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.
No, it’s an absence of theism. Atheist. You can do psychedelics and talk about spirituality without believing in theism and gods.
So what do you call a person who doesn’t beleive in anything supernatural/spiritual/divine?
A realist
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.
Blind faith and the scientific method are literal opposites. What a bad take.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why should we pander to religious people? Wake up dude there’s no sky daddy lol.
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?
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.
I feel like adding a church into the equation unnecessarily complicates matters - get high at home.
Ok, you’ve convinced me.
I suspect your arm didn’t need much twisting.
In many places like the US, a “church” makes the psychedelics legal
I know organized communities often lead to a lot of social issues but they can also do a lot of good. Social support is key to mental healt. Modern lifestyle makes it harder and harder to find that support, or even meet new people after you get to a certain age
So this is why Walden was required reading in grade school; it’d have been crazy to go around thinking this was a new idea.
Ah yes, the musings of someone who could afford to just live in a summer cottage on a pond and chose to live simply without the risk of failure is a real inspiration for the common man.
“Nones”
What the hell is wrong with “agnostic?”
You don’t need to “fill the void”, there is no void to begin with.
