Spirituality without God

by Alan B. McGourlay

This page is in response to a post on my guestbook by David who reminded me that I had not addressed the issue of Spirituality without God in any way whatsoever. Thanks for the prompt, David!
I now try to redress matters and will try to keep this as short as possible as it is a massive subject. What follows is my view on things.

Spirituality is a sense of Oneness with yourself, Oneness with Nature and Oneness with Everything.

Spirituality is not a "Belief System", it is a way of life, a way of living this physical life. It is borne of the knowledge that everything is interconnected and is, ultimately, One. There is only one Everything. We respect that all that we see has equal importance and relevance, whether it be animate or inanimate.

Spirituality is about Self-Development. Self-Development is not about career advancement, financial security, power over others, Social Climbing etc, it is about discovering your true Self and developing it as you intended before you entered this physical life. It is a journey of discovery which leads you to enlightenment and contentment. Contentment is a state where you do not conciously "need" or "want" anything, a sense of complete fulfillment.

Our level of Spirituality rises as we experience the beauty in Everything and feel a true sense of loving for the Universe in which we live and feel more "connected" to it and it's wonders.

We look within ourselves and realise that we are just what we intended to be at any given moment and every weakness becomes a potential strength. As we look at others and recognise their strengths and weaknesses, we strive to uplift them by sending positive Energy and thoughts to their Higher Self allowing them to exercise freewill and decide whether to accept or decline the goodwill being sent their way.

This is a very brief description of my view of Spirituality, probably too brief and it certainly doesn't cover even 1% of my mind-set, but hopefully it is enough to demonstrate my point.

It is not a new way of thinking, it dates back to pre-religious times and we are really only re-awakening to it.

I doubt if many of you would disagree that the above could be found in most of the world's mainstream religions simply by substituting "God" for "Everything" and "Prayer" for "Sending Positive Energy".

I am not anti-religion, if I was, everything I said above would be comprehensively contradicted, religion still has a major part to play and remains an integral part of society by raising awareness of the plight of others and actively assisting in those areas and also has a crucial part to play in establishing moral codes etc in it's role as a Respected and Trusted Institution.
We are all heading to the same destination, just taking different routes!
Live a good life!

Spirituality without God

Part two

Due to further questions on the Guestbook I have realised that I have far from answered the question of whether Spirituality without God is possible. This Page is intended to look a little closer at the subject.

Firstly, I will state once again that a Belief in the Parental God of modern religions is not necessary in order for an indivdual to be "Spiritual". Secondly, we must ask, when did Spirituality begin? Was it with the Ancient Teachings that only go back a maximum of 3000 years? If so, were all the human beings that had the obvious misfortune to be born too early, Non-Spiritual beings? Well, I think not!

Many years ago, humans were Hunter Gatherers and pretty much considered by modern man to be very primitive. In technological terms of course, they were very primitive, but then they had no need for technology as they were in tune with nature. They co-existed with and interacted with Nature as One. They were essentially loners and therefore did not have the opportunity to, or the need to, rationalise their Spiritual feelings, their experience of Interconnectedness and Oneness with Nature and all that was around them. They were truly Spiritual beings.

As the Hunter Gatherers increased in population, groups and tribes started to come together and a form of language evolved. Language increased their powers of communication and, as many nights around the campfires passed, these groups of individuals began questioning their surroundings and and their place in the Grand Scheme of Things. They discussed what certain "signs" in Nature indicated to them and how they reacted and related to them. They exchanged views on their inner emotions and "Spirituality". Eventually a common theme arose that evolved into the Earth Traditions that we see still practiced today by the Native Americans and Aborigines to name but two. Very Spiritual Practices and passed down over the eons orally and verbatim in order that none of the original Teachings and Wisdom be lost.

Elsewhere in the world, society and so-called Civilisation was developing along with an aversion towards these "primitive" teachings and ways of life, as, for them, the question WHY?, was not answered. WHY? was answered with what we now know as modern Religion with all the dogmas, rituals and exclusions that come with it. Religions, in the main, require followers to look outwards to receive "Spirituality" when in fact Spirituality is Within and waiting to be "found". This is the Modern Viewpoint and it is encouraging that, if we look at the Core Values of World's religions we find that the essential message is indeed Spirituality through personal exploration of ourselves.

The main difficulty is, that each religion has to protect itself from the others and so creates differences to suit it's body of members and so excludes others, which in turn serves to hide the true purpose and message which is that Spirituality and Enlightenment can only be achieved on a personal basis through understanding ourselves and our relationship with the Planet, Universe and Everything. The message is that, ultimately, we are all striving for the same goal. I am not advocating that anyone give up their religion! Far from it! Just requesting that you recognise and accept all the similarities instead of highlighting the differences!

The upside is this. We find ourselves in exciting times! The so-called New Age way of thinking is to revert to the old ways and as such should be renamed "Old Age"! The irony is that we have had to wait until technology has advanced to the extent that we can send and recieve communications from around the globe in virtual real time via the internet in order to speed up what can truly be called a new Global Awareness and Consciousness. As Spiritual Beings in bodies around the World we can get together and raise awareness of the Planet's plight. The internet is also a place that can be termed as a "leveller".

In Cyberspace we are enabled, encouraged and perhaps even forced to treat every individual as a true equal as we do not know really know who is sitting in front of the other console that is sending and receiving messages.

I'll sum up with a simple statement.

"Spirituality did not rise from Religion, Religion rose from Man's Need to Rationalize his Spirituality."