Religion Is God’s Way of Showing Us It’s a Lot Earlier in Human Evolution Than We Thought

The Path of the Doubtful Sojourner A Spritual Quest?

When we sense a spiritual longing within, given the fact that there is no supernatural spiritual realm, is there any authentic spirituality that those of us wishing to ennoble the temporal soul of the human spirit can pursue? Strange bedfellows with believers, but we, too, are seekers of a sort, Doubtful Sojourners on a different path.
Initially, our paths were largely ignored, negated by believers behaving badly because life and culture were all about their beliefs. In the mutual denial of the other’s position on religion, our spirits weren’t nurtured, but rather slighted by both sides—by our knowledge that we had no souls and our assumption that we had no “spiritual” aspects and by believers who were frustrated with our negation of their beliefs.
Our secular human spirits do need nurturance. It’s been too long deferred. I cannot start this or any other writing without acknowledging that and attempting to set it right from the beginning. We do have our human, yet, secular spirits. And as you’ll see, nature played a little trick on us and gave us a spiritual need even though this is a spirit-free universe. That felt need drives us to seek spiritual satisfaction—and for us that means in ways that are not religious.
We have been intuitively, though perhaps unintentionally, assembling what we need to ennoble the human spirit—we have a history, we have growing traditions and many conclaves. We have fellowship, lore and lessons to share—and we have many causes, issues, and aspirations through which we also nourish our own secular souls.

Every age redefines humankind and in every age we grow. We are, at best, vaguely aware of this progression, this growth, this maturing of humanity. Nothing quite captures that journey like our increasing understanding of our own evolution. It is that great rise, our ascent, which holds the greater promise for tomorrow: there is no upper limit to our rise. Rather than recalcitrant, backsliding sinners, who hope for redemption by grace, we shall forever be humankind becoming.
We are living in intellectually exciting times. The information explosion coupled with the internet has given us the ability to educate ourselves to a degree we wouldn’t have thought possible a few years ago. The age is reminiscent of the one symbolized by the printing press. As we stare ahead into uncertain and possibly divisive times perhaps we can come together in an age of cooperative self-education.
If man is the meaning-seeking animal, and I believe he is, our understanding can be the beneficiary of this new access to knowledge. In that respect, we are still in an age of enlightenment. Never before have we been freer to study as we choose. And as Alexander Pope said, for very different reasons, Presume not God to scan, the proper study of mankind is man.
Radical understanding of ourselves is now possible to our very core—greater insight into who we really are. Where we came from. What our evolution has been, what it has meant and what it means now and for the future. That quest has been an intellectual one, but it also has been a “spiritual” one—and answers with “spiritual” meaning are now possible. Possible for the atheist, doubter, skeptic, humanist, freethinker, or otherwise godless individual that I call the Doubtful Sojourner. I think that hints at the journey we are on.
From the Barna Group study, 2005 through 2007, its president stated in the June 11, 2007 article, Atheists and Agnostics take aim at Christianity, “…most of the Americans who overtly reject faith harbor doubts about whether they are correct in doing so.” A more skeptical group, in general, they would most likely reserve some doubt about any position. From the same study, “one quarter of atheists and agnostics said “deeply spiritual” describes them.” I think that statement might shock the other three quarters. It does leave a gray area around the “no faith” respondents. We’re they atheists, or more likely agnostics? If they weren’t atheists or agnostics, did they have some belief that informed their status as neither? (Based on a telephone survey from January 2005 to January 2007 of adults 18 and over).
When we sense a spiritual quest or longing within, given the fact that there is no supernatural spiritual realm, is there any authentic spirituality that those of us wishing to ennoble the temporal soul of the human spirit can partake in? Can we have the same spiritual experience as a believer? Or is it barred to us by our very knowledge? Can a believer who had spiritual experiences continue to have them if s/he becomes a nonbeliever?