Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 966 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#621

Post by [deleted] »

cogman10 wrote: post #544
laserlight wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious. How did you originally arrive at the conclusion that god didn’t exist?

We all come by it by different ways but I'll share my story. I was mormon up until around 30ish. However, researching the history of the mormon religion ultimately led me to completely disbelieve the faith claims of the church. From there, atheism was just sort of natural. Why, for example, would I suddenly believe that any other religious sect got it's supernatural claims correct when the one I was raised with, got…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#622

Post by trasz »

icytrumpet wrote: post #404
sam0x17 wrote: post #233

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

Why even bother forgiving yourself if morality is just a human construct and there is no judgment in the afterlife?

""If you don't believe there is a God to answer to why don't you go round raping & murdering as much as you want?"

I do, which is not at all"

https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/358518027446263808?l...

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#623

Post by mistermann »

koheripbal wrote: post #486
kazinator wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"100% atheism" isn't a spiritual practice. It's just the absence of belief in the existence of gods. A rock is 100% atheist, yet in all likelihood doesn't have spiritual practice. You can have a spiritual practice under the umbrella of atheism, as long as it doesn't involve any kind of belief in gods. Whatever that practice is, that practice isn't identified with the atheism itself.

This is an important point. Being atheist doesn't say anything about your beliefs in ethics or the nature of the universe. It's just the absence of some set of other beliefs.

The absence of certain beliefs is an objective differential from a other perspectives, and therefore does say something about one's beliefs (both on a relative and absolute scale) about the nature of the universe (as the nature of the universe is such that many agents within it perceive that there is a God involved).

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#624

Post by gxt »

Natus sum anno 2745.

I like to think myself as urban, meaning anti-sectarian. Every sect is based on dogma, if we let those lead our lives again we're gonna be in for another thousand years of dark ages. I don't want to let this happen, now is my watch, it's my duty to prevent it.

My tools are logic and patience. Jupiter help me - ha!

But in all seriousness, everything we have is fragile. It could all be gone in an instant if we are not careful, if we don't strive to keep it, and grow it. Everything we have has brought us to this moment. We have almost all the tools to see into the universe and yet waste our time with petty fights, misunderstandings and shell ourselves in a cocoon of illusions and lies. We can do better. We have to do better. We exists, and yet we don't know the purpose of existence. We should focus on that, it's the common denominator of literally everything, it's not a hard sell once past the lies.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#625

Post by omarfarooq »

ss108 wrote: post #378

Muslim, but not particularly practicing or religious (though I am aiming to be moreso and my knowledge of the religion's history, development, and jurisprudence is certainly above that of most practicing Muslims I have met). On an actual daily basis: meditation and journaling. I have also incorporated, on most days, listening to Islamic stuff on YouTube in the mornings, and reading the Quran in translation at night b…

May Allah establish you on His straight path.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#626

Post by dragonwriter »

icytrumpet wrote: post #460
autopilot23 wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why even bother "trying to live a good life" if "a good life" is just a human construct and there is no judgement on that in the afterlife? By your assumptions, every atheist should just, like, die or at best, live a meaningless life.

Most anthiests seem to be nihilists, so they're already (claiming to be) doing that. I just always find it strange the way that "100% athiests" seem to ignore the logical conundrum of "I don't need a God or theology to live a good life" when our constructed definition of "good" comes from religion.

> I just always find it strange the way that “100% athiests” seem to ignore the logical conundrum of “I don’t need a God or theology to live a good life” when our constructed definition of “good” comes from religion.

“The people that came up with also believed ” does not imply that “To benefit from or further refine , one must also accept ”.

(I don’t see religion as useless, but there is no reason people who do would have any problem adapting and refining moral ideas first developed in a religious context, any more than religious people do for ideas developed in different religious contexts than their own.)

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#627

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

kazinator wrote: post #417
sam0x17 wrote: post #233

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

"100% atheism" isn't a spiritual practice. It's just the absence of belief in the existence of gods. A rock is 100% atheist, yet in all likelihood doesn't have spiritual practice. You can have a spiritual practice under the umbrella of atheism, as long as it doesn't involve any kind of belief in gods. Whatever that practice is, that practice isn't identified with the atheism itself.

Here's my take. I don't believe in G-d, but I believe there is a circuit in my brain, created by early education, that makes me feel good when I behave. Besides, I realize that such a circuit carries social benefits - if everyone behaves, society as a whole is better off. Looks like closed circuit logic and doesn't require any superstitious beliefs.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#629

Post by mtalantikite »

hackingthelema wrote: post #485
mtalantikite wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's important to point out the difficulties that can arise. Though I'd say that the framework could also cause problems if your experience falls outside of it. I had an experience along these lines when I was 22 and meditating daily, which ended up turning into anxiety and somewhat frequent panic attacks. I ended up giving up my daily practice for about 10 years because of it. My frame of reference was the ver…

Great advice! I think I may have been a little too flippant in saying 'use whatever framework' because perspective is incredibly important. I'd say it's a continual process and engagement; if your philosophy or religion or sect doesn't answer it, and you don't feel good about it, it's okay to expand your horizons. I think what I wanted to emphasise is having nothing at all can leave you in a bad position. Hitting the…

Yes, absolutely! I'm constantly frustrated by the trend of selling meditation as some sort of productivity hack. It's at best misguided and at worst dangerous.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#630

Post by fjabre »

defgeneric wrote: post #617
fjabre wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a contradiction. “Spirit”ual. You cannot be Spiritual without belief in Spirit. It is in the word itself. You can be a good Atheist however that is mostly in line with good spiritual practices. Atheists seem to want it both ways. To believe in nothing but also define themselves as “Spiritual”

Etymologically, spirit originally seems to have meant something like breath or life (hence "aspirated"). The reification of that sense into an otherworldly Being is a later development. So maybe there's some room for an atheist to be "spiritual" in the simple sense that one would contemplate the significance or meaning of being or existing. The only assertion that atheism makes is a negative one--namely, that the the…

They may contemplate as they wish but their minds can only take them so far.

They will remain closed to the possibility of true spirituality because ultimately they believe only in material things and they take themselves to be the real thing, and the Spirit to be more or less a dream.

Sure they may have some interesting experiences but often they turn away from these experiences and dismiss them as no more real than dreams.

If the belief in the heart is absent so to will It be absent. It is a game of hide and seek but you must have the belief in that which is being sought. Otherwise the whole thing falls apart.

Intellect alone is not enough.

Post reply on HN