What do you think of when you hear the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality’? For many people, it brings to mind religion and mysticism. But is there a more meaningful and relevant way to interpret these words? Can the concept of spirituality be re-claimed and make sense in day-to-day life? I think it can.

After a lengthy search I found a radically different way to view spirituality. An interpretation that doesn’t take away the sanctity from the concept, it merely removes the need to believe in anything without reasons or any evidence. There is an interpretation of spirituality that makes sense, that works and is practical. It doesn’t mean that unexplained experiences are discounted as unreal and it doesn’t require you to ‘have faith’.

What is faith?

I was raised in the Christian tradition as a Catholic and was told a story that did not make any sense at all. The nuns who taught me at my convent school insisted, however, that we all had to believe in the story anyway, without any rational explanation or logical understanding. I was told that I had to ‘have faith’. But what is Faith?

Faith is belief without reasons. It is the idea that reasons are unnecessary.

Faith is what children have in Father Christmas (Santa Claus), the Easter Bunny, or the tooth fairy. There is no evidence to be persuaded by, only the observation that people (other children and parents) hold this belief. It is a combination of the appeal to authority and appeal to the majority. Two classic logical fallacies that persist in and dominate most peoples thinking in later life. Meaning, two reasons to hold something as true with out any evidence what-so-ever.

The dangers of faith

If different people live by conflicting ideas that they take on faith how can we close the gap and resolve differences? The answer is they can’t. How can we agree on anything if we abandon reality as the ultimate arbiter of truth? You can’t. In fact, the concept of truth is destroyed. If you have faith that something is true, but I have faith that the opposite is true, all there is left is disagreement without resolution. Force becomes the only means of asserting one idea over another. This is the way it has been done throughout history.

On the other hand when we all agree to stick with the facts of reality, facts that can be demonstrated and proved, then we are all effectively on the same page. Now we can use reasoned argument to solve differences instead of violence. Faith and force (violence) go hand in hand for this very reason. Peace can only be achieved by rational people who implicitly agree to ‘meet in reality’. And remember there is only one reality. Reality (the Universe) is everything that exists. There is existence or non-existence, there is no third alternative. Reality is what exists.

The good news is that reality can be discovered, and it is our capacity to reason that enables us to discover it. Reality is knowable. On the other hand, mystic beliefs and other realms or dimensions are not knowable. If our concept of spiritual and spirituality pertains to some other dimension then we are implicitly living in an frighteningly unknowable universe – like a haunted house with spooks and demons that cannot be seen or dealt.

What is spirituality?

The rational meaning of spiritual is ‘pertaining to consciousness’. Your spirit is your consciousness. Or if you prefer, your soul is your consciousness. You have a physical body and you are conscious. There is no third bit. When people feel that there is more it is an emotional response...