marc writes:
I've gotten them from reading at forums like this for years, and from a pretty thorough look at the opinions of scientific/atheist leaders, like Dawkins, Harris, Stenger, Provine, many others. All I see from all of it is nothing but naturalism, when it comes to the study of the natural world, and how societies should behave. No spirituality whatsoever.
You've got it from what's inside your head. For instance, Sam Harris has been writing about spiritualism and morality for years - he meditates and has studies Buddhism. He's also just published this book:
Dear Reader
I have been waiting for more than a decade to write Waking Up. Long before I saw any reason to criticize religion (The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation), or to connect moral and scientific truths (The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying), I was interested in the nature of human consciousness and the possibility of spiritual experience. In Waking Up, I do my best show that a certain form of spirituality is integral to understanding the nature of our minds.
There is no discrete self or ego living like a minotaur in the labyrinth of the brain. And the feeling that there isthe sense of being perched somewhere behind your eyes, looking out at a world that is separate from yourselfcan be altered or entirely extinguished. Although such experiences of self-transcendence are generally thought about in religious terms, there is nothing, in principle, irrational about them. From both a scientific and a philosophical point of view, they represent a clearer understanding of the way things are.
My hope is that Waking Up will help readers see the nature of their own minds in a new light. A rational approach to spirituality seems to be what is missing from secularism and from the lives of most of the people I meet. The purpose of this book is to offer readers a clear view of the problem, along with some tools to help them solve it for themselves.
I sincerely hope you find it useful.
Sam Harris
Edited by Tangle, : No reason given.
Life, don't talk to me about life - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.