A person calling himself spiritual suggests that he/she is a seeker of spiritual knowledge (about God, the human soul, purpose/meaning of life, and such). A spiritual person need not be tied down to a set of beliefs to accomplish or seek this knowledge.

A sanyasi, for example, is non-religious by definition as he/she has renounced all physical and religious attachments. That does not make them non-spiritual (or even an atheist), however. In fact, they renounce everything only because they want to start tabula rasa.

Note that atheism like theism is also a belief, though not necessarily dicated by someone else.

Note that atheism like theism is also a belief, though not necessarily dicated by someone else.

That’s bullshit. Atheism is per definition the absence of belief.

Check out the online dictionaries if you’re so interested. Do that, and THEN say that my previous statement was bovine excreta. Don’t just talk through your hat.

Asli, can you be an atheist and still be spiritual? If so, please explain.

Spirituality is about increasing one’s understanding of the universe. An atheist does not believe in God as defined as a creator/controller/destroyer. However, merely negating theism does not answer questions such as one’s role in the universe or one’s physical/mental limits. Although an atheist understands that the answers posed by religions are incorrect, an atheist would still be inquisitive to know the actual answers.

Such an atheist would either seek these answers through science (the “western” way) or through spirituality (the “eastern” way). In other words, by looking outwards or by looking inwards. The atheist who chooses to look inwards would be a spiritual atheist. Looking inwards can be done by experimenting with one’s body or with one’s mind. This is why a lot of Zen practitioners either seek spirituality from martial arts or from meditation. For most, the two (mind+body) are interconnected too.

:-)

Thats how I began reading up on Vedic religion (which looks inward, and initially, didnt look at an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent god, but personified nature, and made them extra powerful human beings, operative word being humans.)
I am still searching, but I am not deluding myself with the statement I used to make. And which is this post’s title

Atheism is the BELIEF that God does not exist.

No, then it’s name would be anti-theism. But it’s called atheism, meaning the absence of theism, belief in god.

If we consider the word “theism” we will discover it to mean “belief-in-god”. Since the preposition a-something means the absence of, we can now discover that atheism means “no-belief-in-god”.
Thus, atheism is simply the absence of belief, not the rejection of belief.

If a child was brought up by wolves, it would be an atheist, since THAT’S THE ORIGINAL POSITION. Theism is something that’s added after you’re born.

All children are born atheists. They’re not anti-theists, mind you, they just don’t have the faintest idea who this imaginary man in the clouds is and what all this bowing, praying and whining is good for.

Now that I have proven you wrong, allow me to point out that your post was bovine excreta.