2015-09-25 Kill the mood

[Cortez]

I still fail to see how her being spiritual would set off your "BS detector". You didn't exactly explain yourself all that well last time.

[Spidrift]

I'm an habitually cynical materialist who has never really understood what "spiritual" means, okay?

My first assumption when someone describes themselves as "spiritual" is that they're probably shallow and a bit dumb, and are trying to lay claim to spurious "depth" by making claims which can't be falsified and which can't be challenged without other people feeling obliged to take offence.

As you ask.

[Eisu]

Wow... okay, so you don't believe in religion and spirituality, fine, but is that any reason to call people's belief "Bullshit" and insult them by calling them shallow and dumb? I'm a fairly religious muslim myself (but not entirely devout), so yeah, I find the way you insult spiritual people offensive.

Just cos you don't believe in it doesn't mean they're dumb and the offense I find in your statements is that you're basically calling anybody who believes in something spiritual dumb. You don't wanna believe in it? Fine, I'm cool with that, that's your thoughts and belief but don't go around calling what other people believe in Bullshit or dumb. THAT's the offense, dude.

[Spidrift]

You seem to be scrambling "religious" and "spiritual". "Religious," I get. Religious people have things they're supposed to believe and rules they're supposed to follow. I might not agree with them, but never mind; the word means something. I can work with that.

"Spiritual," on the other hand, never seems to be defined. That seems to me to make it a very useful word for shallow people who want to appear deep and serious, without having to actually do anything to back it up. Which is why I tend to be extremely suspicious of someone who uses it of themself.

[Eisu]

Some religion tends to talk about spirituality being a thing that's of importance to their belief, like Hinduism and Bhuddism, so again, when you insult people who believe in spirituality, you are also insulting these people whose religion are steeped with it. Even Islam has a sense of spirituality to it.

And Aaina is a person who is practicing the Hindu faith, thus when she says she's spiritual, she meant it as part of her faith.

Do I like Beliebers? No, but I wouldn't insult them as a group... just because Beliebers like Justin Bieber whom I am not fond of doesn't mean they're all shallow and dumb for liking Bieber. I know some Beliebers who are actually very smart...

Bottomline, don't insult a group of people that you just don't understand them (including if they only believe in spirituality and not the faith that is involved with it, which seems to be the group that you have a problem with)... that is borderline bigotry. (not calling you a bigot right now, but it is getting close to it)

Now, if that group is just downright horrible like Nazis or the Islamic State (who, by the way, do not represent what is truly Islam) then, yeah, insult them all you want, they're horrible people in the first place...

[Spidrift]

I'll be able to follow that advice a little better when somebody gives me a general definition of "spirituality" that I can understand (and hopefully take seriously)...

[Eisu]

Hey, Spid... I give up, you're not understanding what I'm saying so yeah, have fun with insulting other people.

Also, i'll probably only post in the forum to open a thread now. I can't be bothered to read things like this anymore.

[Spidrift]

I'm sorry that my honest attempts to explain my opinion annoyed you that badly.

[christopheftw]

Not my Titanic, but . . . it seemed to me that Spidrift was talking about the cultural phenomenon of amorphous spirituality unencumbered by specific religious affiliation or moral principles commonly seen amongst alt young people, such as hipsters et alia, assimilated with other alt cultural influences into their repertoire of meaninglessness.

If I understood him correctly, he was not insulting religion in general, let alone any specific religion, but rather poking fun at this vague and specifically anti-religious concept of spirituality.

This particular usage of "spiritual" is common in my neck of the woods. Is it outside your experience, Eisu? On the other hand, if Aaina was referencing a concept specifically within the context her Hindu faith, then Spidrift may have imposed his own cultural understanding of what she meant on her words by mistake.