The Spiritual Woodchuck

Oh I hope I'm not going off the deep end with this little essay...

Well, this probably isn't much MORE weird than a woodchuck writing an Internet blog about the biggest questions in the Universe... :)


Atheistic Spirituality
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Your life is an endless series of tasks. You sleep, you work, you eat, and you perform maintenance on yourself and everything around you. These are common behaviors of living things.

But humans have evolved an awareness of ourselves and an awareness of time. This allows us to see reality beyond the immediate present, which also leads to an understanding of mortality. We are also social animals, and our development of self-awareness also allows us to conceptualize each role we play in some greater whole that will continue after we are gone.

We all play our parts in larger groups. We are a family member, a team member, a resident in a neighborhood, a party-affiliated voter, a follower of a religion, a fan of a rock band, a citizen of a nation, and so on. We each have a dozen or so groups to which we offer varying degrees of loyalty and support...sometimes at great personal sacrifice.

Our evolved brains also make us imaginative, pattern-seeking and meaning-seeking creatures. When that is combined with our enhanced awareness, we evolve the ability to define our purpose in terms beyond our own needs. We seek morality, philosophy, spirituality, mysticism, religion, math, and all manner of higher order manifestations of reality. We are programmed to visualize beyond our ability to see.

This can be as dangerous as it is useful. Evolution did not provide our brains with a scientific method that allows us to properly test the endless stream of tenuous conclusions we form. We are fortunate to have invented the Scientific Method ourselves. We are UNfortunate that this often runs counter to our brain's natural tendency to make great inductive leaps with insufficient data. Throw in fear, hate, love, ambition, and fervent group loyalty, and you have a real recipe for disaster.

It is for all these reasons that I tread in the realm of spirituality very carefully. I keep my feet firmly grounded in the knowledge that we have come a long way in defining all aspects of our world in terms of the basic laws of matter and energy. There is no evidence for, nor reason to believe in, any supernatural forces in this Universe.

However we are not robots. We are not rational beings. We have evolved the need for emotions and the need for meaning, meditation and ritual. To some extent, we depend on many things that aren't real and aren't logical. We sing, we dance, we dream. =)

I'm an atheist, but I believe it is possible for an atheist cultivate some degree of spirituality if it is defined in secular terms. It would be a spirituality rooted in that which is infinite and unknown rather than that which is supernatural. If you will permit me the preposterous goal of defining my own spirituality, here are the 7 key aspects of spirituality that I focus upon.

And let me state up front that these are all just my goals and not things I've personally achieved to any great degree...in fact I'm terrible at a couple of these.

1. Seek to understand the interconnected nature of all things.
   
   Actions we take can result in a nearly infinite ripple of cause-and-effect that is far beyond human understanding. Many times in my life, I have seen seemingly insignificant actions put into motion an incredible chain of events that had a major impact on me later in life.
   
   Because of this, I have come to believe in a practical form of Karma. When all the little things I do from day to day are good and done with a good intentions, they increase the odds of these positive thoughts and actions being amplified with time and returned to me in ways I would never imagine. People can influence their own luck, but not in ways they are likely to ever see.
   
   


2. Seek to live as many, not as one.
   
   I do not believe in an absolute moral authority. I believe that morality is something that grows and forms organically inside each of us as we develop and as we experience the world. Without an absolute moral authority, you don't need to fear that civilization will devolve into Thunderdome. Evolution has programmed us to favor helping others instead of hurting others...unless we are programmed otherwise by circumstance. We wouldn't have survived this long were it not so.
   
   Humans have existed on this Earth far longer than any single religion has, and yet we've always survived and multiplied and improved upon our situation. So to claim that life can't be lived with the loss of your favorite religion is just not true. (In fact, the periods of recorded history when man made the least progress are precisely the periods when religion held it's tightest grip on society.)
   
   However, with or without religion, morality is absolutely key to our survival. Morality is a key aspect of our interconnected nature. It is a recognition that we are not just individuals, but rather are participants in a much greater whole. Each of us is many, not one.
   
   If you can only be yourself, then your actions alone don't not matter. Your 1 vote probably won't change the election. Your 1 big SUV doesn't have a measurable impact on the planet's environment. Your donation towards cancer research won't cure cancer 1 second sooner. So why bother?
   
