I’ll start! There was a lot of absolutist rhetoric there that said things along the lines of “All Christians are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad people!” I think a little nuance is in order, no?

  • Flying Squid
    link
    English
    141 year ago

    Spirituality is an essential part of what makes us humans.

    I guess I’m not a human.

      • Flying Squid
        link
        English
        51 year ago

        I’m talking about an emotional sense of connection to something bigger than oneself.

        Still sounds like I’m not a human to you…

        • @confluence
          link
          English
          11 year ago

          You have a limbic system, a parietal lobe, etc. You don’t feel connected to anything? No people? Communities? Games?

          Inner experience doesn’t matter to you, even if science-backed?

          Even if you don’t feel any sense of connection to anything at all, you’d still be human, but you’d probably be diagnosed as a psychopath.

          • Flying Squid
            link
            English
            61 year ago

            I don’t feel connected to anything bigger than myself. I feel connections with other humans. I feel connections with animals. Unless you mean other humans who are physically larger than I am, I do not feel any connection to anything bigger than myself.

            So I guess I’m not human.

            • @confluence
              link
              English
              11 year ago

              By “bigger than one’s self” I mean things like community, family, etc. A group of people is larger than one person. Or nature: you’re a part of the universe at large, and are ontologically connected to it in a variety of ways. You’re part of ecological systems bigger than yourself. Life and death and all that naturally implies. You don’t feel in any way connected to anything beyond your own body that’s larger than you? Not your source in space, your inevitable demise, or even this community?

              • Flying Squid
                link
                English
                51 year ago

                I don’t feel emotionally connected to groups or “the universe at large.” I feel emotional connection to individuals.

                • @confluence
                  link
                  English
                  11 year ago

                  I think you’re playing semantic games here. Feeling connected to individuals in a selected group is exactly what I mean when I say a feeling of connection to a community. You’re trying to tell me your brain does not make you feel connected to any system of which you are a component?

                  And if your answer is “no,” a human incapable of sensing that they’re part of a system doesn’t negate how natural it is, generally.

                  • Flying Squid
                    link
                    English
                    21 year ago

                    You said an emotional connection. Of course I’m part of many systems. That doesn’t mean I have emotional stakes in them.