Do Atheists Ever Experience Spiritual Discoveries & Revelations ?

[Lethargic Aptitude]

Lighten up a little snapperhead .
No rules violations going on here .
How do you know people are not being discouraged by my childhood story ?

After repeated requests for you to stop calling me names/personal attacks, you follow it up by calling me "little snapperhead" ?
What you are doing by making continuous personal attacks is making your arguments completely invalid. I do not think that is discouraging anyone, just making it clear what the bible teaches people. You are personally harming your own religion by behaving this way. But it is to be ex[ected by the majority of Christians. Christianity has a very bad record in this capacity. This is not surprising given the text of the bible that teaches its adherents to treat non-believers of their religion as being possessed by satan.

FFS, at least you stopped quoting the bible to me. So here is one for you.

"James 3:6​

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell."

 

[Eatomus]

After repeated requests for you to stop calling me names/personal attacks, you follow it up by calling me "little snapperhead" ?
What you are doing by making continuous personal attacks is making your arguments completely invalid. I do not think that is discouraging anyone, just making it clear what the bible teaches people. You are personally harming your own religion by behaving this way. But it is to be ex[ected by the majority of Christians. Christianity has a very bad record in this capacity. This is not surprising given the text of the bible that teaches its adherents to treat non-believers of their religion as being possessed by satan.

FFS, at least you stopped quoting the bible to me. So here is one for you.

"James 3:6​

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell."

Do you think that atheists who hold to belief in a spirit life would be discouraged by my childhood revelations of the spiritual ?
Seems like a mutual understanding to me .

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

Do you think that atheists who hold to belief in a spirit life would be discouraged by my childhood revelations of the spiritual ?
Seems like a mutual understanding to me .

Define what exactly is "atheists who hold to belief in a spirit life"?

And what exactly is being discouraged?

 

[ataraxia]

I ask this question from the perspective of one who held no firm belief in God or an afterlife at the time .
I can distinctly remember as a small child looking into a mirror & looking at the way my body moved based upon thoughts prompting it , and coming to a very real discovery that there was a part of me that was completely apart from the physical.
It was quite a startling revelation for me as a child I remember.
To the point that I can remember my mother becoming very alarmed over a one or two day period where I would do nothing but spend time gazing into a mirror .
Realizing for the first time that the physical part of me was listening and was being completely undergirded by a non-physical part of me ,
Not only that , but realizing that this non-physical part , was a part that nobody else could ever see, touch ,or know .
The non-physical was the real me.
As opposed to the assembly of cells that I could see in the mirror .
My Spirit.
Do atheists allow themselves to have any spiritual side to them at all, or is this strictly forbidden territory to them that they make a conscious choice to avoid .
Or does it all depend on the individual ?
I have only ever heard Atheists focused exclusively on the disbelief in God, but never any other spiritual matter .
Just Curious .

I guess it depends on what you mean by "spiritual". I am a big classical music fan, and I can tell you I have had experiences close to what some may call the "sublime" or "spiritual"- listening to, for example, some of the Renaissance masses of Palestrina, some of Bach's fugues, the Mozart requiem, or the music of Chopin or Brahms. I don't ascribe it to anything other-worldly though. I just see them as the experience of great art. To a lesser extent, I have experienced that with great paintings or works of literature as well. I have even gotten it looking at those "deep space" photographs taken by Hubble, showing the universe with countless galaxies, many of them dwarfing our own Milky Way in size, spreading out to the distance as far as the eye can see, and realizing those galaxies we are looking at are from billions of years ago- we are gazing not just into unimaginable distances but far back into time, and getting a glimpse of the very early universe. I would daresay I even get a little bit of that looking at some of the great equations of physics and how incredibly beautiful, power, and elegant they are: things like Einstein's relativity equations, the Schrodinger equation, or the Dirac equation.

It's a feeling of being completely overwhelmed by beauty and majesty- of beauty so majestic and completely bigger than you that it humbles and can almost frighten you; It raises the hair on your skin and takes your breath away; it almost makes you want to fall to your knees and bow your head in submission.

It's no wonder that so many religions have used this power of great art as such an effective tool- but it has been to bring people to their knees to the priests. It's a great bait-and-switch.

 

[ataraxia]

I ask this question from the perspective of one who held no firm belief in God or an afterlife at the time .
I can distinctly remember as a small child looking into a mirror & looking at the way my body moved based upon thoughts prompting it , and coming to a very real discovery that there was a part of me that was completely apart from the physical.
It was quite a startling revelation for me as a child I remember.
To the point that I can remember my mother becoming very alarmed over a one or two day period where I would do nothing but spend time gazing into a mirror .
Realizing for the first time that the physical part of me was listening and was being completely undergirded by a non-physical part of me ,
Not only that , but realizing that this non-physical part , was a part that nobody else could ever see, touch ,or know .
The non-physical was the real me.
As opposed to the assembly of cells that I could see in the mirror .
My Spirit.
Do atheists allow themselves to have any spiritual side to them at all, or is this strictly forbidden territory to them that they make a conscious choice to avoid .
Or does it all depend on the individual ?
I have only ever heard Atheists focused exclusively on the disbelief in God, but never any other spiritual matter .
Just Curious .

I am not sure I would call this childhood experience "spiritual" as much as just a childhood fascination with some of the phenomena of optics. Physics can sometimes be weird that way.

 

[Eatomus]

Define what exactly is "atheists who hold to belief in a spirit life"?

This from atheist is what I am refering to :
Some atheists experience spiritual discoveries and revelations. Just as one example, many Buddhists are also atheists, but nonetheless seek spiritual enlightenment.
( AConcernedCitizen )

 

[Eatomus]

I am not sure I would call this childhood experience "spiritual" as much as just a childhood fascination with some of the phenomena of optics. Physics can sometimes be weird that way.

For me there was definite realization that there existed what was in fact the real me apart from the body

 

[ataraxia]

For me there was definite realization that there existed what was in fact the real me apart from the body

Optical illusions can be weird. There are paintings where you look at it and could swear it was moving. People have also taken dreams where they are flying as proof that they are in fact really separate from their body. EEG recordings and fMRI imaging has shown that it was just electrical activity in the brain. American Indians and other cultures have gotten buzzed on drugs and take that as proof that there is a different reality than the one we live in. Getting stoned and looking at a mirror are not proof of a separate spiritual self.

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

This from atheist is what I am refering to :
Some atheists experience spiritual discoveries and revelations. Just as one example, many Buddhists are also atheists, but nonetheless seek spiritual enlightenment.
( AConcernedCitizen )

I do not think that is relevant since other beliefs' concept of spirituality varies widely.

 

[Eatomus]

Optical illusions can be weird. There are paintings where you look at it and could swear it was moving.

For me It was a multidimensional multisensory awakening. Much more than just optics .

 

[ataraxia]

For me It was a multidimensional multisensory awakening. Much more than just optics .

OK. Just be careful you are not ascribing anything you feel weirded out by as "spirituality" or evidence of an other-worldly entity. That's a common human tendency and usually turns out to be misguided.

 

[Eatomus]

OK. Just be careful you are not ascribing anything you feel weirded out by as "spirituality" or evidence of an other-worldly entity. That's a common human tendency and usually turns out to be misguided.

You need to bear in mind this happened to a young child who had yet to be imbued with " human Tendencies " in this regard .
Your point is well taken , I believe that timewise there was indeed only a small window of opportunity where only then could I have been so susceptible and open to what I experienced.