• @Eheran
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    201 year ago

    While abandoning mainstream religious affiliation, many turn to alternative expressions, including secular, atheist and psychedelic churches. For about a decade, as a scholar who studies alternative expressions of spirituality, I have tracked these groups online

    Atheists are not an “alternative expression of spirituality”. It is the absence of it. The same way drying is not an alternative form of watering plants.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      131 year ago

      No, it’s an absence of theism. Atheist. You can do psychedelics and talk about spirituality without believing in theism and gods.

      • @eatthecake
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        31 year ago

        So what do you call a person who doesn’t beleive in anything supernatural/spiritual/divine?

        • @WidowsFavoriteSon
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          -131 year ago

          The religion called Scientism. Belief in the scientific method and its ability to explain all things.

          That is still a belief system, as much as a spiritual system is.

            • @WidowsFavoriteSon
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              -21 year ago

              You have blind faith that the scientific method can explain all of reality. Your priests wear white lab coats and you fill your altars with arcane devices that you pretend can explain everything to you.

              Yeah, it’s a religion.

              • @andy_wijaya_med
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                31 year ago

                Scientific method is not a blind faith lmao.

                Blind faith is believing something without any proof. Scientific method is exactly the opposite of that. It is apparent that you don’t understand what you’re talking about.

                Science is not a religion.

              • @[email protected]
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                21 year ago

                You have blind faith that the scientific method can explain all of reality.

                Wrong. The scientific method is defined by the absence of blind faith.

          • @Zombiepirate
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            1 year ago

            That seems really condescending to religious people.

            Religion isn’t just believing things without reasons, and epistemology (faulty or otherwise) is not religion.

            Edit: Wonder if anyone is going to give a reason for downvoting that isn’t intentionally dense and a misrepresentation of my point? Guess not; we should definitely aim for less nuance in discussions.

            • @Nudding
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              31 year ago

              Why should we pander to religious people? Wake up dude there’s no sky daddy lol.

              • @Zombiepirate
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                1 year ago

                Congrats, you solved the easiest puzzle in the universe.

                Maybe you’ll realize one of these days that it isn’t what religion is about. I’m not pandering, I’m pointing out that OP was wrong and condescending to their own side.

                Unless you think “scientism” is a real religion?

      • @Eheran
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        1 year ago

        The context is: Alternative expressions of religious affiliation [which were explored, including atheism]. Which is why I included that quote in my comment.

        Maybe I am too strict and you can read it in another way, where that list of things (including atheism) is not necessarily part of that next sentence. But the author should also take care to avoid such things.