Exploring the Social Imagination

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

How can Atheists be 'Spiritual' in their Social Imaginaton?

REALLY ? ~  You can be spiritual and believe in the supernatural...?

At first glance the terms ‘spiritual’ & ‘atheism’ enjoined would seem an oxymoron in the least, but I am not the first to come to an awareness that knowledge of spiritual & metaphysical truths are not a necessary negation of a non belief of a superimposed deity.

For an atheist, it’s illogical to view god as a personal, anthropomorphic god who is also a transcendent deity that exists outside and apart from “existence.” However, an atheist can be spiritual—and remain rational at the same time—when god is seen and known as energy.

First of all, atheists, being logical about being spiritual, cannot be spiritual in the same sense as Christian or even as Muslim or Buddhist. Why? Because, if they reject an omnipotent God the Creator of all things seen and unseen, then what is there to be spiritually connected with/to? Looking at the later quote above provided by a practicing 'spiritual' atheist says they can connect with energy.

How is that better view of spirituality? Can they see 'energy'? No. They can experience it. Many Christians and Muslims say that they can experience the presence of God in their lives. What is more spiritual? Let's look again at the first quote, "You can be spiritual and believe in the supernatural." Really?

The very fact that anyone recognizes 'spirituality' as a possible real experience in their life is already having a supernatural experience. Now, let's look at energy. There is positive energy and negative energy, matter,  dark, and anti matter. So, if someone is having a supernatural experience and yet rejects that it came from the only positive energy in the universe, the Creator, then who is really providing their 'supernatural' experience?

You might say that they themselves have reach a heightened state of awareness. But, that is not really 'supernatural'. Its just an over exaggerated imagination or totally narcissistic experience - totally in love with self and only the self.

By connecting with all the energy, all the molecules and stardust in the universe is supposed to give you a spiritual high, then you must be believe that it is so amazing and incredible and wonderful that it deserves your love of it. Sadly, they don't know that the Creator created because He loved first.

If you are an atheist that most likely makes you a believer in evolution. In that case, why would you want to have a spiritual high on the stuff that just randomly happened and will never happen again. If really don't believe in God, then you are already dead. Because, once you are dead you won't even remember you were ever alive. And if you make everyone else an atheist like yourself. The same can be said about them and down the line.

That means that no one will ever know that you were alive, because they will never know you were alive. Of course, you can try to get your name in the history books but we see what history books mean to people today - nothing. Why? Because, ever new atheist that comes along thinks that they are the first to ever exist, let alone think the way they think. They dis any past that does not agree with theirs and certainly any past that includes believers in God.

Can you be a nice person being an atheist? Sure. Can you be a spiritual atheist? No. But, if you simply want to identify as a person who breathes... I guess so. And, when you have breathed your last breath then you will be spiritually dead just as you were born.

Now, those alive in Christ see it as the other way around. We are born spiritually dead and then are born again in Jesus Christ. Being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and living in submission to His Will, loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind, delivers us from the sin of death. When we die, our spirit is raised from the dead....He knows who is written in the book of Life.

To be fair, anyone and everyone in the social imagination experiences social reality through what we sociologists call agreement reality. Some will agree that their spirit will rise from the dead (that's real supernatural) and others just won't. In sum, only when you die will you come to know the truth. That is the spirituality that the Christian lives in. As for the atheist, they will never have that hope or kind of spirituality because there are tied to here and now. When they die... that's it, right?

God is the Creator of all things seen and unseen, he holds all things together ~ COL 1:16-17.  God so loved the world, He sent His only Son... John 3:16, the only way to the Father is by Him ~ John 14:6, and He who is ready to judge the living and the dead ~ 1 Peter 4:5... and to those that are His ~ John 1:12, they will be in His Kingdom! For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power ~ 1 COR 4:20.

2 comments :

  1. People either doubt the Creator's love, mercy and grace in view of their sin and or they just don't know His love, mercy and grace despite their sin. And if they don't know ... they have not been introduced. Get a Bible and get to know the Creator of heaven and earth. Get into real spirituality!

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  2. Psalm 146 ~ Praise the Lord, my soul!
    I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them... he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

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