Abstract
This study examined attitudes towards and understandings of the term “spirituality” among members of the British Humanist Association (N = 318). Thirty-five percent agreed strongly and twenty-one percent moderately agreed that it was possible to be spiritual without being religious. Some respondents asserted that the term spiritual was so vague as to be almost useless. They preferred terms such as emotional connectedness, awe, or beauty, which are commonly included in definitions of spirituality. For a few individuals, spirituality referred to the existence of spirits. A minority in the study (12%) had what might be defined as ‘other worldly experiences,’ although these were explained in purely naturalistic terms (e.g., lack of sleep, drugs/alcohol, and brain dysfunction). The primary conclusion from the survey is that many British Humanists see no contradiction between being a humanist and having experiences that are often defined as “spiritual.”
Highlights
This paper focuses on attitudes towards ‘spirituality’ among members of the British Humanist Association
Males comprised 65%, of the sample; females made up 35% of the sample
The humanists interviewed above profess a form of spirituality which involves a sense of transcendence, awe, and connectedness rather than any conception of or relationship with the supernatural
Summary
This paper focuses on attitudes towards ‘spirituality’ among members of the British Humanist Association. The term “humanism” has been used with a variety of meanings throughout history. Modern humanism dates from around the middle of the 20th Century but its antecedents have a long historical legacy. 420 BCE) argued that “Man is the measure of all things.”. Humanism was central to the renewal project of the Renaissance and to the optimism of the Enlightenment, and counted among its advocates individuals such as Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Voltaire and Rousseau. Humanism was quite popular during the nineteenth century, and arguably became even more popular in the twentieth century with the development of existentialism. Some prominent 20th century humanists include: Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, and Richard Rorty
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