Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) also known as " Spiritual but not affiliated " (SBNA)...

"Disgruntled Royalty (Power Corrupts S1E6)"

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Definitions .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_but_not_religious#Definition

Increased popular and scholarly attention to "spirituality" has been related by scholars like Pargament to sociocultural trends towards deinstitutionalization, individualization, and globalization.[13] According to the authors of the studies included in the edited volume Social Identities Between the Secular and the Sacred, some of those who are critical of religion see it as rigid and pushy, leading them to use terms such as atheist, agnostic to describe themselves.[14] For many people, SBNR is not just about rejecting religion outright, but not wanting to be restricted by it.[15] Many of those studied who identify as SBNR feel a tension between their personal spirituality and membership in a conventional religious organization. Most of them value curiosity, intellectual freedom, and an experimental approach to religion. Many go as far to view organized religion as the major enemy of authentic spirituality, claiming that spirituality is private reflection and private experience—not public ritual.[16] To appreciate the "god within" is not a twentieth century notion with its roots in 1960s counter culture or 1980s New Age, but spirituality is a concept that has pervaded all of history.[12]

According to Philip D. Kenneson, to be "religious" conveys an institutional connotation, usually associated with Abrahamic traditions: to attend worship services, to say Mass, to light Hanukkah candles. To be "spiritual," in contrast, connotes personal practice and personal empowerment having to do with the deepest motivations of life.[16] As a result, in cultures that are deeply suspicious of institutional structures and that place a high value on individual freedom and autonomy, spirituality has come to have largely positive connotations, while religion has been viewed more negatively.[16] Abrahamic religions have been viewed as negative institutions because they propagate a certain way of believing. Abrahamic traditions emphasize that one’s best bet is to look outside to a higher power that can guide and correct one's corporeal misjudgements. In these traditions, God above is the source of wisdom and illumination.[12] Robert Wuthnow argues that spirituality is about much more than going to church and agreeing or disagreeing with church doctrines. Scholar Robert Wuthnow argues that spirituality is the shorthand term used in Western society to talk about a person's relationship with God.[17] For many people, how they think about religion and spirituality is certainly guided by what they see and do in their congregations.[17] At a deeper level, it involves a person's self-identity—feeling loved by God, and these feelings can wax and wane.[17]

The concept of religion is a social construct, since in other eras, religion, culture, and even national identity were often inseparable. And as for spirituality, this is an old concept with a new usage.[9] Previous to today’s era, what people today call spirituality was often called piety.[9] Professor of Theology, Linda Mercadante sees religion as a complex adaptive network of myths, symbols, rituals and concepts that simultaneously figure patterns of feeling, thinking, and acting and disrupt stable structures of meaning and purpose.[9] When understood in that way, religion not only involves ideas and practices that are manifestly religious but also includes a broad range of cultural phenomena not ordinarily associated with religion.[9] Many people use spirituality to refer to their interior life of faith and religion to mean the necessary communal and/or organizational part.[9] Mercadante sees both spirituality and religion as consisting of four basic components: beliefs, desire, rituals, and behavioural expectations, but across the field of Religious Studies the definitions vary.[9] When Mercadante has spoken with SBNRs, they take a decidedly anti-dogmatic stance against religious belief in general. They claim not only that belief is non-essential, but that it is potentially harmful or at least a hindrance to spirituality.[9]

Supernatural .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_but_not_religious#Supernatural

According to some scholars, what both religion and spirituality have in common is a sense of the supernatural,[18] while others see supernatural thought unnecessary for spirituality.[19] In colonial America, some people had a supernatural curiosity that was often combined with free-thinking rationalism advocated by intellectuals such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.[20] Robert Fuller has characterized the SBNR phenomenon as a mix of intellectual progressivism and mystical hunger, impatient with the piety of established churches.[21]

Types .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_but_not_religious#Types

SBNRs are made up of heterogeneous and differing typologies. While no individual fits exhaustively into or remains permanently in one type, Linda A. Mercadante categorizes SBNRs into five distinct categories: (a) Dissenters, (b) Casuals, (c) Explorers, (d) Seekers, and (e) Immigrants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_but_not_religious#Spirituality_in_religion

SBNR and SBNA are totally new labels to me. Mercadante even breaks (a) Dissenters down into three differing types - Protesting ds, Drifted ds and Conscientious objector ds.

A guy up the pub yesterday got angry as hell when i told him i was an atheist. Very puffed red, loud angry.

Yep, as per the video, "An animal is most dangerous when afraid." The DarkMatter2525 videos are all good. That one is a special.