Without the religious belief that the consciousness, or some aspect of it, will survive the destruction of the body to be rewarded and/or punished thereafter (whether through heavenhell or through reincarnation) there is no longer a need to concern ourselves with the question of what we can do to optimise the outcome for that disembodied consciousness. That much is true. But that is only one spiritual issue that most Atheists don’t have to deal with. There are plenty of other issues that we have to deal with – as well as ways to deal with them without having to resort to belief in supernatural beings who will somehow make everything right.
Spirituality is about much more than what happens to your consciousness (or some aspect thereof) after you die. It is about not feeling lonely when you are by yourself – or, for that matter, not feeling lonely even when you are with others. It is about how we deal with the human condition of mortality – whether it be our own personal mortality, or the mortality of other people that we care about. It is also spirituality that people have turned to since time immemorial to find a sense of purpose in life – as well as to find that extra bit of resolve to tackle the difficulties one faces when life has them down for the count.
Just because someone does not believe in God or in continuation of one’s consciousness after death does not magically exempt them from these concerns. Atheists, just like everyone else, have to deal with the difficulties of mortality, and are just as likely as anyone else to have to deal with loneliness, listlessness, or discouragement in life. And yes – society is completely inundated with religious answers to these spiritual concerns. But likewise, albeit not as widely disseminated in society, there are answers to these spiritual concerns that do not in any way rely on religious beliefs.
Throughout history, from the time of Socrates (and possibly earlier) to the time of Camus and after, philosophers have been developing ways that one can see the world so as to make mortality a bit less scary without having to resort to belief in an afterlife. Likewise, many philosophers (most notably, though not exclusively, the Existentialists) have dealt with how to find a sense of purpose in life without having to resort to belief that some overarching God has ordained one for you. They and the ancient Stoics (as well as others too) have dealt with the question of how to cope with even the most severe setbacks in life without having to resort to belief that this same overarching God is going to step in and solve all your problems for you.
Still, this is all fine for Philosophy Nerds who happen to be Atheists, but what about everyone else? Having to navigate all these philosophical resources is a bit of a tall order for the average person. This is true – but when you think of it, why don’t religious people have the same problem? It is not like the average, devout churchgoer is trained as a professional theologian.
Here we come to the real area where religious spirituality has atheist spirituality at a disadvantage. But what gives religious spirituality the advantage in society isn’t any inherent advantage of religious belief. It is that there is infrastructure in place to make the spiritual benefits of religion accessible to people who are not up to the task of familiarizing themselves with all of the theoretical underpinnings. Most religions have churches full of ministers happy to walk a lay practitioner through the process of connecting to said religion’s spirituality. These religions often have a network of seminaries and other resources to see to the training of these ministers. To make religious spirituality even more accessible, most religions will have various rituals and/or other practices to help a practitioner center on said spirituality – practices in which these very forementioned ministers will gladly instruct said practitioner.
Atheist communities, on the other hand, rarely if ever have such resources to call upon. The result is that, with very few exceptions, Atheist spirituality is only fully accessible to the few people who are able and inclined to familiarize themselves with enough of the philosophical underpinnings, and who are either up to the task of devising their own rituals or of such a temperament as to not require rituals. This excludes not only a good number of Atheists, but also no doubt a lot of would-be Atheists.
There are many explanations as to why Atheists communities lack these resources. Some people believe that these things are inherently tied to religion, and that letting them go is part of the same growth process as realizing that there is probably no God. I hope that I have made it clear in this article why I do not take that explanation seriously at all.
Others blame the hostility with which many Atheists respond every time an attempt is made to address this. I can not deny that some Atheists (albeit far from all Atheists) do indeed exhibit such hostility – as I myself encounter my fair share of it every time that I make any mention of an effort to establish an Atheist Seminary. But though I definitely agree that this hostility does not help, I do not think that it by itself is to blame for the absence of such infrastructure.
I think that the main reason for the dire lack of these resources is the relative newness of the Atheist community in any widespread sense. Many people claim that everyone is technically born an Atheist and remains so until they are indoctrinated with religion. According to the strictest definition of “Atheist” this might be true, but there is still a difference between an infant who does not believe in God due to not having been made familiar with such a concept and a mature Atheist who is very familiar with the concept of God but rejects the notion as being highly improbable.
And it is true that such mature Atheists have no doubt existed from ancient times. They are even mentioned in the Bible, albeit dismissed as “fools”. [Psalm 14:1] However, throughout most of human history (doubtlessly in no small part due to persecution) such mature Atheists have remained very few and far between. It wasn’t until the 18th Century that Atheists existed in significant numbers, and not until well into the 20th Century that Atheism became sufficiently widespread for there to even be a point in having such infrastructure.
However, lack of community infrastructure aside, not only is Atheist Spirituality not an oxymoron. It is a very real thing. There is no inherent reason why declining to believe any rationally indefensible doctrines should in any way hinder someone’s spiritual life.
Interesting!