How does your spirituality or lack of it influence your daily life?

[Lark]

I have OCD with thoughts, logic being one of the concepts I hold on to tightly, so I'm very much on the lookout for these logical faux pas. Even when someone seems like they're being logical, ask yourself, is this really the inference to the best solution, or are these guys just trying to rationalise a point they're already committed to? If actually look at the debates and arguments a lot of people put out, you'll realise how weak and fuzzy their logic is. Weak enough for my theist friends to shake their heads and go "you're making us look bad". Even one of my best friends said something like "you're not a Christian so you don't think being gay is wrong, but I'm a Christian and that's all there is to it" and this is just one example of a long long list of similar reasoning. Eh, I really think that if you keep your eyes peeled for these things, you would not be impressed.

We keep different company I suspect, I dont hear people reason like this, not at all. It sounds like a straw man, itself a logical fallacy, the kind of rationalisation which you mention yourself.

 

[Meaning]

My spirituality and religious upbringing are given full credit for my fairly strong moral code. I try to act with integrity and honesty in everything I do (but I'm not afraid to be smart/clever/devious). I think it would have been very easy for me to have been "lost in the world," but this center saved me from that fate. I know I should be a bit nicer to people, but damnit I don't want to smile at you as I walk down the street. I do hold doors for others, and am fairly polite, but that has nothing to do with my spirituality.

 

[Helios]

He does. Not as a flesh-and-blood human living somewhere in the UK, but as an idea in the mind of his author, and ultimately of his many fans. Things do not have to be concrete or tangible to exist.

He may exist "as an idea", i.e. an idea of him exists. But he obviously doesn't exist. He's a fictional character. Stop being silly.

 

[Helios]

It wouldnt be the first time you've been wrong about something.

Wrong about Harry Potter not existing or there being a Wikipedia article about him?

 

[King sns]

You guys are all so unenlightened.

Basically, God is the master of the universe.
And, Jesus is our Savior.
Note, I said our Savior meaning he's on the Earth Sector in human form.
Though all the other planets with other beings have their own saviors but that's something for another lecture.
Jesus sits in a room at the center of the Earth with 7 billion cameras, one per person. (Give or take.)
And he's got joysticks and stuff and it's like one big game of Sims where Jesus has to keep us all alive and functioning nicely.
He's competing against all the other Saviors and if he can't keep up, (it's getting harder with more and more cameras but with free will around and stuff he can't always stop the number from growing), then we all die and he dies. Or if we win we can all live forever and more importantly be on the Hall of Fame and stuff and and if the entire universe does well then God can go on to compete in the semi finals with other Gods in other universes.



obviously.

 

[Coriolis]

He may exist "as an idea", i.e. an idea of him exists. But he obviously doesn't exist. He's a fictional character. Stop being silly.

So, you are of the opinion that ideas do not exist? Stop being so limited and literal.

 

[Helios]

So, you are of the opinion that ideas do not exist? Stop being so limited and literal.

Did I say that ideas don't exist? No. In fact, I said:

...an idea of him exists...

This is basic reading comprehension.

Nevertheless, "The idea of Harry Potter exists" is not synonymous with "Harry Potter exists". The former is true and held uncontroversially; the latter is false and uncontroversial only in the kingdom of the deranged...

 

[Lark]

Did I say that ideas don't exist? No. In fact, I said:



This is basic reading comprehension.

Nevertheless, "The idea of Harry Potter exists" is not synonymous with "Harry Potter exists". The former is true and held uncontroversially; the latter is false and uncontroversial only in the kingdom of the deranged...

I'm glad you posted this.

It means you must be able to tell the difference between Harry Potter and God.

 

[Helios]

I'm glad you posted this.

It means you must be able to tell the difference between Harry Potter and God.

Elaboration needed.

 

[Lark]

Elaboration needed.

You made a nebulous comparison between harry potter and god, suggest that they were two fictional ideas, now in your post preceeding this one you demonstrated that you know the difference between a fictional idea and something which is real and exists, therefore you know yourself that your earlier post was either mistaken or a troll fail.

 

[Helios]

You made a nebulous comparison between harry potter and god, suggest that they were two fictional ideas, now in your post preceeding this one you demonstrated that you know the difference between a fictional idea and something which is real and exists, therefore you know yourself that your earlier post was either mistaken or a troll fail.

Actually, I compared Harry Potter to "spirituality", not God. If you want to talk about God, we can: he is just as fictional as both.

 

[Lark]

Actually, I compared Harry Potter to "spirituality", not God. If you want to talk about God, we can: he is just as fictional as both.

Troll fail.

 

[Helios]

Troll fail.

I'm not trolling. I'm stating a view. You may not like that view, but inanely declaring "troll fail" does not make that view go away-nor make it any less true.

 

[KDude]

The Crushing Guilt.

That's how it influences me.

Oh well..

 

[Coriolis]

Did I say that ideas don't exist? No. In fact, I said:

This is basic reading comprehension.

And this is a basic attempt at insult. (Insult fail.)

