It depends, crazyheart.  What do you mean by "spiritual"?  A lot of people mean a lot of different things by the word.

And regardless, it also depends on the atheist.  Atheism entails nothing but a lack of god-belief.

mabey we should first ask

what does it mean to be Spirtuial

I am spiritual. : )

I would also like to know the answer to that BB.

Hi crazyheart-- A good question. If you believe as I do that all men and woman are made by God , then I would say yes . For God put in every person some of  Himself.But I also Believe without Gods Spirit we don't know how to use it.Remember satan is also a spirit and even though very strong don't know how to use it.

I'm not spiritual in the way many here seem to define it.  Last time there was a thread of this nature, I explained what made me happy, which caused Arminius to do backflips of joy, but I call that "happy", not "spiritual".  I have experienced great emotional highs, but I have no reason to connect these to a higher power.

If you have God's Spirit (tm), why are you still so bloody incomprehensible?

Your not pluged into the right power chansen. So that what I say to you is incomprehensible, I would that you could understand all I say.airclean33

First Crazyheart, what is your concept of "God?"  When you say God, what image appears in your mind??

Are spiritual people atheists?

Budd, God is not a whitehaired man in the sky, for me. God is unexplainable and is a presence that is in me and around me.

Is there anyone in the world over the age of 10 who actually thinks God is an old man in the sky? 

Not to be snarky, Crazyheart, but I am growing tired of this stereotype of religious people.

So would I, but your ability to communicate sucks.  It's not a higher power I lack - it's an AC33-to-English dictionary.

My wife deems herself SBNR,  "spiritual, but not religious". She is more agnostic than atheist, for clarity.

She defines spiritual as being incorporeal, not tangible, not material... If she talks about "it",  people go, "Yeah" because they recognize themselves and their experiences, thoughts, feelings... even their theology in what she explains.  Most of them, get "it" from a religion.  Christian...  Buddhist, Jewish, pagan, Wiccan.... she is however SBNR. 

Some get their spirituality in religion. Others do not. Religion is one way you can experience it. 

Take meditation, it can be religious or just spiritual; the same with contemplation. 

My wife heads for a walk and says she meets herself there. She sits on the bank of the river and "feels" connected with everything around her. The essence of her being belongs, makes sense. She is connected and she knows it in her pores. She is more aware, tapped in, tuned in, turned on, energized, calmed, stirred, transformed, inspired....  For her, it is about her peace, happiness, well-being as a person, citizen, occupant of Earth... and nothing about a supernatural being. 

Yes, I would say atheists can be spiritual, a good many are.... they just do not have supernatural deity beliefs. 

This wasn't meant to be a stereotype, but now that you bring it up, P3, I do believe that there are many people who be lieve that God is a "he" that resides somewhere "up above" and they will "sit" with "him" in Heaven when they die.

Thanks Stevie.

Paradox, you might be surprised.

I had finished my service and a woman was speaking to her two preteen boys. I was not being spoken to or invited into the conversation. I simply could not avoid overhearing and it may have been on purpose.  She was explaining to them that Jesus was male and Jesus was God incarnate, soo...  then God is male and, that if Jesus and God are male, the Spirit is also male. This is in all likelihood brought on by my use of "Spirit" and the pronoun "she" (the blasted feminization of God). =)

I could have been offended, but instead was sad. I thought of another generation... (sigh). I could have told her about the Syriacs and Julian of Norwich or offered to loan her some books. Yet, I was not invited into the conversation. I smiled and thought to myself, there is a sermon topic....

There are plenty of folks who think God lives upstairs in a body. When they die they will go up there and live with him. They will be reunited with all their loved ones and live forever....He spends his days and nights smiting evil people and rewarding good folks. When bad things happen to good people he is testing them or they somehow deserved it, if for no other reason than the wretched nature we have or some fruit eating ancestors we had. 

Stereotype? Silly people? No sillier yet, we taught them all that and more. 

As an atheist,  I certainly was. And, in my approach to Christianity, I was surprised to find that so many "religious" people seemed oblivious to "spirituality". It's still not easy to get good spiritual encouragement and assistance in many churches.

