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Is it a thing? Most educated, rational people accept the fact that humans have evolved physically and intellectually over the past 200,000 or so years. The evidence is overwhelming. But what about spiritual evolution?
The dictionary defines spirituality as: 'relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.'
Gautam Buddha once said - Path, that starts with a wrong first step, leads to wrong destination.
OP premise starts with appeal to "educated, rational people" that apparently follow the official "evolution" path. Followed by reference to "spirit and soul", what the same rational educated people deny.
Then it jumps to some enigmatic "social safety networks" (??) as proof to humanity "spiritual evolution".
R
With all due respect, this does not make much sense as it's contradictory and opinionated premise.
I consent with #7. There is no evidence that, outside of few minority humans, there is any spiritual evolution. In its basics, nothing ever changes. There are those at the top, oppressing those at the bottom. Forms of this change, scope of humanity destruction varies but, otherwise, it is nihil novi ante Sol. Same old, same old. No matter how wishfully you believe otherwise.
I will grant that there may be incremental changes and percentages of the population that changes may be small, and I would argue that population pressures will disguise progress, but there are real changes in attitudes and applications over at least the last few centuries. I'd also say that technology has relieved a lot of the survival pressures to enable much of that change.
Is it a thing? Most educated, rational people accept the fact that humans have evolved physically and intellectually over the past 200,000 or so years. The evidence is overwhelming. But what about spiritual evolution?
The dictionary defines spirituality as: 'relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.'
When I think of a spiritual person, I think of one who demonstrates qualities like: empathy, understanding, awareness, positivity, patience, altruism, kindness, humility, compassion, and love.
I believe that generally-speaking, mankind has evolved spiritually. Societies around the globe have developed social safety networks that didn't exist even a few hundred years ago, outside of small, isolated communities. I don't discount the part religions have had to play in this evolution. Most of them have caring for others as part of their doctrines.
But religions can also hinder spiritual evolution by binding believers to rigid laws and black-and-white thinking based on archaic concepts. So, count me as believing spiritual evolution is indeed a real thing. And it is not limited to believers in a god(s). Far from it. I know a lot of spiritually-evolved heathens.
Bertrand Russell's criticism of the organized churches is damning:
. . . You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward diminution of war, . . . every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world.
Your view is more balanced, Trout. I agree that "when I think of a spiritual person, I think of one who demonstrates qualities like: empathy, understanding, awareness, positivity, patience, altruism, kindness, humility, compassion, and love" as described in 1st Cor 13.
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