Wikipedia offers a figure of 6,912 current living languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct_language) although it continues, in this article, to suggest that "90% of the circa 7,000 languages currently spoken in the world will have become extinct by 2050" . Language has evolved into a jungle of various combinations of sounds, grammatical nuances, and regional dialects. All of these variations communicate, to varying degrees of efficiency, ideas. But, I believe one word in the English species of language is profoundly less efficient than its linguistic cousins.
When asked what my beliefs are or what religion I am, I almost always hesitate. I want the words I choose to truly express my thoughts. Over the course of my life I have identified myself as Lutheran, Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, Agnostic-Atheist, Militant Atheist, Humanist, and, at times, spiritual. I still identify with many of these--even Christian when being asked about cultural religion. But, I have a particular problem with the last identity in the list, spiritual.
The term spiritual or spirituality offers me precisely zero information about what a person who claims that identity actually believes. If you were to ask me what religion I was I could, hypothetically, give any number of responses. For the most part, whatever response I give would trigger some sort of idea: Christian--Jesus Christ/the Trinity, Muslim--Mohammed/Allah, Jewish--Yahweh (YHWH), etc. But what comes to mind when someone says "spiritual"? Perhaps some sort of "new age" (perhaps just a synonym for spiritual) philosophy on life comes to mind but, then, what is the philosophy? What do spiritual people believe that separates them as a group from other religious thought?
I think there are reasons why people choose to identify as spiritual and not something more specific: it offers a neutral position for a person to take in the often heated and controversial discussions around religion. It offers a space where you can be both theist or atheist depending upon the crowd you are with and the semantic acrobatics you are willing to perform. I can imagine the spiritual person thinking, "I don't accept the claims of [insert religion here] but I don't want people to think I'm an Atheist." If this is how you think, congratulations, you are an Atheist at least in regard to that religion. Generally speaking, when someone identifies oneself as spiritual I more or less assume they are an atheist but just don't know it yet. Until you have identified what you do believe I think it is fair to assume that you don't believe (accept as true) any religion and that you are an atheist. That is the problem with the word spiritual: it doesn't tell me what you believe.
I am willing to accept that the term may offer some meaning to the individual or to a small group of people but only after they have agreed on what it is that actually do believe and have called spirituality.
Why not forgo the inherent confusion with an identity as convoluted as spiritual?
As always, I am interested in your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Zach
For me, the term 'spiritual' only goes halfway to defining someone's beliefs. I agree with you that on its own, it does not serve as a definition for one's view of life or the world. Since you're going to quote wikipedia I might as well do the same:
ReplyDelete"Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.
From my perspective this definition should be able to encompass every human everywhere, religious or not.
For people of a religious faith, it is easier them to follow this 'inner path' because doctrine clearly tells them which route to take. Perhaps people who identify as 'spiritual' but stop short of true definition do so not out of a desire to straddle some sort of social fence. Maybe it's because without a clearly laid out road map to the 'essence of their being', they are still searching for the path.
I wouldn't be so quick to condemn this term. Instead, I would see it as a sort of a stepping stone to one's own self-awareness.