I am a fan of Sam Harris. He's an elegant person in thought, word, and deed. So when Sam has an opinion, I listen.
In my own life I have taken a break from the word "spiritual", and have replaced it with "natural", since it occurs to me that it is entirely natural for us to have these momentary I never knew how often I used the word in a very sloppy, short-cut kind of way, until I tried to never say it. We all have moments when we transcend the ordinary and the mundane, when our senses are heightened or focused, and when we have an out-of-the-ordinary feeling or experience. The religious attribute these so often to god, that it is difficult for the godless to communicate about these experiences without sounding a bit religious.
Members of 12-step groups speak often about having spiritual experiences. We can't really avoid it, since we are reminded at every meeting:
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of theresult of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Most agnostics and atheists don't have a problem with the 12th step as written, but alternatives have been suggested:
We, in turn, are ready to help others who may come to us in the same way. (B.F. Skinner/Humanist)
Practice the principles of these Steps in all our affairs and carry the 12-Step message to others. Principles: Commitment, Self-discipline, Service to others. (Alternative)
Tried to help others struggling with addiction and practice these principles in other areas of my life. (Atheist)
Here is an article from Sam Harris about his own use of the word "spiritual". It is food for thought... for those of us who tend to think too much! : )
In writing my next book, I will have to confront the animosity that many people feel for the term “spiritual.” Whenever I use the word—as in referring to meditation as a “spiritual practice”—I inevitably hear from fellow skeptics and atheists who think that I have committed a grievous error.
The word “spirit” comes from the Latin spiritus, which in turn descends from the Greek pneuma, meaning “breath.” Around the 13th century, the term became bound up with notions of immaterial souls, supernatural beings, ghosts, etc. It acquired other connotations as well—we speak of the spirit of a thing as its most essential principle, or of certain volatile substances and liquors as spirits. Nevertheless, many atheists now consider “spiritual” thoroughly poisoned by its association with medieval superstition.
I strive for precision in my use of language, but I do not share these semantic concerns. And I would point out that my late friend Christopher Hitchens—no enemy of the lexicographer—didn’t share them either. Hitch believed that “spiritual” was a term we could not do without, and he repeatedly plucked it from the mire of supernaturalism in which it has languished for nearly a thousand years.
It is true that Hitch didn’t think about spirituality in precisely the way I do. He spoke instead of the spiritual pleasures afforded by certain works of poetry, music, and art. The symmetry and beauty of the Parthenon embodied this happy extreme for him—without any requirement that we admit the existence of the goddess Athena, much less devote ourselves to her worship. Hitch also used the terms “numinous” and “transcendent” to mark occasions of great beauty or significance—and for him the Hubble Deep Field was an example of both. I’m sure he was aware that pedantic excursions into the OED would produce etymological embarrassments regarding these words as well.
We must reclaim good words and put them to good use—and this is what I intend to do with “spiritual.” I have no quarrel with Hitch’s general use of it to mean something like “beauty or significance that provokes awe,” but I believe that we can also use it in a narrower and, indeed, more transcendent sense.
Of course, “spiritual” and its cognates have some unfortunate associations unrelated to their etymology—and I will do my best to cut those ties as well. But there seems to be no other term (apart from the even more problematic “mystical” or the more restrictive “contemplative”) with which to discuss the deliberate efforts some people make to overcome their feeling of separateness—through meditation, psychedelics, or other means of inducing non-ordinary states of consciousness. And I find neologisms pretentious and annoying. Hence, I appear to have no choice: “Spiritual” it is.
There are plenty of addicts and alcoholics out there who went through their first New Year's Eve sober.
Holidays
