jayleew,
You judge me to be an atheist and never a theist. Do you even know my name?
Do I need to know your name?
If you were a theist then you shouldn't have a problem in explaining why you were. Okay?
Yes, that is all it is. A belief.
You make ''belief'' sound like it's a nothing thing, like it's not a life-changing development, or un-development.
Belief doesn't develop without some kind of experience and the thing is, you haven't had an experience that validates theism, which is why you aren't a theist (unless you have but chose not to disclose it).
No, those reasons are not the point of believing.
So why do you keep banging on about it, to the point where it seems to be the straw that broke the camels back with regard to your ''decision''>?
Yes. Perhaps I am unique in that way, but yes I am able to put aside my doubts and simply believe.
Jaylew, you're just kidding yourself. You most probably said you believed because it fitted with your life situation, but there's no way you believed simply because nothing you say has any indication, of comprehension of spirituality (outside of a materialist notion).
You're an atheist, you always was an atheist, and now you feel it's time to stop pretending, and I couldn't agree with you more. Just be yourself.
Otherwise I would not eat food I did not believe was safe, or get in my car for fear of me crashing, or anything like that. I choose to believe that I will not get sick eating at McDonald's. Putting aside doubts and believing is an everyday occurrence. At any point, I can start believing that cars are too unsafe to drive and that McDonald's will kill me. The evidence is there, but what do I believe? Belief is a switch, but perhaps only I have one?
That's not the kind of belief I'm talking about, but the fact that you think it is only validates my point.
No, spirituality works like a relationship.
It is like a relationship of two entities. Say, for example, music. My relationship with music is spiritual. It is emotional and physical. It is trusting and believing. It is safety and oneness. It is peace and understanding. It is moral and addicting. I could go on and on. Spirituality is everything and beautiful.
I get that, just like at a secular funeral they may say a poem (instead of offering prayers to God), while showing bunny rabbit on the overhead projecter, followed by a minute's silence. While that may come across a spiritual to you and lot's of other people, it isn't.
Spiritual, is the essence, the exact thing that makes it THAT thing. Spirituality is the process to realise this.
With the living being, the essential thing is the spirit soul, and God is the reservoir from which that soul comes.
So ''spirituality'' is realising who and what we are, and where we came from.
jan.