   If you adopt the morality of the one, your life becomes easier. But if we all adopt the morality of the one, society will crumble. Each of us must try our best to adopt the morality of the many, because the many is what we really are and the many is what must survive. Fortunately, evolution has programmed us to feel positive feedback when we help others and sacrifice and do the right thing.
   
   It's a good thing we evolved from social pack animals and not from cats! :)
   




3. Seek to understand people.
   
   We are all products of the same evolutionary and environmental processes. We are all the same in a very practical way. That idiot who disagrees with you on all of your political views is exactly the person you would be if you had lived their life.
   
   Even the more grim and pathological aspects of human life, such as addiction, depravity and violence, are not beneath any of us if our lives had been different.
   
   I have a basic "faith" that everyone is doing the best they can with what they know and what they have. Sometimes what they know is very little, sometimes what they have is nothing, and sometimes they are burdened with a damaged psyche, so sometimes the best they can do is really awful, but that's what it is to be human.
   
   Sometimes I lose patience with Bible Belt Christians, but I try to remind myself of what Abraham Lincoln once said about the South: "They are just what we would be in their situation."
   
   We have to accept the fact that people are the way they are for evolutionary reasons. Some of the reasons are good, some are bad, but rarely are they reasons we can control. Conservatives exist because Evolution has pre-programmed a certain number of us to resist change for the sake of a stable society. Liberals exist because sometimes change is actually needed. (Liberals look at a problem and ask "What should we change?". Conservatives look at a problem and ask "What changed?")
   
   Do not let your repulsion for someones beliefs drive you to be the radical opposite, lest you become as big a fool as they are. Everything must exist in moderation, even opinions.
   




4. Seek to understand yourself.
   
   It seems to be human fate for each of us to have our own little neuroses or quirks or emotional reactions that come from places beneath the surface of our conscious mind. Everybody has these to differing degrees.
   
   Some people are pretty well adjusted, and other people are deeply scarred and traumatized. But no matter where you are on this scale, regular attention to your thoughts and feelings and emotions can move you incrementally towards the better end of the scale and thus a healthy internal balance.
   
   I came from so far down the bad end of that scale that I'll never make it to the happy side in my lifetime. But every year I'm wiser than I was the year before. I do take some small measure of pride at what I've been able to accomplish in life given a traumatic start, and I attribute my little pockets of success to my continual quest to achieve some small measure of balance using the tools outlined in this article.
   
   It is unfortunate but true that human beings usually take actions and form opinions from emotional gut reactions, and then later use reason to justify what they did or what they believe. This gives you the illusion of rational behavior, but it is not. So a balanced life is dependent on a deep understanding of the source of all your fears and desires. Rationality alone will not be able to control your actions, so you must instead seek to understand the emotions and motivations that will.
   
   Example: For many people, being pro-choice or pro-life is due more to emotional reactions than it is to starting with no opinion and trying to weigh the arguments with pure reason. For these people, this subject triggers something deep-seated and hidden in their psyche...something that probably has nothing to do with the actual subject of abortion...but which expresses itself in a desperate defense of one side or the other.
   
   To the extent we fail to understand our motivations, emotions and pains, we become controlled by them like puppets.
   
   


5. Seek balance.
   
   This is the most desired aspect of spirituality. It should be thought of as seeking "contentment" rather than seeking happiness, because happiness itself is a concept that only exists in contrast to unhappy experiences. You can get everything you've ever wanted and be happy, but if you are unbalanced you will eventually find new reasons to be miserable.
   
   Western consumerist values propose that if you work hard and do the right things, you will be able to do whatever it takes to obtain the things you desire, and thus achieve happiness. In contrast, many Eastern philosophies propose that if you follow the right path and focus your mind in meditation, you can eliminate the desire itself, and thus achieve balance.
   
   In other words, you can work hard and buy a sports car to be happy, or you can meditate on your life until you realize you don't need a sports car to be content. I would not judge either path as inferior, as both have their situational strengths and weaknesses. Personally I favor Eastern philosophies, but that has more to do with what I need in life rather than what I would recommend for anyone else.
   
   Balance must be found in all aspects of your life in order to be content. One of the key aspects of Buddhism is the practice of moderation (The Middle Way). Do not live an austere life, lest you lose touch with yourself. Do not live an indulgent life, lest you grow dependent on pleasure. Avoid all extremes in thought and in action.
   
