TEASERS
FROM THE TEXT
OF
SPIRITUALITY
WITHOUT GODS:
DEVELOPING
OUR CAPACITIES OF SPIRIT
The following short quotations are taken from
Spirituality without Gods:
Developing Our Capacities of Spirit by James Park.
Some of these appear on the back cover of the book.
These teasers
from the text introduce the themes of the book
and illustrate the style of Spirituality
without Gods.
The titles in BLUE CAPITAL LETTERS are
added just for these selections.
MORAL SYSTEMS CAN CHANGE
IF THEY ARE
BASED IN REASON RATHER THAN RELIGION.
When morality is based in reason,
then people can argue for changes in the cultural rules for
relationships.
If morality were based only on unchanging religious beliefs,
then, of course, the rules could never
change.
p.13
Giving up belief in gods who watch from the sky
does not mean that we will become immoral.
Rather, it challenges us to re-examine all our moral systems
and see which standards of morality have good foundations in reality
and which traditional rules of behavior can be abandoned
because they are relics of past moral systems
that can no longer be defended
rationally.
p. 15
WE SEEK REASONABLE
EXPLANATIONS
FOR WORLD EVENTS
RATHER THAN EXPLAINING THEM BY
GODS.
Anyone on Earth who believes in an all-powerful god
will have to present very strong evidence
which will be forceful enough to replace the more obvious explanations:
The events of the world have wholly natural and human causes.
Why should we believe that anything is caused by supernatural
agents? p. 18
WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE IN
ANYTHING AFTER DEATH?
Because claims of life after death are so extraordinary
and so beyond anything that can be observed in life,
such beliefs require a very
high level of proof.
p. 21
Those who believe in some form of consciousness
after death
have the burden of explaining how
thought takes place without a brain
—and then giving some plausible account of how
any such new consciousness connects with
the consciousness we have as fully-alive human
beings.
p. 22
GETTING LOST IN THE
LANGUAGE
OF THE PAST.
Literalism is the downfall of almost all world
religions:
When the religion has a sacred text or texts,
those particular words
become identified as the truth.
And anyone who departs from the sacred words as established
is declared to be a heretic by that religious
tradition.
p. 25
Most people who explore spiritual matters
find themselves looking to the past.
They might spend their whole lives studying and interpreting
sacred texts created thousands of years ago.
But persons of spirit who look to the future
are willing and able to express their spiritual insights in new
forms.
p. 26
FINDING NEW WAYS TO EXPRESS ANY
'FAITH'.
For example, our original religious beliefs might
have included lots of doctrines about gods,
which we can no longer believe because of our continuing intellectual
growth.
So the question then becomes:
Can we keep the spiritual progress we have experienced
while at the same time rejecting all of the traditional gods?
Put another way:
Can we have spirituality without gods?
Can we abandon the outmoded conceptual tools
without losing our
'faith'?
p. 26
If traditional religious expressions actually help us
to move in the spiritual directions we find meaningful
then we will continue to use those familiar words.
But if our religious traditions hinder our spiritual
progress,
we ought to have the courage to abandon
at least the worst parts of our religious system of
beliefs.
p. 27
ART AS A MEDIUM OF
SELF-TRANSCENDENCE.
Or we human beings might create our own
'moments of vision'.
For instance, art
might be an attempt to facilitate self-transcendence.
Something significant has happened to the artist;
and he or she wants to stimulate similar experiences in others.
The artist invites others to step outside of themselves for a
moment.
p. 38
SELF-CRITICISM AS A POWER
OF SPIRIT.
The most important moments of transition in
our lives
were probably shaped by this capacity of spirit—self-criticism.
We looked deeply at our current lives.
We found something profoundly wrong or off-center about what we were
doing.
Sometimes without any significant pressures from outside of our selves,
we just decided a different course for our lives:
Self-transcendence
empowered us to step beyond our daily concerns.
Self-criticism enabled
us to see some basic mis-direction of our lives.
And our freedom
allowed us to begin our lives over
again.
p. 39
THE LITTLEST ST. NICHOLAS.
This story is about a little boy, 2-1/2 years
old, named Nicholas.
It took place in the summer of 1982 on Star Island in Cass Lake
in northern Minnesota, at (Unitarian Universalist) Camp Unistar.
It was the last night of a week-long camp
discussing love.
That day Nicholas had fallen from the jungle gym, breaking his leg.
He had been the center of attention during an emergency boat trip
to the nearest hospital to have his whole little leg put in a cast.
That night, as we were singing in the dining
hall of the lodge,
little Nicholas, who was the smallest camper that week,
noticed that Araby, a 4-year-old girl, was crying.
(She was tired; and she couldn't read the words of the songs.)
For a few seconds Nicholas observed Araby's
tears.
Then, without asking what was wrong or telling her not to cry,
he hobbled over to the wooden bench and struggled up beside her
and put his little arm around her slightly higher shoulder.
And she seemed to be comforted.
Nicholas didn't know what the problem was,
but he knew what tears
were.
In the third summer of his life, he spontaneously transcended himself
and responded sympathetically to another suffering human being.
He had empathy, compassion, kindness—signs of the human
spirit.
p. 40
Created
April 5, 2011; Revised 4-6-2011; 4-9-2011; 12-31-2013
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