Spirituality without the Supernatural?

[icymist]

New Organization Promotes ‘Naturalistic’ Spiritual Practices

(PRWEB) September 04, 2012
A new non-profit, the Spiritual Naturalist Society, is launching today with a mission to “spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life”. What is spiritual naturalism? The organization’s Executive Director and Humanist minister, Rev. Daniel Strain, explains, “Spiritual naturalism (or religious naturalism) is a term that covers a myriad of different forms of spirituality that don’t involve faith-based beliefs in the supernatural.”


Rev. Strain notes that as secularism rises, naturalistic (non-supernatural) interpretations of religious worldviews and practices are growing within Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Paganism – even within Christianity. In addition to these naturalistic leanings within traditional faiths, the self styled ‘reason-based community’ is meanwhile finding its way toward spirituality. Some atheists and agnostics are beginning to discover the usefulness of meditation, other traditionally religious practices, and even ritual.


This, says Rev. Strain, means there is a growing convergence toward the intersection of naturalism and spirituality happening from groups on both sides of the theistic and supernatural divide. Many individuals across these groups are finding more in common with one another than with other members at the more supernatural-end of the spectrum in their respective groups. This, the Spiritual Naturalist Society states, calls for a new kind of organization and community that cuts across familiar categories – a new paradigm for understanding human spirituality.
http://news.yahoo.com/spirituality-without-supernatural-072437779.html

[Tumbulu]

1. Thanks, that is so interesting

thanks for sharing it with us.

[southerncrone]

2. And here I thought this was going to be about nude group meditation!

All joking aside, great article. Thanks for sharing, icymist!

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Too many words. Just do what love demands.

See, problem solved.

[SarahM32]

4. Kinda like the Deism of many of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.A.

Deism is the belief in Divinity but without the supernatural religious trappings and dogma.

It was popular in the 1700s and early 1800s in both Europe and America. Freemasons like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin identified with it, as did Jefferson, Madison, Paine, Allen, Adams and others.

I think it stems from Kabbalistic Judaism, but when the Kabbalah became Westernized by the original Freemasons and Rosicrucians in Europe, who were instrumental in bringing about the "Enlightenment" and the "Age of Reason," Deism became very popular, and it's becoming popular again.

That's a good thing, I believe, because it tends to foster religious tolerance, which is so sorely needed in these times of religious bigotry and "holy wars."

See http://cjcmp.org
.