   


6. Meditate.
   
   We are biologically programmed to benefit from meditation and ritual. All religions have some sort of regular prayer ritual, usually combined with music and/or dance. This is no accident. Human beings are biologically programmed to benefit from these things, and Atheists often miss out on an important tool for regulating our thoughts and emotions and re-enforcing our focus on those things that are most important to us.
   
   I practice some simple forms of meditation when I have time. And when I don't, I feel the effects. I find myself too easily wound-up and too overly focused in the small details of every day life rather than being able to broaden my mind to just accept the flow of events as they are.
   
   Ritual and rhythm are also important aspects of meditation. They help you to empty your mind by reducing your thoughts to the most simple and basic tasks of breathing and movement.
   




7. Believe in a story.
   
   Human beings live in a story world. Everything we do and everything we aspire to be narrates our part in some larger tale. Stories are a source of strength and hope and re-enforcement that we often need in our day-to-day lives. Just look at the popularity of Batman and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and all other manner of escapism. We love those stories because these people do the things we want to do and believe the things we want to believe.
   
   Just beneath the outermost layer of our highest rational capabilities lives the core intellect of our brain which is incapable of knowing (or caring about) the difference between fantasy and reality. Children have to develop high rational skills in order to distinguish fantasy from reality. Adults in primitive tribal cultures sometimes never develop these skills. This is why many religions have their origins in primitive cultures where a good story is not much different than a good truth.
   
   Even for those of us who have rational educated minds, it is amazing to witness how easily we process fantasy as if it were real. What true Trekkie DIDN'T cry when Spock died in Star Trek II? :)
   
   The strength of Christianity is that it has a compelling story of a man who made the ultimate sacrifice so that all people can have the opportunity to reach Heaven. This story tells us that bad people will ultimately be punished, and good people will ultimately be rewarded. The Christian story offers heroic sacrifice, justice, repentance, forgiveness, love, hope, and immortality.
   
   Atheism loses out for lack of a common story. You can hear it in the voices of people who ask you "But...if the Bible is wrong...then what is the point? What do we do?"
   
   If you prove the Bible wrong, then it's like you just canceled their favorite T.V. show that they were hooked on, and now they don't know what to watch. Atheism has no "Star Trek" to replace Christianity's "Seventh Heaven".
   
   Stories are a powerful aspect of spirituality because they generate emotion, and emotion is a far more motivating to human beings than logic will ever be. We are not Vulcans. Human beings can analyze with logic, but we are motivated by emotion.
   
   And that's where the story comes into play: A good story is a framework for exploring the emotional motivations for doing good or doing what must be done.
   
   A good Atheistic story would start by laying out all the facts we know about the history and nature of the universe and our place within it. The facts about our Universe, on every scale from the very large to the very small, are absolutely awe inspiring. Then our story would shift into the fantasy realm of our future. It would suggest limitless possibilities for our species, even the possibility that we could someday create our own Heaven or Utopia. Impossible? Maybe. But that's the kind of hope that inspires us!
   
   The closest thing I've ever seen to a 1-book version of such a story (and is written to be accessible to the masses) is Carl Sagan's "Cosmos". Perhaps what we need is a story that is a cross between Cosmos and Star Trek? Cosmos would be something like the Old Testament, and Star Trek is something like the New Testament! :)
   
   But it has to be an optimistic story of the future. Don't use Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 as inspiration for what the future could be!
   
   Once we have a common story as a framework, then we each build our lives around our own personal stories...sort of like Role Playing...only this is real life. The storybook version of ourselves is more interesting and motivating than the real people we are. We find strength in pretending we are them, and their motivations spill over into the reality of our own lives and influence our own behaviors and motivations.
   
   I don't think it's coincidence that most Atheists are sci-fi junkies. :)

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So this is the atheistic spirituality I have invented over many years, and this is a work in progress. Many professional authors have written thick books on the subject and done a far better job of defining spirituality that I ever will. But there is no one central book for Atheists. There is no one guide. Each of us is left with defining what spirituality means for themselves.

If we had these sort of tools and stories pre-packaged in one convenient book and one shared story, that would sure help in the adaptation of secular life into a society of human beings who struggle and still need many of the aspects of religion...but without the supernatural trappings. I consider myself one of those people.