Do all or some of athiest believe that there is a spiritual part to man? I refer to this as separate from a belief in god, gods or deities of any kind.

This would include any consideration that man is a spiritual being whether with or without a physical body.

Strictly speaking, yes. Atheism just implies a lack of belief in God or gods. Buddhists are atheists, many of whom believe in reincarnation. Such people would be spiritual in your sense. You can find other variations, though they're rare. Usually, belief in gods comes bundled with a belief in the soul.

Most people who call themselves atheists are also scientific materialists who don't believe any mind-body duality or other supernatural ideas. So in this sense, the answer is closer to "no".

Finally, there is a feeling of spirituality or connectedness with the natural world that I think is a human trait that everyone can feel regardless of their beliefs. That doesn't seem to be the sense you mean.

--Don

Don, Thank you for your thoughtful answer. It answers a point of unknown data regarding atheisim that I never knew. Also, it was interesting that the last point you made is separate from considering each person as a spirit. Jerry

This may sound odd, but an atheist attended one of our dinners one evening and told me he believed in souls. So, I guess anything's possible...?

WOW! Atheists believing in spirits and souls!

Kind of blows that evolution thing out of the water!

Atheists aren't required to accept evolution. But I have no idea if those how have spirit beliefs somehow combine it with evolution or reject evolution. Since many Christians accept evolution, I assume there is some way for someone who believes in spirits to also reconcile the beliefs?

Dear Tracieh,

Yes I would be very interested to see how those beliefs could be reconciled. Very thought provoking. Perhaps they believe that the soul or spirit is the next step in evolution? I know that some believe we will finally evolve into non corpreal beings. I hope not, I enjoy eating too much!

Additionally, there's no guarantee that any given atheist has a good reason to consider themselves an atheist. There are some atheists who disbelieve the god-hypotheses for all the wrong reasons.

Most folks don't tend to dig very deeply into philosophical and theological issues. I've met atheists who are very rational and simply rejected the various god-claims they had heard for no greater reason than "they seemed ridiculous". They're exercising sound reasoning - but they may not really understand why their reasoning is sound (why they are specifically justified in considering the claims absurd).

I kind of think that maybe that our body hosts an energy, that at death is released, not as a spirt, but perhaps as an energy, maybe an electrical energy that exists after the host body is gone. Not exactly a spirit, or soul.

Sensory input and muscle impulses are delivered by electrical energy.

This could mean that there might actually be an em-field of self-perception, like a hologram, superimposed over the whole body.

Maybe humans are spirits after all - evolution might have a few surprises for us in stock.

It's called universal consciousness--look it up. I believed this before I dtermined the Bible to be credible.