You’ll hear some atheists boo at the idea, especially if someone “spiritual” feels that some kind of invisible force or entity is consciously connected to their reality. In my opinion, spiritual feelings are perfectly natural, but can lead to unfounded beliefs, often harmless but sometimes debilitating or downright delusional.
I believe that one, strong need among humans is to feel connected to each other, to feel wanted, and to feel like one has found and is fulfilling an important purpose. And I believe rather strongly that this human tendency evolved to help role playing and group survival, but as no one should be surprised to see, this tendency in its extreme can lead to pretty outrageous or even warlike behavior.
So trying to imagine higher powers and higher purposes had some benefit during human evolution (imo), but when it becomes dogmatically exaggerated and ingrained deeply in culture–even forcefully taught to the young, there’s a really high probability that it will grow into something outrageous and dangerous, or even apocalyptic and fatalistic.
Other than spirituality spawning that kind of pathology, I think it can be benign, enjoyable, insightful, and fulfilling.
PopeBeanie 1 year, 12 months ago.
