ORAN MOR (Gaelic for Great Song): Thoughts on a New Path in the Age of Personalized Spirituality

October 26, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Gregory Gronbacher Created by Leo Reynolds The Age of Personalized Spirituality Hardly a week goes by without another study or survey showing the growth of the Nones. The term None describes those individuals who do not subscribe to or identify with one of the mainstream religious traditions. As of my last look, a few surveys had the Nones at around 40% of the US population and growing quickly. The numbers are higher in Europe. Many interpret the None phenomenon as signaling the end of religion and... Read more

Contemplation and Meditation

October 26, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Thomas Schenk In general usage, the words “contemplation” and “meditation” are used as synonyms. There are, however, two distinctive forms of mindfulness for which either of these words can be used. Below, I provide a brief description of these two forms and my practice of them. For the purpose of this piece, I call one of these practices contemplation and the other meditation. I am not implying that this usage is the correct one, only that it would be... Read more

Dana to Zakat-Giving for Spiritual Reward

October 26, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by SNS Guest Creator: gece33 – Credit: gece33 (Today’s article is by guest writer Shahreen Quazi. Brief bio is provided below.) Giving from the heart has many forms and names, but at some point, humanity started considering it as a way for attaining spiritual rewards. This could indeed have started with indigenous cultures but one of the first known recorded words for giving for spiritual reward or purification, was and is “dana”. Dana is a word from the Pali language, used in... Read more

Being a Brain in a Body with a Face

October 19, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by James Jarrett I offer the following in dialogue with Thomas Schenk’s two recent SNS articles, Being a Brain and, A Light in the Clouds. (1) I am drawn to Sci-Fi stories dealing with the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Bladerunner, The Matrix trilogy, Ghost in the Shell, Altered Carbon, Battlestar Galactica, and the aptly named, Humans are some examples I have enjoyed. If my human sense of self is an effect, the cause of which lies somewhere within the un-consciously-knowable parts of my brain,—and, I do not... Read more

A Light in the Clouds

October 19, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Thomas Schenk This morning as I sat on my patio drinking coffee, I looked up at the sky where the rising sun was shining on the clouds. And it struck me again how beautiful this world is. I basked in that beauty for a while; centered myself in it. Yes, there is ugliness also. Humans in particular bring ugliness. Human cruelty, destructiveness, vulgarity, stupidity, etc. etc. is all so present. Yet the beauty of a lighted-filled sky is above that... Read more

In a Naturalist Judaism, Who Commands?

September 29, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by SNS Guest (This week’s article is by guest author Gregory Gronbacher. A brief bio on Gregory, is provided below.) A quick glance at recent Pew Foundation surveys on Judaism reveal that many Jews – as many as 60% of American Jews – identify as atheist or agnostic. Jewish views on God have always varied and the tradition avoids definitive explanations of the nature of the divine. There has always been much less emphasis on the supernatural in Judaism than... Read more

Why Determinism Doesn’t Get Us Off The Hook

September 29, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Daniel Strain This post is about comparing the two seemingly contradictory concepts of determinism and moral responsibility. On one hand, if everything is determined by causality and physics, and this includes our brain activity, memories, thoughts, choices, and actions, then how can we be responsible for what we do?[1] On the other hand, it sure seems like we should be held responsible for what we do. If we weren’t, couldn’t we use that as an excuse to be even... Read more

Spirituality and Aging

September 21, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Jeff Worthy I had a different agenda altogether this month for an article concept (Part III of the Blade Runner series—coming soon), but as life often does, events conspired to force me to grapple with another issue deserving of reflection for this month’s article. Though I have pondered my own mortality in recent years, realizing that I am 51 and have more years behind me than ahead of me, I am not grappling with anywhere near the same universe of challenges... Read more

Live In the Now

September 21, 2023 By Spiritual Naturalist Society

by Jeff Worthy Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small–small as the corner of the earth in which we live it. Small as even the greatest renown, passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures, ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead. – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Three, Passage 10... Read more