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Can Atheists Be Spiritual?
By Jerry Brown
First, what do we mean by øspiritualÓ? Definitions generally fall into two areas - one pertaining to matters of courage and feeling, and the second relating to the non-material and paranormal.
Regarding the first, atheists are no less concerned that anyone else. Our ethical and humane values will stand alongside those of any theists; we just have a different idea of where they come from.
We experience joy and sorrow. We are distressed by suffering, especially when we realize that so much of it comes from superstition and a lack of regard for the feelings of fellow creatures.
My lack of belief in the supernatural has led to a heightened awareness
of, and curiosity about, the natural. Spellbound, I watch the airborne
acrobatics of a hummingbird, a spider constructing its intricately beautiful
web, a stream of ants with their amazing load-carrying ability.
I see the spectacular clouds and savor the fresh wind after a storm.
I walk along a beach watching the waves rolling and crashing, as they have
for eons before us, and as they will long after humans have reverted to
dust. I watch the light from the setting sun take on glorious colors,
and as the sky darkens, I look at the slowly appearing stars, realizing
that the atoms of my body were formed out there among them, and may ultimately
return. (No, this isn¹t some kind of mysticism, simply current physics
and cosmology.)
I remember my first unaided-eye encounter with our nearest øneighborÓ in the universe, the Andromeda Galaxy. One dark night by an Ozark lake, surrounded by an intense cascade of sound from nocturnal insects, but otherwise alone, I was looking up at the stars, when suddenly I became aware of an indistinct patch of light barely visible among them. I was seeing ancient light that had traveled two million years through space and time from a source so distant that its countless stars were only a diffused glow at the edge of my vision. A profoundly moving, almost unnerving, experience it surely was; definitely goose-fleshy! In fact, you might even call it spiritual.
These and innumerable other wonders I observe with endless fascination, but with no pretense of knowing how or why they all came about. Such knowledge may forever be beyond human grasp. I can live with that; I have no illusions of them being put there solely for the pleasure of we humans by an imaginary something called, øGodÓ. They are simply there, and I simply look and admire.
Now to the second area, the commonly understood meaning of the word øspiritualÓ, and its own self-explanation of why I do not use it. I am a materialist, not in the sense of being obsessed with ever more possessions, but as a matter of practical necessity. Everything I perceive is material, which is not to say there is nothing else, only that I have no evidence of it.
This is the reason I do not believe that UFOs or dragons exist - I have seen no evidence that they do. An astronomer once said that he would challenge anyone proposing a non-material existence to write six meaningful sentences concerning such a condition. Can you do it? I¹m not sure I can.
So, I¹m quite comfortable not claiming to be spiritual. This in no way diminishes my sense of compassion or my ability to appreciate and enjoy. It only means that I look at things from a different perspective, one which, for me, is much more realistic and satisfying.