I think atheists are self-defined - that is each and every person decides whether or not they are an atheist, and no one else decided who is a 'true' atheist or not.  Therefore it seems to me that many people who are non-theistic but believe in the Holy or the Spirit might define themselves as atheists.  Therefore, yes, some atheists probably are spiritual.

Stevie has come as close as anyone defining spirituality. Does anyone else have a description.

No Chansen --a-c-33 cannot help you, you need to get hooked into , J_C-The son . You are pretty smart. A Structural  Engineen whitch by the way I don't know much about.But building something don't you first have to have a good foundation Jesus is also called the Rock on whitch would be a good Foundation to Build your Family house. I hope you and your family are well.----airclean33

I'll choose native soil with a bearing capacity of 3000 PSF or greater, thanks.  Jesus is not a rock - he is a figment of people's imaginations.

stop thinking in the physical, thats your biggest mountain

I define spirit as energy. I often write energy/spirit or spirit/energy to emphasize that.

Because everything consists of energy, everything is spiritual. We can't help being spiritual.

Moreover, I also think that spirit/energy is a self-generative or self-energetic singularity in a unitive state of synthesis. Experiencing the unity that unites everyone and everything with everyone and everything else is a "spiritual experience," and becoming aware of being eternal self-generative energy is "spiritual awareness." 

This is not only atheistic, non-theistic or secular spirtuality, this is my definition of spirtuality. The prophets of old said much the same, but used the concepts of old to say it. Most of these ancient spiritual concepts are poorly understood in our time. That's why I use present day concepts that are readily understood by modern people.

For once we are in agreement. I certainly acknowledge that spirituality can exist outside of traditional organized religion and certainly there are many unchurched people who are spiritual, but I do think it requires some kind of belief in GOD, a great spirit, higher consciousness, or something "religious" no matter how nebulous in nature it may be.

Hi airclean33

That is only a part of the communication problem being experienced.  If it were the whole of the problem it would appear that you are very much espousing esotericism.

I am mindful that, according to the narrative of scripture, that when the Apostles spoke on the day of Pentecost in the many tongues that they apparently spoke they were speaking to folk who had not be blessed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The effect was such that those not so blessed were now able to hear and to understand the message that the Apostles brought to them.

Being plugged in to the right power appears to strip away confusion rather than adding to it.

Apart from that, telling someone that they are "not right" and thus not able to understand is always closing the door on communication and is effectively anti-evangelism.  It is a dismissal of the different and runs contrary to the great commission.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Hi chansen,

Being plugged in just mean the power is available.  The juice doesn't flow until the circuit is complete.

Let me attempt to translate.  Airclean33 will have to tell me if I am on track.

Airclean33 believes, as does much of Christianity, that humanity is created in the image and likeness of God (what that means exactly is still a matter of ongoing debate).

Since God is spirit it would follow logically that a portion of that image and/or likeness is also spirit.  So portions of each human would resonate at certain frequencies similar to how white light contains the whole of the visible spectrum whether or not you can discern each at a glance.

Which would mean that all human beings would have a spiritual dimension whether it was developed or not.

His final phrase regarding Satan is a bit of a jumble.  I'm dong more guessing there than translation.  What I think he meant to say was, Satan is also a spirit and while powerful in his own right is disconnected from the holy and unable to resonate at God's frequency.

Hope this helps at least to promote understanding.  I certainly do not believe it is going to facilitate agreement.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Crazyheart, as many have said above, being spiritual is not something that just religious people are. This is one of the biggest fallacies that many organized religions have promoted over the years and many people therefore generally believe.

Being spiritual is about "right human relations". It's about recognizing the divine in everyone, whether they believe themselves to be divine or not. Being spiritual is about being sincere in spirit, honest in mind and detached. These are not attributes that only religious people can display. Being spiritual is about living with nature and not against it. One can be spititual in religion, politics, art, science, education, it doesn't matter. It's about being honest and sincere in whatever we do.

So therefore, yes, athiests can be spiritual, just as religious people can demostrate the opposite. It's not about beliefs.

Chansen, do you think I am just "happy"? Maybe you don't like the word spiritual because of it's misconstrewed connotations? But I don't think it has to be linked with religion or God.

When I say I am spiritual, I mean I delight in the laws of physics, the beauty of nature, the wholeness of existance, the rhyme and effect of poetry, the beauty of colour, the urge that creates art, and all these things that are. So my spirit is profoundly happy, when I think of these things, and I call it spiritual, because it means that much to me.

