Atheism-EN

Note: The following is supposedly the book "Natural Atheism" by David Eller (2004). There have not yet read the book, indeed, it is only today that I heard about it, but if this is representative of the content, will probably be a next purchase. Nor have confirmation that this is the book in question, but I have no reason to doubt it. I saw this in a comment (slightly larger than normal) on Facebook, and I can not resist copying it here. The theme is the use of terms such as "spiritual" and "spirituality" by atheists and non-believers in general.

My translation, now. No idea if this exists in Portuguese.

I contend that this kind of talk is false, and, even more than false, it is anti-human conversation - the kind of conversation that degrades and diminishes human beings and the natural world ... It is the assignment of life itself to another reality, another dimension, distinct from that in which we live every day - and, even more crucially, a reality or dimension to which we have no access ... It is as if we ligássemos an additional source of life or energy source that could only come from the source of all life and energy - out of us ... And yet we are - weak and insignificant material beings - we have these experiences ... What is usually described as spiritual life is indeed, humanity.

Thus, spirituality is the greatest betrayal of humanity possible. Conversations about the spirit and the spiritual alienate the best part of what is to be human - literally, in order to make it weird or separate from ourselves. This conversation says: "This is the best, the exponent of the maximum that I can feel and be - and not me." This way minimizes and denigrates the human and natural (as does any dualism) and gives the best of what we are able to plane or reality. Deprives us not only part of our humanity, but the best part of our humanity, and assigns it to a supernatural world - and so unnatural. In Case, FAQ decreased. We are alienated from ourselves and convinced that no mere human could be the source of such wonder.

But we are the source. Esperiências are actually spiritual human experiences - the best, the strongest, the most profound human experiences, but human in it. There is a kind of non-humanity, but a form of ultra-humanity. We are enriched by them and for them, but empobrecemo us when we refuse - or let us be denied - our better nature, and we attribute these sensations and capabilities to the nonhuman, the unknown, and almost certainly the imaginary and unreal ...

Never more shall we say "I had a spiritual experience." Instead, say ... "I had an experience of life" - or, better yet, "had a human experience" - and we encourage others to do the same.

Add on:

Possibly related posts:

1. Pope: Condoms * worsen * the problem of AIDS
2. The problem of "God exists because the universe exists"
3. Ireland, the Catholic Church ... "ah, then, but atheism is that it is the real problem"

Labels: David Eller , Spirituality , Natural Atheism

Article of Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 10:52, filed under Quotes , Miscellaneous , Humanity . You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0 . You can comment on or create a trackback to here on your site.