This is an important point. Being atheist doesn't say anything about your beliefs in ethics or the nature of the universe. It's just the absence of some set of other beliefs.
It is quite possible to find the negation of belief in God itself be a spiritual/freeing experience, especially if this follows prior subjugation/belief in an organized religion. Relinquishing religion can itself be a "spiritual" experience precisely because of how shitty religions tend to be.
Also, many mathematicians find a spiritual purity in certain equations and proofs. There need not be anything religious about such an experience. Something can be "deep", completely devoid of the paranormal.
Moreover, it is really a word semantic point. If someone says that their spiritualism is atheism, they are just using the word atheism for something other than "non-belief in gods", like "non-belief in gods, in combination with some other kinds of beliefs".
So, I am not tone deaf: I do hear that. Just let's use "atheism" right, too.
But note that someone identifying as an atheist, but with spiritual beliefs, might not be found to actually be an atheist, if their beliefs were examined by hard-line atheists. It is possible that a belief can have the trappings of being free from gods, but when you examine it critically, the entities in that belief can be identified as god-like after all.
Strawman examples:
"I believe everything has a purpose; but there is no such thing as god". Sorry, a purpose requires a being to articulate the purpose and set it into motion. If you mean inherent purpose (rather than a human interpretation which ascribes a non-inherent purpose) you have a god hidden in there.
Or "There is no such thing as god, but the world was clearly created". Oops again. Creation without a creator?
> Or "There is no such thing as god, but the world was clearly created". Oops again. Creation without a creator?
Is it possible to has have a creator but that creator not to be a god? For example, if we are living inside a simulation created by a software engineer, is that engineer our god?
I would say that if you believe that we are living inside a simulation created by a software engineer, then I am not certain whether you are theist or atheist, but leaning toward theist.
You’re missing the point. I don’t believe it one way or the other. It’s a hypothetical question meant to stimulate conversation about your “creator created” comment.
Suppose that without supernatural beings, life has no meaning or value (taking that to be "existential nihilism").
If it is revealed to such a world that there are in fact supernatural beings, how does that create meaning and value?
And how do those supernatural beings derive meaning and value; don't they need another level of meta-supernatural beings?
I want everyone to have meaning; I don't want there to be supernatural beings which are kind of slaves to provide me with meaning by their existence, but are themselves starved of meaning since they have nothing more supernatural than themselves to believe in.
One useful definition of meaning is the evolution of possibilities. A situation of no meaning is one which is a dead end in terms of possibilities.
If the universe dies in a heat death, then at that point there are no future possibilities distinct from the current state, and so there is no more meaning.
There might be no permanent meaning; no value that will endure forever, but people can be content with the temporary meaning, in which they enjoy new experiences and explore new possibilities in any endeavor.
Human lives end come to an end on a time scale vastly shorter than the death of the universe, yet people are able to find meaning.
OP here. I am an atheist with zero spiritual beliefs in the sense you are talking about. When I say "spiritual" I mean "dopamine-inducing", full stop. There is some cool stuff in math, science and in our crude attempts at morality that can be seen as "deep"/"spiritual" in its poetic purity, but this can be appreciated completely devoid of any belief in any kind of higher power. That is what I'm referring to.
The absence of certain beliefs is an objective differential from a other perspectives, and therefore does say something about one's beliefs (both on a relative and absolute scale) about the nature of the universe (as the nature of the universe is such that many agents within it perceive that there is a God involved).
