Rationally Speaking #55 - Spirituality

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2012

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is "rational spirituality" a contradiction? In this episode, Massimo and Julia try to pin down what people mean when they call themselves "spiritual," what inspires spiritual experiences and attitudes, and whether spirituality can be compatible with a naturalist view of the world. Are there benefits that skeptics and other secular people could possibly get from incorporating some variants on traditional spiritual practices -- like prayer, ritual, song, communal worship, and so on -- into their own lives? Massimo and Julia examine a variety of attempts to do so, and ask: how well have such attempts worked, and do they come with any potential pitfalls for our rationality?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.4	For more information, please visit us at NYC Skeptics.org.
0:35.4	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:40.3	I am your host, Massimo Pilucci, and with me as always, is my co-host, Julia Gillif.
0:45.5	Julia, what are we going to talk about today?
0:47.4	Well, this might sound surprising to some of our listeners, but we're going to talk about spirituality.
0:52.4	What?
0:52.8	Yes.
0:53.3	I know.
0:54.3	Well, so to be more precise, we're going to talk about the question of what do people
0:57.9	mean when they describe themselves as spiritual or spiritual but not religious.
1:02.6	And we'll also talk about...
1:03.8	Oh, we're talking about dating sites.
1:05.7	No, no, no.
1:06.8	What are you referring to, Master, how would you like to enlighten us?
1:10.1	Well, yes, of course.
1:11.9	You may know this, that on many dead insights, you actually put your, you know,
1:17.5	you have option at least to put your religious affiliation or lack thereof.
1:21.5	But different sides list different options for non-religious people or for non-believers. Some of them say atheists
1:30.5	or agnostic or something. Some of them have an option and says, spiritual but not religious.
1:35.6	Yeah, well, it's not just dating sites. I mean, there's, I think it's a common descriptor on
1:40.8	Facebook for people to describe themselves as spiritual or spiritual but not religious. In fact, spiritual but not religious has inspired an acronym because it's so
	...

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