Jay Forrest On Natural Buddhism

Can there be a spirituality without God? The Pew Research Center recent survey shows that those who claim none as their religion is fastest growing religious category. More and more people are calling themselves, “spiritual but not religious.” The word spirit simply means “breath.” Breath is something that is unseen but real. So the spiritual refers to the non-tangible realities of experience. Buddhism and Taoism are both a spirituality without God. So spirituality without God is possible. Positive Psychology is the science of human flourishing, and it is telling us how to be happy. No God is required.

The word “God” is a word without meaning, it is a mere placeholder. After all, a word that means anything, really means nothing. We begin theology with a fairly concrete idea about God, but end up with an abstract ground of being kind of force. That’s because concrete definitions of God are contradictory. Transcendence is incompatible with immanence, God as a person is incompatible with his being everywhere presence, and God’s foreknowledge is incompatible with his freedom. The truth is that God is the word we use to embody the projection of our ideals. God is the perfect human.

What is an evidence based life and why should we pursue it? What is most important to you? Truth is the most important thing to me. No religion is higher than truth. What is truth? Truth is the correspondence between thought and reality. What is evidence? Evidence is a set of facts that support a truth claim. The importance of the question determines the amount of evidence. The subject of the question determines the source of evidence. Truth is found through following the evidence. If you value truth, then you should value evidence which leads you to the truth.

What is an atheist? Atheist is probably the most misunderstood word in the English language. Atheism is literally "without Theism," and an atheist is simply one without belief in Theism. American Atheists state, “Atheism is not a disbelief in gods or a denial of gods; it is a lack of belief in gods.”