Hi Arlo, I would draw the line between spiritual and religious differently--along the same line as Rorty's public-private distinction, where spiritual is a private concern whereas religion is a public one.
First I would say that the distinction we need to make is between two types of spirituality where spirituality refers to any orientation toward understanding how one's own life fits into the greatest possible scheme of things. I would then distinguish between people who are spirtual and religious from those who are spiritual but not religious. I would call all those in your examples religious since they all have communal ritual practices. They each have religions. Someone who is spiritual but not religious is someone who does not identify with any such communal practice but has a private practice or concern with relating to a higher power or integrating one's own life into a wider order of existence. Here is a link to an egg-head who uses the terms in pretty much this way: http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Books/2002/07/Spiritual-But-Not-Religious.aspx?p=1 Best, Steve On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Arlo Bensinger <[email protected]> wrote: > [Steve] > > My point, which you haven't addressed, is only that it may not be the best > strategy to condemn ALL religion especially when there are so many varied > ways of being religious and all of them are not evil. Do you agree or > disagree? > > [Arlo] > I thought I touched on this lightly by saying, "if this was just about > someone standing on the street corner espousing the divinity of the Great > Pumpkin I don't think many people would stop and demand evidence." I'm going > to nitpick your statement though and say that I agree "there are many and > varied ways of being spiritual, and all of them are not evil". But like > "being wise" and "being smart" are related but different, so are, I think, > "being spiritual" and "being religious". I'd say, to illustrate, that many > Buddhists are "spiritual" but not very "religious", while groups like Al > Qaeda are very "religious" but not very "spiritual". Dalai Lama = Spiritual. > Pat Robertson = Religious. > > Like Joseph Campbell, I believe we can greatly better our understanding of > what it means to be human by appreciating and learning the myths from which > our being arises. Although I'd personally find it odd if someone insisted > that "Gulliver" was real, and really did land on an island inhabited by > small folk, and that the Travels are an accurate historical account as told > to the prophet Jonathan Swift, as I said above I wouldn't condemn this or go > out of my way to attack it or demand evidence. But when it bleeds into the > social/legal/political arena, that's different. > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
