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What from r/atheism at the old place do we want to avoid here in c/atheism? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by meldroc@lemmy.world to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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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?

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 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@lemmy.world 1 points 1 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.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 1 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@lemmy.world 1 points 1 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?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I don't feel emotionally connected to groups or "the universe at large." I feel emotional connection to individuals.

[-] confluence@lemmy.world 1 points 1 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.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 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.

[-] confluence@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly. I'm only talking about the things your limbic system responds to. Spirituality concerns inner life, and emotional stakes are part of that. Emotional stakes in systems of which you are a part, is human. That can be connections to other components of that system, or some other aspect of that system, but a sense of connection is a sense of connection. Spirituality concerns itself with these inner, emotional experiences. Not all humans are or necessarily should be concerned with these experiences (though mental health can benefits from awareness in this area), but the limbic system/parietal lobe are demonstrably involved with these experiences, and it's an odd argument to say you don't have these common, human structures, or any relevant experiences.

In short, I'm not calling you subhuman. I think we just haven't yet found common ground on these terms.

Spirituality =/= superstition

Emotional connection is an inner experience (a phenomenon of our bodies), and caring about inner experience, including its relationship with systems outside the body proper, is quite human.

[-] sauerkraus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’m a big fan of the sun, but I don’t have any illusions that it’s my friend.

I really don’t see how an emotional connection to something bigger than my self would do anything valuable. If I did, I would just be religious.

[-] confluence@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

This has nothing to do with something like thinking the sun is your friend 😅 That sounds more like superstition than mere spirituality.

(I mean, the sun will destroy you given the chance lol... some friend!)

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
107 points (91.5% liked)

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