Crazyheart, love your new avatar, very beautiful!

Oh a big amen, Elanorgold.

For me spiritual is to be connected, even in some small way, to something far greater than just existing....

Man gets tired
Spirit don’t
Man surrenders
Spirit won’t
Man crawls
Spirit flies
Spirit lives
When man dies

Man seems
Spirit is
Man dreams
The spirit lives
Man is tethered
Spirit free
What spirit is
Man can be

     The Waterboys, Spirit

Who?

Me no smart person. Me no find

Spirituality, to me, is a feeling of unity, of feeling united with everyone and everything, including the creative power of the universe. This feeling of unity manifests itself in unitive love, unitive awareness, and unitive consciousness and conscience.

Absolutely Arm, I didn't mention this in my list. Being spiritual is coming to that realization that Humanity is one, and this one is also part and parcel of an even greater One.

Why do you devalue existence?  You are so remarkably improbable, but here you are.  There is so much about existence to be amazed with, and absolutely none of it depends on the hypothesis of a god or gods.

 Spirituality IS existence, and vice-versa... in my humble experience.

Me too.

Hmmm. 'just' existing? Existing! Was a first thought. (Hitting head, trying to get a few more nurons activ---) "Something far greater"  is in the same bucket as "Higher Consciousnesss". I think the subjective personal definition of phrases like that make communication an interestinmg attempt never completrely accomplished. I even have a problem with the word "connected".Can you imagine the disparity of internal defining in here of that word! AND ---"even in a small way" seems, to me, to be occulticly impossible. (Not the connection, the 'small part', part.)

Cheers!

xactly so. Gods add flavoring though.

Hi rev john---------

[/quote] ---I would agree with what you have said to chansen, I think it is very close to what I ment , It is a littel deeper than I would have gone .But thank you . ---(With satan) , I don't understand why that would throw you off at all. As He was a son of God in heaven that went  against  the will of God and lost his place. He was cast out of heaven onto earth where He now makes war on man.I believe understanding who we are against , will help us not hurt one another as we  have done in the past -

Eph 6:12	For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Do I Believe --Chansen has the spirit answer Yes-----

	Act 2:16	but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
	Act 2:17	'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

God bless------airclean33

What do "god" or "gods" have to do with anything either Elanorgold or I wrote?   Nor do I "devalue" anyone's existence much less my own.

I used the word "exist-ing" as in 2. to eke out a living; stay alive; survive he could barely exist on such a low wage - perhaps I should post dictionary links but then that might ruin somebody's fun and happiness at projecting their perceptions onto how I define myself. 

[damn, now all I can hear in my head is Neil Simon saying "When I step out of the role you have written for me you make me feel like a plagiarist."]

Thus in that definition there is, in my humble and insignificant opinion, much more to existence than the mechanical act of breathing and getting out of bed in the morning, or for that matter, poking sticks at sources of inner strength to deflate another's personal bubble of joy for one's own sense of being.  But whatever rocks one boat....

LB

"I've always been interested in spirituality, and I've never joined any religion. And it really turns me off when people from one religion say theirs is the only way. ..."

     Mike Scott, The Waterboys

Despite Scott's pluralist perspective, The Waterboys have been labelled as "Christian rock" by some reviewers and heathens by some Christians . [Wikipedia]

           ********Tangent  alert**********

Damn, whenever I think of  chansen from now on, this quote will spring to mind.

Hi airclean33,

Satan doesn't throw me off at all.

It was the construction of your sentence that threw me.

Grace and peace to you.

John

LB: Hubby and I like the Waterboys too, especially "A Pagan Place". Lovely poem. And Chansen, you had that coming. Sorry but you did man.

Arminius, well said, as always. : ) Me too.

Mike: Maybe spirituality is realization of existance.

And God said "Let there be semantics!"

I think this is along the line of Mike and SG

Your original question, "Are atheists spiritual?"

No, they aren't allowed.

Why so you think so waterfall? Because they don't believe in God or because they are not religious?

Because spirituality does not deal with reality.  Most atheists would consider themselves realists unless we're talking about an atheism with "exceptions"