How do you define ‘Spiritual’: Not ‘Religious’, but Spiritual?
One Point Zero defines, a fully developed ‘Spiritual Human‘ as one who has ‘Their Truths’: That being their unwavering answers to the Five Questions below:
1. Is there a God, a Higher Power, or a Higher Being?
2. Is there Life, or some form of ‘Other Existence’ After Death?
3. What is the Purpose of Life? (The Generic Human Purpose.
4. What is the relationship between Humans & all other living things on this planet?
5. How, and by Whom, was ‘This All’ created?
Being Human: Finding ‘The Answers to The Big 5 Questions’
All religions provide a Truth’s, ‘recipe book‘: The religion’s ‘prescriptive answers’ to the above Five Questions.
If one sets out to truly explore those answers, and all ‘The Truths‘ and ‘The story’ behind them, to see whether they could fit with one’s soul, then one is following a ‘Spiritual Quest’.
If in this exploration one uses one’s full Spiritual Capability on that Quest, AND gets to the point where one’s answers feel ‘virtually absolute’, one is at ‘Conviction’, having arrived at One’s Truths.
(Strong conviction! ie Unshakable in severe challenge, and yet also accepting, respecting and valueing of another’s Differing Truths. The Truths by definition can never be beyond absolute doubt. Acceptance of this mystical dichotomy, and yet having conviction of one’s own truths, is what defins a fully Spiritually developed human.
The process of the ‘Quest to Conviction‘ is the key, not just ‘instant’ or ‘tick off’ answers’ that lack conviction. This ‘Quest’ could involve a life time, exploring many ‘alternate Truths, offered by different religions or other true Spiritual ‘schemes’, along the way. Conviction is the only test of ‘quest success’ or arrival’, but the journey is spiritual growth and development in itself.
This could be a life long quest, and the key is drawing on our human, Spiritual Capability, in conjunction with our other four, primary human capbalilities. (Our human Spiritual Capability (above) is distinct from our, Rational, Emotional, Physical, or Relationship Capabilities)
Essentially in arriving at these Convictions, one then has one’s ‘Beyond Human’ context for living: The Higher compass for Higher Purpose and Meaning, that surely is the vital meaning context for one’s whole life? In terms of The Void, as defined by One Point Zero, one is then deemed a fully, Spiritual Human, and living outside ‘The Void’. ‘The Void’ consists of all those void of their answers to the Big 5 Questions.
A’Spiritual Atheist’ vs A ‘Spiritually Void Atheist’?
In being Fully Spiritual, it is quiet possible to be an atheist (Don’t believe in a God) but still have coherent, strong, answers (with conviction) to the big Five Questions, and thus also be outside of The Void. The atheist in answering question 1, may for example believe in a Higher Power, as Nature:
A Deep Ecologist, who is an atheist, free of any formal religious connections, could believe that Nature is their Higher Power, and with that they have ‘their constructed’ Laws of Nature that they use as their ‘Higher Life’ compass. In essence they know there will sometimes be personal consequence for going against The Higher Power’s ‘Rules’. ‘Rules’ that are inviolate and required for Nature to ‘manage its Higher Context, Ecosystem and its Universe.
The problem associated with the ballooning spiritual Void, is that more and more people are becoming ‘anti-religion’, and declaring themselves “Atheists”. In that blanket declaration, they are seeing fit to renounce any need for further Spiritual exploration: Walking away from ‘The Spiritual quest of confronting the Big 5 Questions.’
The Void ‘A Cancer’ in Today’s Chronic Human Condition?
The Void is ‘Unhealthy’, because people inside it have no ‘Beyond Human’ context for living, and so define their own ‘Team Human / Team Nature’ context. Often that goes further to no ‘Beyond Self’ context for living. In today’s increasingly affluent world, with more and more people pursuing Freedom as the goal, with Money the key to that goal, and with more and more ‘Thin Air Money’ all around us, we end up with what we are seeing as pervasive in society today:
Selfishness, Narcissism, Greed, and the soulless, guilt free, Destruction and Exploitation of all the Natural Resources on this planet as if they are merely of utilitarian value. There is no cosmic context of Belonging, and how these respources and their use fit with human existence.
In ‘The Void’, each sets their own life rules, and is only accountable to themselves or a few other chosen humans, we end up having anarchy and the pervasive loss of moral / ethical framework that is happening today.
Without Nature We Are Nothing
