jakelafort

6 second skim from Belle Rose and the following language: There is no single, widely agreed-upon definition of spirituality.
No surprise there…

Kind of amazing there has been so much discussion of the word spiritual, init? Frankly i am surprised.

From Autumn: That is wrong. It may describe something different to everyone who uses it, but those differences fall within certain bounds. Whether those bounds are vague or not has little to do with whether the word has meaning.

Both Simon and Autumn acknowledge that language is a two-way street. I suspect we would get unanimity on this point.…[Read more]

Simon in some cases the users of that word don’t know what they mean. In any event language ought to include the thinker and the recipient, right?

Reg: And that is why I have said the word is meaningless. If it means something different to everyone then it describes nothing. It should be seen as an archaic term.

Synoptically Reg has it wrapped up in those words. i stand unmoved in my viewpoint.

Out of curiosity has anyone been persuaded to change their viewpoint in re. to spiritual?

Simon, the spiritual apologist did okay considering how difficult it is to defend.

One value squarely in spiritual’s corner is obfuscation and ambiguity. There are times a writer/speaker intends that angle. Spiritual is a helper.

Davis indicates that alarm bells may go off when a potential date prospect uses the word. However it might be a…[Read more]

@Unseen, There are lots of overly-used words and expressions that mean little or nothing or are becoming cliches.

That is true. A few writers to mention. Twain and his critique of Cooper in Last of the Mohicans in which Twain dissects one paragraph is well done. What else would you expect from him? And i love, love Errors of Conversation by…[Read more]

Unseen, Dya think most self-styled freethinkers have contemplated the implications of free will?

From Reg: Yes, and with a Sigma 5 rating on the accuracy of the findings which is not far of that of the Higgs Boson discovery. I hope you read that in yesterdays’ Sunday School 😊

Can’t rule that out. Read a few, skimmed a few, when that had ended i wasn’t through…

Pope, the quest to understand and an insatiable curiosity is one of the beautiful aspects of being human.

Btw just read that the standard model of particle physics may soon be challenged based on a measurement recently made in Chicago. Obviously the experimental results have to be duplicated before the model is outmoded.

Pope i am not certain i know the answer but my hunch is that without knowing what causation is we can never understand the cosmos. Nothing fundamental will be understood only shadows of the flickering fire on the walls of the cave.

Yeah Unseen it may be as you say. I also think we humans are fancy apes who are prone to unconsciously and consciously adopt behaviors, mannerisms and language of our contemporaries. Have you seen how NBA players have expressed their individuality by adopting the same awful hairstyles? One after another.. Back when i was watching MSNBC and CNN it…[Read more]

I have taken the liberty to defenestrate spiritual and frankly. I am on the fence as to freethinker. On the one hand when we hold ourselves out as freethinkers we probably have conveyed something of the following: We’re not dogmatic. Our views are subject to modification and we go where the evidence leads us. We’re not ideologues. We’re not easily…[Read more]

Pope, i have no qualms with your thoughts on this topic.

On the other hand if i understand what Hume intended there is something fundamental about causation that eludes us. It has to be more than pattern recognition. If it is only understanding that a particular causative agent will or always has produced a particular result then we have not…[Read more]

Spiritual is a word that belongs in a dust pan on its way to the garbage can. We ought to simply say what we mean instead of use that word. It is so amorphous, idiosyncratic and loaded with religious connotations that it is better avoided. Certainly effective communication is served in avoiding its usage.

Another word that bugs me is frankly.…[Read more]