Spirituality for Agnostics and Atheists
Spirituality for Agnostics and Atheists
“The reason that we have rigid perspectives is because we are reacting to emotional wounds. When I was first introduced to twelve step recovery, I thought the people were a bunch of religious fanatics because they talked about god. I did not want anything to do with god because of the shame based religion I grew up in. I had been tremendously wounded by that religion and rejected the concept of god because the one I was taught about was an abusive father.” “The teachings of all the Master Teachers, of all the world’s religions, contain some Truth along with a lot of distortions and lies. Discerning Truth is often like recovering treasure from shipwrecks that have been sitting on the ocean floor for hundreds of years - the grains of Truth, the nuggets of gold, have become encrusted with garbage over the years.” “You have an absolute right to believe that life has no meaning or purpose - or that the purpose of life is suffering and penance for some mythical sin of mankind - whatever you choose to believe. But if we reject even looking at any alternative perspectives, then what we are empowering is ignorance. The person we hurt the most in doing this is our self. In blindly rejecting other perspectives without even considering the possibility that there might be some grains of Truth in them, in being rigid and choosing to be blind to alternative points of view, we are limiting ourselves. By closing our minds to any new input, we are giving power to the past - we are letting old wounds and old tapes dictate how we live our life today.” *** “Atheist and agnostic are both words that have power in defining self in relationship to life. You may feel that defining yourself as an atheist or agnostic is working very well for you in your life. If it is, right on. I honor your choice and your right to make that choice. I honor the rebel in you who would not allow doctrine to impose it’s dictatorship on you. I would just ask you to consider if it is possible that your self definition is limiting your choices in the same way that one who blindly accepts the Christian concept of god is limiting themselves.”
On this page Spiritual teacher/codependency therapist shares a perspective on spirituality for agnostics and atheists.
For some further thoughts on spirituality go to The Recovery Process for inner child healing - spiritual integration
Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls by Robert Burney is copyright 1995. Material on Joy2MeU web site (except where otherwise noted) is copyright 1996 thru 2019 by Robert Burney PO Box 1028 Cambria CA 93428.
** New & News** July 23rd, 2011: Codependency Recovery: Wounded Souls Dancing in The Light Book 1: Empowerment, Freedom, and Inner Peace through Inner Child Healing (aka A Formula for Spiritual Integration and Emotional Balance) is now published
Originally published at https://joy2meu.com/Atheists.htm