polite conversation

It has been said that there are three subjects that should never be discussed in polite conversations; sex, religion and politics. These are among my favorite topics of conversation. How else can one really get to know another unless one addresses these topics?These are also the topics that we most need to discuss.

Politics in the USA has never been as dysfunctional as it presently is. It is absolutely essential that the citizenry of this country carry on reasonable conversation so that we may rescue our democracy.

Religion and religious intolerance has perhaps been the greatest driver of conflict that the world has ever known. Religion with its adherence to dogmas has also kept humanity mired in superstition and has inhibited the development of rationality and science. If humanity can differentiate between religion and spirituality, we may be able to mitigate the adverse effects that has plagued us for millennium.

Human overpopulation is creating dangerous strains on the planet's ecosystem and drives us toward wars for remaining and diminishing resources. Sex is what creates more humans so it's probably important to talk a little more about sex and our attitudes regarding sex.

Money can be a taboo topic too. That's going to be one hell of a long and complicated conversation. Do you know the Secret of Oz.? Nice thing about that is that it's not really a secret. You don't have to go to some secret society Bohemian Grove thing.

Spiritual, not religious

There is a growing number of people who consider themselves to be spiritual, not religious, but when asked what they mean, there are very few who are able to adequately articulate their position. The distinction between spirituality and religiosity is relatively new and is still in its' cultural infancy. I believe that the distinction is subtly, yet extremely important. Einstein may have agreed,

"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

Albert Einstein was a really smart guy, but he also failed to make the distinction. This is probably because the distinction was lacking in the collective consciousness, confused and conflated for thousands of years.
"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man." (Albert Einstein)

What is the distinction between spirituality and religion? Before I attempt to clarify the difference, I'm requesting that you, dear reader, fill in the following blank in the sentence that follows...

If religion is the opiate of the masses (as Karl Marx stated), then spirituality is the __________
of society.

Please leave your answer in a comment on this blog, if you'd be so kind.

Religion is an institution created by people and it is difficult to find an adequate definition of what religion is.
We find a similar problem trying to find an adequate definition of spirituality.

If we are trying to find the difference between spirituality and religion, the most clearly observable difference is that spirituality is not institutionalized like religion. The difference is mainly an American phenomena that emerged in the 1960's although we can find evidence far earlier in history.

Here are some new entries;
spiritual not religious seems pretty darn religious to me
sbnr might be a little lame and new agey
CNN asks if it might be dangerous....scary, yikes
USA reports that a majority of Millennials identify with such an attitude

Time for some more quotes from Einstein;

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." (my oldest daughter uses this one as a sign-off for her e-mails)

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton University)

This one rang true for my own situation:

"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

"If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?"

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being."

"I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."

"During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world."

"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

"Nobody, certainly, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omnibeneficent personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind. But, on the other hand, there are decisive weaknesses attached to this idea in itself, which have been painfully felt since the beginning of history."

"A conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against the doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs. On the other hand, representatives of science have often made an attempt to arrive at fundamental judgments with respect to values and ends on the basis of scientific method, and in this way have set themselves in opposition to religion. These conflicts have all sprung from fatal errors."

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
"The scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation... There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection... It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages."

"Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment - an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections."

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge. Immortality? There are two kinds."

"The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them."

"A man who is convinced of the truth of his religion is indeed never tolerant. At the least, he is to feel pity for the adherent of another religion but usually it does not stop there. The faithful adherent of a religion will try first of all to convince those that believe in another religion and usually he goes on to hatred if he is not successful. However, hatred then leads to persecution when the might of the majority is behind it. In the case of a Christian clergyman, the tragic-comical is found in this."

"To take those fools in clerical garb seriously is to show them too much honor."

"My deep religiosity...found an abrupt ending at the age of twelve, through the reading of popular scientific books."

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."

Here are some from Thomas Jefferson;

"Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples."

"One only needs look at the caliber of the people who say they serve [the Christian God]. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government...Political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves [of public ignorance] for their own purposes."

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

"The priests of the different religious sects dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight."

"The natural course of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism."

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies."

"If we did a good act merely from the love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that no such thing exists...Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than love of God."