Spiritual Atheism: How to Be Spiritual Without Belief in God

Spiritual atheism offers a way for atheists to explore spirituality without the belief in deities. My atheist friend is one such seeker and doesn’t commit to any religious belief system or institution, yet he considers himself spiritual. However, he has yet to find a way to sufficiently explain how he can be both an atheist and a spiritual person. 

He asked me these two questions, hoping I might help:

1. How does an atheist reconcile “spirituality” with a stark, reason-based philosophy?

2. Is it possible to be spiritual without religion or believing in deities? In other words, is spiritual atheism possible?

Understanding Spiritual Atheism

Spirituality, as opposed to religion, is rooted in the notion that there is an immaterial reality—energy, for example—that we experience due to our existence or being. Spirituality is not a belief in physical beings, like gods or goddesses, but a state of being in connection with something larger than oneself, both immanently and transcendentally.

A spiritual life doesn’t require deities or adhering to a specific religious belief system. An atheist can see god as energy or spirit, not as a deity. This is the basis for spiritual atheism.

Atheists do not reject the notion that there is an immaterial reality (like energy) but reject belief in physical beings with supernatural powers. Like scientists, atheists reject religious dogma, superstition, and the pseudo-sciences practiced in more than 4,000 religious traditions worldwide—including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Spiritual atheism does not require religious myth or dogma.

All three religions’ adherents believe in and worship the God of Abraham, holding in common a belief in god as a deity. For them, the God of Abraham is personal and anthropomorphic—a god that possesses human traits, emotions, and intentions. Their god is also masculine, entrenching their view of patriarchy. They view god as a noun. Spiritual atheism does not.

However, these religions’ adherents also believe that god is a transcendent deity who exists outside of and apart from humanity rather than being fully immersed in that which exists: the eternal realm of the spirit or the field of energy that permeates all of existence—the core idea of spiritual atheism.

Can Atheists Be Spiritual?

To an atheist, it’s illogical to view god as both a personal, human-like god and a separate, transcendent deity. However, an atheist can still be spiritual—and remain rational—when god is seen as energy.

My friend wouldn’t dispute that existence or being is made of both energy and matter. All existence is energy—even matter. Matter is simply a form of energy. Therefore, an atheist could logically understand a spiritual notion of god in these terms, with god conceived as energy but not as a being since a being would imply individuality or just a part of existence rather than the whole of it.

The Orion Nebula – a picture of spirit energy in our known universe. Cosmic energy and inter-connectedness represent universal spirit or spiritual atheism.

In sum, by understanding spirit as energy, the animating force of the universe, an atheist can reconcile a spiritual life using science and a stark, rationality-based philosophy to arrive at spiritual atheism. Science thrives on being open to the unknown, asking questions that can be tested. That’s the scientific method—exploring the unknown to understand something empirically better is the terrain of science.

The Science Behind Spirituality Without God

Science has shown how deeply connected we are to something greater—the cosmos. In the last century, scientists discovered that all existence is energy. Energy can’t be created or destroyed—this is the first law of thermodynamics. Energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another, but everything remains energy. Energy is eternal. Transitively, if god is energy, then god, too, could be eternal.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist and writer.

Quantum physics shows us that matter, including atoms, is made of constantly spinning and vibrating energy. Everything in the universe, including us, is energy with a unique ‘signature’ or spirit.[1]

Most people practicing a spiritual life seek to understand how our own “being” is intimately and deeply related to the totality of existence. In other words, we are far more than just our physical form. As more and more people become aware of the interconnected nature of our being, our experience of life becomes both immanent and transcendental—the essence of a spiritual experience and the basis for spiritual atheism.

The experience is inherent and immanent because it is directly experienced when we become conscious of ourselves as part of a larger whole. It is transcendental because the moment our awareness shifts from the self to our interconnectedness, we transcend the solipsistic notion of the self and become conscious of what is more significant than I am.

The truth of what we are is simple: we are all energy, each with our energy signature. We are all spirits, radiating unique spiritual signatures in an energy-filled universe. We are one energy, or one with god, as some might say.

My atheist friend can be spiritual and practice spiritual atheism simply by acknowledging a few scientific findings: everything is energy, and spirit or god are merely the words that we use a priori to science to describe what we already knew intuitively—that everything is one.

And that, my friend, is how to be a spiritual atheist. It is also the first step toward an evolved, ecologically centered worldview.

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Sources:

[1] Greene, Brian R. (2003). The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.

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Author: Dr. Matthew Wilburn King
Image: elephant archives, Orion Nebula Wikimedia Commons
Editor: Callie Rushton

Original Publication: Elephant Journal