thread: 2006-09-08 : Picky-choosy religion, 3 views
On 2006-09-09, timfire wrote:
Tris,
I think there's a common misunderstanding that equates spirituality with supernatural-(err)-ism. I say this as someone who struggled with understanding just what "spirituality" meant myself. When one speaks of the supernatural, you're talking about external intelligence or forces, like angels, demons, fate, ghosts, etc.
Spirituality, however, refers to a, err, dimension of life or reality. It is something inward, intuitive, and innate. You can define spirituality secularly and say it is a construct that simply describes the sum of our being. If you believe in a soul, you can say that spirituality is the condition of our souls or at least refers to that dimension or level that the soul exists on.
(Words here fail me, and I fear I'm doing a bad job explaining myself.)
For now let's say its simply the sum of our being (which may or may not include a soul). As such, our spiritual experience is tied up with our emotions, intellect, and physical well-being. (Just as our emotions are tied up with our intellect and physical experience.) Taking care of our bodies is a spiritual practice, for example, as taking care of one component of our being affects the overall sum. (And here the Bible agrees. The Old Testament, with its various dietery laws and such among other things acknowledges that our physical experience affects our spiritual one.)
Thus, saying that loving your daughter or spouse is spiritual doesn't mean you are experiencing something external to yourself. It just means that it is an experience that touches your being at some deep level.
