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Originally Posted by AidanMatthews216  I don't make any sharp distinction between the "physical" world and the spiritual. I don't see any reason to believe in anything that is not physical--because I have never perceived anything that is not physical in nature, even my own mind. Life, the mind, and the spirit are all emergent properties of the way we are arranged, in the same way that the color of an object is an emergent property of the way its particles are arranged (Is there an unexplainable colorful spirit inside it?) For me, wiping away a little of the mystery does not remove any of the wonder or reverence that I feel for the human spirit and for the world around me. On the contrary, I am even happier and more fascinated now that I realize how spiritual matter can be: that life can be composed of non-living things or thought composed of non-thinking things.
I find myself getting more and more spiritual the more convinced I am that there is not a God. |
I think this a very interesting point of view. You mention spirit and spiritual things in your post several times, and then say that you do not believe in God. What is Spirit by your definition? And for that matter, what is God by your definition?
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Originally Posted by Cantando Sometimes we don't realize we were happy at a particular time, until that time has passed and we find ourselves in some sad, lonely situation. We think back and think how happy we were without realizing it. Does that mean we need the duality of experience, the positive and negative, in order to experience happiness? |
I tend to think so. If we were happy literally every second of every day of our lives, how would we know it? We'd have nothing with which to compare.