Are You A Spiritual Atheist Or Material Atheist?

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

It would seem some atheist members are 'spiritual' and some 'material'....

According to one source SPIRITUAL ATHEISTS are people who are:
1) ATHEISTS
Spiritual Atheists do not believe in the existence of an entity external to the universe that supposedly created and rules the universe.

2) SPIRITUAL
Spiritual Atheists believe that the entire universe is, in some way, connected; even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect at every scale. Therefore, Spiritual Atheists generally feel that as they go about their lives striving to be personally healthy and happy, they should also be striving to help the world around them be healthy and happy!

("Wholistic Ethics")

http://www.spiritualatheism.com/

Another source
Many components of spirituality have been posited, and while consensus remains elusive, some of the more popular include vitality, connectedness, transcendence, and meaningfulness. One of the most commonly described experiences of spirituality involves a sense of one's interconnectedness to others and a dissolving of self-other boundaries.

Read more: http://www.atheistrev.com/2008/01/atheist-spirituality.html#ixzz2jPxewmdx

MATERIAL ATHEISM is basically this: For the most part they have a similar outlook to the spiritual but where they differ is their sense of of individuality as opposed to connectedness and they tend to strongly adhere to  'when you're dead, you're dead, brain shuts down, consciousness comes to an abrupt halt, end of life story'...

Even though I'm more of the spiritual type (A Buddhist, that is there is no creator but I don't deny ultimate reality) however I also find it somewhat comforting with the 'end of life story' materialistic view, I guess whatever floats ones boat and brings them comfort...

Now it should go without say you don't have to agree with the above descriptions of the spiritual and material atheist, you might have your own idea of what is what- they are not set in concrete (excuse the pun) 

So what floats your atheistic boat ? Is it made from the spiritual or material ? Or both ?

Metta Zenda  

[suzifrommd]

I just don't know whether there are unseen forces making things happen in an intelligent way.

I'm atheist in the sense that I think it's mostly likely to be the case that they're aren't - that the universe operates much in the way it appears to and that anything that appears driven by benevolent intelligence (or the other kind) is most likely driven instead by natural forces of which we have incomplete understanding.

Don't know which category that makes me. Probably closest to material.

[Valerie]

I'm atheist in the sense that (as of late 2011) I don't believe in the liklihood of deities, angels, devils, ghosts, the continuation of our existence after death.  Not that I wouldn't like there to be (on my own terms, of course).  I think that we humans are all we've got, and we've gotta' make our own better-world. And I live my life in a state of acute awareness of my & others death, therefore striving to make each day count & my life meaningful.

I'm spiritual in the sense that I'm easily drawn to profound awe,  wonder & humility, oftentimes to the point of tears.  I also am open to spiritual practices such as meditation.  I enjoy certain religious music, imagery & ritual even while acknowledging that I don't believe it to be factual. 

~V.

[Lauren5]

Both, to a degree, but mostly leaning towards materiel.

[eli77]

I don't have an absolute belief either way. I'm a skeptic, and adhere to the principle of radical doubt. I suspect that when you die, you rot, but I do not know this for certain.

I agree with this: "feel that as they go about their lives striving to be personally healthy and happy, they should also be striving to help the world around them be healthy and happy!" Though I am always deeply suspicious of the use of the word "spiritual," and reject the concept of "belief" used to mean "absolute certainty." It is used to pull things out of the realm of doubt, which runs contrary to my system of thought. "Belief" and "faith" are a fundamental rejection of doubt. And to lose your doubt is to narrow your mind, to stop thinking for yourself. I want to see endless streams of possibilities spiraling in every direction. Giving that up... ugg, I'd rather be dead.

I don't believe anything. I feel that I am happy when other people are happy, and unhappy when other people are unhappy. That is an important connection to me. I desire to live in a world that is happy and healthy, and strive toward that hope as best I can.

"I've had it with the tragic tunnel vision around here. You have no idea what - life is a hell of a lot more complicated than you think! Life - real life - is a big mess. Thank goodness. And every answer spawns another question; and every question blossoms with a hundred different answers; and if you're lucky you'll always feel somewhat confused. Life is - ! . . . Life is . . .
a harmony of polar opposites,
with gorgeous mixed-up places in between,
where inspiration steams up from a rich
Sargasso stew that's odd and flawed and full
of gems and worn-out boots and sunken ships."

- Constance, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald

That is my kind of atheism.

[Lexi Belle]

I'm not entirely sure what I fall under. (whatever labels!)
I like to believe in reincarnation, I like to believe it in a sense of Karma, as do eastern religions.
I also like to believe in some form of afterlife and lost spirits.  I feel like all of these are enthralled in to one complicated system that cycles life.  I just find it hard to believe that we have all this about us as living creatures that allows us to see and remember.  There's a lot of science that explains it, but why is it there?  And what is this will for? 
All in all, I'm very confused when it comes to spirituality.  I just think that's an interesting way to look at it.

[Tossu-sama]

I think I'm a material atheist with hints of spiritual.

[Kaylee]

Going by the choices listed I would be Material Atheist, but I personally don't see how don't see how Spiritual Atheists can claim to be atheists at all. 

