The Spiritual Journey Is Dangerous

Wow!

At this point in life, the spiritual journey looks like a mine field.  I have recently left Evangelical Christianity along with Biblical Literalism for many reasons: the history of Christian hatred in a religion that supposedly preaches love, gross errors and contradictions in the Bible which I had either glossed over or ignored, leading my life down many unnecessary dead ends, causing friction with unbelievers, and sheer boredom of thinking a bunch of narrow-minded authorities had THE answer to my questions.  Now that that´s over, I´ve embarked on a new journey, exploring various writings on Atheism, Agnosticism, Freethinking, Skepticism and Naturalist Pantheism.

I don´t know if this is an irrational fear, but I´m very nervous about jumping ¨from the frying pan into the fire¨, i.e., getting involved in an equally or more ridiculous religious philosophy.  With all their attractions, the down side of Atheism is that it only solves half the problem: that the Christian god doesn´t exist.  Yeah, so what?  And what next?  Where do I go in figuring out moral questions?  What is now the ultimate base for the existence of humanity and the rest of the cosmos?  Where do I direct my spiritual seeking energies without going down the rabbit hole of superstition again?  And frankly, the New Atheists often look as scary to me as the Old Fundamentalists of Christendom.  They make a blanket statement that ALL religion is THE problem of humanity, when there are so many problems, for example, Money Worship, disdain for the natural environment, Western imperialism, etc.  Secularists are just as ¨good¨ at abusing nature and fellow humans as the religiosos are.

Agnosticism looks appealing in that it humbly admits, as Socrates did, that ¨I know that I don´t know¨.  On the other hand, in its wishy-washiness, Agnosticism does not have that critical edge of being able to assess religions, superstitions and truth claims.  While I believe that we´ll never really know full truth, at least we can know enough to make important decisions about life. Agnosticism almost becomes an excuse for laziness. Or, worse, Agnostics stand back while watching the religious make really stupid mistakes, fearful of speaking out, and actually having no basis to do so.

Natural Pantheism, which Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion called a ¨Sexed-Up Atheism¨, is a reverence for Nature, seeing it as divine-like. Classical Pantheists actually believe that the universe IS God, but Natural Pantheists give no personality or force-like characteristics to nature. Instead, Nature is the basis of existence, and should be honoured as such. There is no belief in spirits, or another parallel world, as in Gnosticism. This is it, what you and I see, feel, smell, taste and hear.

I´ve been attracted to Natural Pantheism recently and admired some of the articles online. However, there is a fine line here: it appears very easy for a NP to slide down the slippery slope of the metaphysics of other religions the ¨New Age¨ or the Human Potential Movement. Frankly, I´m not interested in crystals, seances, channeling, out-of-body experiences, guardian angels, manifesting, controlling the Force or Qi or Manna, or any other ridiculousness. In fact, I will join the Skeptics in publically critiquing this crap which passes for spirituality. Nor am I curious about reincarnation, resurrection, Heaven or Hell, hearing voices, healing and miracles, etc.

In addition, the REAL religions that dominate our society go under other names: Capitalism, i.e., Money-Worship, Techno-Worship, Progress, etc. Basically it´s the ¨American Dream¨ which has sucked in the entire planet. Yes, this is really a religion. Money, technology and progress seem to promise us limitlessness. We can have what we want, when we want. New technologies, as Marshall McLuhan once said, overcome our physical restrictions, that is, they extend our faculties. Cars are extensions of our feet. Phones extend our voices. Google endows us with omniscient-like qualities, the ability to ¨know all¨. These forms of belief and action are in fact even more dangerous that formal religions or New Age. Altogether, both the money-worshipping secularists and their religious counterparts are destroying nature as they continue to expand the Western Empire not only geographically, but to every sphere of human existence.

Any spirituality that´s worth its salt will oppose Empire and provide alternatives. This is the part I have rarely seen. Most religions, philosophies and spiritualities, including New Atheism, seem to also support money-making and techno-worship. However, to me, true spirituality would do no harm to the environment that sustains us. Nor harm to other humans. Truth opposes the deceit of capitalism and its twin offspring of science and technology.

While I´m all for the scientific method, and for scientific explanations of the universe, most of what science has been used for is to rape Mother Nature and increase the stock prices of the capitalists. This is something the New Atheists need to answer, instead of limiting their critiques to easy targets. And the rest of us need to find a spirituality that honours the universe without falling into superstition and cult-like tendencies. And at the same time defend nature and humans from the continued onslaught of the capitalists who screw the planet with impunity.

Back to my main idea: spirituality is dangerous. On the one hand, you could slip down one side of the slope into superstition and creepy rituals. With all your friends pushing the writings of Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama, etc, and the innumerable flakey New Agers who are ready to take your reverencing of Mother Nature and pull you down into strange superstitious practices. I was thinking of starting a Naturalist Pantheist group in my neighbourhood, but the fear of the flakes coming out of the woodwork and hijacking any effort I make discourages me at times. On the other hand, the other slippery slope is to forget spirituality, to abandon Mother Nature and just live for the same empty values as the rest of society, bowing at the altar of money and technology. Or to simply join the Freethinkers and Skeptics who spend their time sitting on their asses and scolding the religiosos, which equally appears to be a waste of time and energy.

What to do? I´m the kind of person who, like Will and Jaden Smith´s characters in the recent movie After Earth, face and eradicate my fears. And boldly moves ahead. To face off against the Money, Technology and Progress (MTP) Worshippers, the religiosos and the New Age flakes, and the divisive, troublemaking extremists in the Green and Social Justice Movements. And to seek a spirituality that respects Mother Nature, upholds a set of ethics that far surpasses the Evangelical Christians, and works toward the Common Good.

Time to dream on . . . and get moving.

Cheers,

The Seeker