry, I was refering to this load of crap:

    "science has no real analogue to provide that mental health only the means to dissect or study it."
     
  23. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Give, buster.

    What are the provisions for mental health that science provides? Drugs are palliative, not considered as provisions.
     

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