From the description provided it seems like although there isn't a belief in a deity, there is a belief in a greater Force in the universe connecting everything (the capital is intentional btw), which is pretty much the opposite of atheism - belief in something irrespective of whether there is sufficient evidence to formulation of a hypothesis or theory

Sure every object has an affect (however small) on every other object through the 4 fundamental forces, and wacky things like quantum entanglement show there is a form of interconnectedness that can occur in certain scenarios, but that doesn't provide any evidence to prove that there are connections greater than materiel ones.

I think I may be rambling there, morning tea required!

Cause and effect (as mentioned as a spiritual connection in the OP quote) is due to the laws of physics, which operate on the universe regardless of the universes composition

[JillSter]

I consider myself a "non-practicing atheist" (mostly as a subtle dig at the dogmatic atheists you find on youtube.) I don't believe in a God/creator and that's about as far as it goes. I think that's an easy answer to a magnificantly complex question. But I don't see the point in essentially joining a club based on my non-belief in something. Because I don't believe in one thing makes no other claims about my beliefs.

I would probably fit under the "spiritual atheist" description here (which is funny because I never thought of myself as a particularly spiritual person) because I do see all things as being connected; woven into the fabric of the universe, which is itself likely a part of something greater and probably forever unknowable. Just understanding time to be non-linear shakes up the traditional model of cause and effect in my mind. If what you do in the future has an effect on the past, we're not just chugging along down the river of time as many people assume. We're spinning through a whirlwind where possibilities are endless; and indeed everything that can happen very well might! There is absolutely an interconnectivity in that, if all things are possible and any potential event depends on a series of other events to be.

It's almost as if the universe itself is a simulation, running every conceivable variable to its ultimate conclusion, spawning parallel universes endlessly within a mindbending muti-dimensional framework the likes of which we will never fully comprehend. We are a speck on a rock in an endless sea that bends and twists and multiplies exponentially. The "end" is unfathomable. To us, there is only the here and now. We live, we love, we learn, we fade into the darkness beyond the horizon forever lost at sea.

We are wonderfully complex creatures, yet so simple and elegant in our place in the universe. We've learned so much, and yet we know nothing.

I don't believe in the Judeo-Christian God, or any other. I think the real answer is much more amazing and beautiful than anything the human mind has the capacity to imagine. If that makes me any less "atheist" than the next, I honestly don't care.

[♥︎ SarahD ♥︎]

Well going by those definitions, I'd say I'm a spiritual atheist.

I certainly don't believe in any 'conscious' entity making decisions about how things in the universe should and should not be.  I think the idea that some 'being' is sitting 'up there' (where ever "up there" is supposed to be..  ) and saying "ok, today I'm going to go out of my way to make sure person X has a bad day" or anything like that is just daft.  It just doesn't line up with anything we actually see in the real world.

My idea of the world (I tend not to 'believe' in anything - it's much better to have 'ideas' because ideas can be changed based on new information, but belief is fixed, and that tends to cause bad things to happen (people kill for their beliefs, and people die for their beliefs.  Heh, yeh - no thanks! )) is that 'God' is basically whatever created us, and as humans currently understand, we were created by the planet Earth out of random chance due to a quirk (one could almost call it a 'glitch') of the laws of physics.  The laws of physics (or chemistry or biology... you get the idea) are pretty much what I consider to be 'God'.  It has no consciousness (at least not what humans would call 'consciousness'), it's just the series of process' that go on that lead to a particular outcome.  Those process' happen seemingly at random (or at least 'a pattern too large for us to currently comprehend'), but are definable and can be understood.  The idea of 'cause and effect' being 'God' is kinda in the right ballpark with what I'm thinking

My view is that we are here for no other reason than: 'because we can be'.  There's nothing in the rules of this universe that says life can't exist, and so - just by sheer random chance combined with the vastness of the universe making it an almost certainty - here we are.  Conversely, the fact that the universe has the right conditions for us is no surprise either, because if this universe wasn't right for us then we wouldn't be here to know that it wasn't right for us!

So what's the meaning of life?  That's easy: the meaning of life is to live.  I mean, the answer is in the question really, I don't get why people have been contemplating it for so many centuries! <333

[Kaylee]

Conversely, the fact that the universe has the right conditions for us is no surprise either, because if this universe wasn't right for us then we wouldn't be here to know that it wasn't right for us!

I do so love the anthropic principle.

[♥︎ SarahD ♥︎]

I do so love the anthropic principle.

hehe yeh, it's so simple yet makes so much sense in explaining all the 'coincidences' in the way the universe is set up.  Occam's Razor I guess? <333

[Anatta]

Going by the choices listed I would be Material Atheist, but I personally don't see how don't see how Spiritual Atheists can claim to be atheists at all. 

Kia Ora Kaylee,

This would all depend on how one chooses to define the terms atheist and spiritual :

"The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)", used as a pejorative term applied to those thought to reject the gods worshipped by the larger society. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves using the word "atheist" lived in the 18th century"

For me personally atheism is simply the absence of belief that any god/s exist.

And spiritual ie having the nature of spirit, not tangible or material that which relates to the mind....

Hence why I see my 'self' as a spiritual atheist, an inner scientist, I study the mind, which leaves no room for a belief in creator gods in any shape or form...

Metta Zenda