Read a good book: "A Very Short Introduction to Atheism" by Julian Baggini.
He has also written an article called "Spirituality for Atheists" which I cut out of Psychologies magazine and which I must dig out.
....
An extract from it:
"What we think of as spiritual is simply all those things which make us creatures with rich inner lives and not just inert rocks and pebbles.
Many of us have let go of religion but hold on to the vaguer notion of spirituality as a security blanket. It's time we realised that traditional religion is far from the only source of meaning, values and a sense of the transcendent."
Julian Baggini.
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Another interesting thing that he wrote is this essay:
"This is what the clash of civilisations is really about."
"Relativism has made liberal openness appear weak, empty and repugnant compared with the clarity of dogma."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/apr/14/comment.comment3
In it he wrote this
"Unless we can make a convincing case that the choice is not between relativism or dogmatism, more and more people will reject the former and embrace the latter.
When they do, those who helped create the impression that modern, secular rationality leaves everything up for grabs in the marketplace of belief will have to take their share of the blame."
Julian Baggini.
I think "post-modernism" and thinkers like Foucault, and the veneration of thinkers like Foucault, along with other opposition to the Enlightenment, have encouraged the impression that "everything is up for grabs".
The popularity of post-modernism and thinkers such as Foucault and Nietzsche in universities has often degraded in the minds of students who are taught to venerate such thinkers, into the basest and simplest moral relativism and amoralism.
In this context I am reminded of Bernard Shaw's quote to serve as a good watchman -
“A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.”
He has also written an article called "Spirituality for Atheists" which I cut out of Psychologies magazine and which I must dig out.
....
An extract from it:
"What we think of as spiritual is simply all those things which make us creatures with rich inner lives and not just inert rocks and pebbles.
Many of us have let go of religion but hold on to the vaguer notion of spirituality as a security blanket. It's time we realised that traditional religion is far from the only source of meaning, values and a sense of the transcendent."
Julian Baggini.
-----
Another interesting thing that he wrote is this essay:
"This is what the clash of civilisations is really about."
"Relativism has made liberal openness appear weak, empty and repugnant compared with the clarity of dogma."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/apr/14/comment.comment3
In it he wrote this
"Unless we can make a convincing case that the choice is not between relativism or dogmatism, more and more people will reject the former and embrace the latter.
When they do, those who helped create the impression that modern, secular rationality leaves everything up for grabs in the marketplace of belief will have to take their share of the blame."
Julian Baggini.
I think "post-modernism" and thinkers like Foucault, and the veneration of thinkers like Foucault, along with other opposition to the Enlightenment, have encouraged the impression that "everything is up for grabs".
The popularity of post-modernism and thinkers such as Foucault and Nietzsche in universities has often degraded in the minds of students who are taught to venerate such thinkers, into the basest and simplest moral relativism and amoralism.
In this context I am reminded of Bernard Shaw's quote to serve as a good watchman -
“A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.”