Nevertheless, "The idea of Harry Potter exists" is not synonymous with "Harry Potter exists". The former is true and held uncontroversially; the latter is false and uncontroversial only in the kingdom of the deranged...

So then, saying "the idea of patriotism exists" is not the same as saying "patriotism exists"? How about the idea of gratitude, or even evolution? This is overly fussy semantics. Not everything that exists is in concrete form. It is fine to specify what form of existence something takes, but it is not required for a valid statement. This is the difference between saying "Harry Potter exists only as an idea", and "Harry Potter doesn't exist".

 

[Mole]

Liberating my inner self

I seek to express my inner self in the outer world.

I have a strong sense of my inner self and I am ecstatic when I can express it in the outer world.

So the role I would adopt is creative artist. And I find I catch my breath when I say this.

I catch my breath because the role of creative artist is usually associated drawing and painting or composing.

And of course we can approach creating from the outside, and hope to reach the inside. But I start from the inside, look around breathlessly, and seek to smuggle my inside, outside.

So perhaps rather than a creative artist I am a smuggler; or perhaps I am an escape artist, escaping the bonds of the outer world, and liberating my inner self.

 

[EJCC]

The way I act on an everyday basis is nearly completely disassociated with spirituality. I don't associate my moral code with my religious beliefs, for the most part, although I get the impression from what I've learned in school so far that everyone in my neck of the woods has Christian values, regardless of whether they're Christian or not.

Despite this secularism, certain "everyday" events bring me back in contact with my spirituality. For example... I was just on a thread, a while ago, that asked what you think true beauty is, and I answered that it was in feeling entirely one with a thing, a landscape, a person, or a group of people. Any time I experience that oneness, and the resulting beauty, I feel closer to something greater than myself, which I by nature associate with God. (I'm also of the school of thought that finds God in numbers. Consider the Golden Ratio!)

I usually keep those feelings inside (partly because I'm naturally private about it, partly because I hate arguing about religion, and partly because of the fear that someone might mock me). As a result, I tend to have an instinctive reaction of annoyance and/or condescension when people are suspiciously open about their religious experiences; my cultural Episcopalianism (plus my Enneagram, plus my Fi) has given me the outlook that if you are having a soul-searching, intense, "religious experience" (regardless of whether it's happy or sad), you don't go around advertising that to people. Because of this, most of my friends forget how serious I am about my faith, and sometimes I forget too.

 

[Helios]

And this is a basic attempt at insult. (Insult fail.)

No, it was not.

So then, saying "the idea of patriotism exists" is not the same as saying "patriotism exists"? How about the idea of gratitude, or even evolution? This is overly fussy semantics. Not everything that exists is in concrete form. It is fine to specify what form of existence something takes, but it is not required for a valid statement. This is the difference between saying "Harry Potter exists only as an idea", and "Harry Potter doesn't exist".

It's not "overly fussy semantics" when one's interlocutor is making the bizarre claim that Harry Potter, that well known fictional character, exists. It's a very simply distinction. One can have ideas of things which do not exist (like Harry Potter, unicorns, a slim American, etc.), and those ideas obviously exist. But the things about which those ideas exist need not themselves exist.

I've no clue what a "valid statement" might be.

 

[Litsnob]

I have no religion, no spirituality, no theistic thinking. I am agnostic, atheist and anti-theist.

Everyone who knows me would describe me as very kind. I treat people the way I would want to be treated, or the way they have asked to be treated. Ethics, morality and what we might call common decency are concepts that one can ascertain the benefit of through logic.

On a simple, daily basis, life is more pleasant for all of us if we are kind to each other. In the long term, humans thrive if they care about and for each other. It makes sense to promote surviving, thriving and general happiness as long as we are here.

 

[EJCC]

The way I act on an everyday basis is nearly completely disassociated with spirituality. I don't associate my moral code with my religious beliefs, for the most part, although I get the impression from what I've learned in school so far that everyone in my neck of the woods has Christian values, regardless of whether they're Christian or not.

Despite this secularism, certain "everyday" events bring me back in contact with my spirituality. For example... I was just on a thread, a while ago, that asked what you think true beauty is, and I answered that it was in feeling entirely one with a thing, a landscape, a person, or a group of people. Any time I experience that oneness, and the resulting beauty, I feel closer to something greater than myself, which I by nature associate with God. (I'm also of the school of thought that finds God in numbers. Consider the Golden Ratio!)

I usually keep those feelings inside (partly because I'm naturally private about it, partly because I hate arguing about religion, and partly because of the fear that someone might mock me). As a result, I tend to have an instinctive reaction of annoyance and/or condescension when people are suspiciously open about their religious experiences; my cultural Episcopalianism (plus my Enneagram, plus my Fi) has given me the outlook that if you are having a soul-searching, intense, "religious experience" (regardless of whether it's happy or sad), you don't go around advertising that to people. Because of this, most of my friends forget how serious I am about my faith, and sometimes I forget too.

This post is from 2012 but is still true of me.

(Seems like this happens every time an old thread I've posted in is revived. Say what you will of me, but at least I'm consistent.)