Simon Paynton

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
A classic question for philosophy students is to ask them “OK, should we all go outside now and kill ourselves and if not, why not”. I think that question demands an answer.

That’s a fair enough question.  I think Christians want to ask atheists why they don’t kill themselves, since their lives are “empty and mean…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
As Hegel said, the study of philosophy is but the introduction to it.

I think philosophy is good at supplying questions that need answering.

The AI robot is listing facts.  That’s the correct way to begin philosophy in my opinion.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Why not just say “Take care of my physical and mental well-being”. If I ever go to the doctor and he says that my spiritual health needs attention I will glue his chakras together.

Yes, but spirituality is about more than “physical and mental well-being”.  It includes the nebulous notion of a “spirit” or “soul” – wh…[Read more]

Well, I don’t use the word spiritual, but I do the things that the word means to me: take care of my spiritual health, which effectively, to me, means biological, psychological, social, and moral well being.

Autumn wrote:
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.

Yes.  The meanings that people give the word are not random or arbitrary: they fall into certain categories.  Of course, many p…[Read more]

True on both counts.

Yes, but to the people who use it, it means something.

_Robert_ wrote:
It may be similar to the ancient Egyptians in supplying their dead with artifacts for the afterlife, or it may just be secular decoration, but knowing how just about every Sapiens culture has “spiritual tendencies” I tend to think our close relatives probably did too.

There is a book by Penny Spikins, called “How Compassion Mad…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
why would you use a term that is this elusive? How can you achieve much (if anything) if people are talking about something different (or at least vaguely overlapping) when you can use some other term?

I don’t use the word myself.  But it has some meaningful definitions that other people use: for example, the army.  I think they u…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
Which leads me to believe there once was a survival benefit.

I don’t think it’s about a survival benefit, although that may come as a by-product.  I think it’s about enhancing and celebrating being alive.

@davis – whatever definitions I could give, are never going to encompass all the things that people mean by the word.

It’s not a definition, it’s just some examples of things that are called “spiritual”.  Working in coordination with others towards a common goal can, in some circumstances, be a spiritual experience for people.

@davis – I doubt it.  Other attributes of their experience would come to the fore, in a sporting team.  On the other hand, if they were getting stoned, or otherwise thoughtful, on some occasions, they might think of it a bit that way.  Perhaps it depends on how much into their volleyball they were.

So, when people refer to spiritualism, they mean nothing?  Spirituality, I should say.

What’s the word?  Eejit.  This contradiction suggests that the guy is not talking about anything consistent or real.

Unseen wrote:
I don’t think it’s what almost everybody who uses the term “spiritual” means by it.

What do almost everybody else mean by the term?

He’s probably meditating using a timer, so it’s not a contradiction to say he lost track of time, entered a flow state, for ten minutes.

You could say I’m calling bogusness, based on my own subjective definition.  However, I don’t think that is too far away from what most people mean.  The term is used in the army.  In the army they are co…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
“But Reg I am able to meditate and lose all sense of time. That is a spiritual event for me”. “How long do these experiences normally last for you”? “Oh, usually about 10 minutes of so. Sometimes only 5. But the important thing is that time become meaningless and that makes the experience all the more spiritual…

[Read more]