Social Necessity of Spiritual Need

Spiritual need is identified by the courage to stand for the good the true and the beautiful.

That is Biblical. Along with a whole load more.

Are you talking about the Bible?

Some peole in life say they are "spiritual".
But they are not really meaning the Bible. Or only some parts of it.

Is it though? I don't think I have any kind of 'spiritual need'?

You do ViceVersa. You so do.

This is a strange idea altogether I think.

fancythat

You do ViceVersa. You so do.

In what way? I'm genuinely curious to know what you mean.

Yes, I’m curious too.

I would say that I have emotional needs in that I need to live and be loved by other people.

And I’d say I have intellectual needs in that I need a rational philosophy on which to base my life actions.

And I’d say I had aesthetic needs in that I need my environment to appeal to my senses.

But I have no idea what a spiritual need is because I don’t really understand the concept of spirit.

Nope. Not for me.

Ikm a Humanist and I believe this is all there is to it. It focuses my mind to be aware of my words and deeds. I try to be generous in spirit and in my actions. I compliment people as I go about my daily business. I tell family I love them and that I’m proud of them- not just their achievements - their lovely natures, their good parenting.

Best to say and share - while we are here.

Same as FGT

Each to their own I guess.

Spiritual need? - what the heck is that? I can understand the idea of a spiritual belief but where does the need come in? Are you saying that humans can't live happily without a spiritual belief - that they have a need for it?

Not everyone does.

I had been waiting for Caleo to reply again.
Presumably she will later.

Apart from, if you are a Christian you believe in Heavan and Hell, and therefore we are all in dire spiritual need,

We dont live on this earth in a vacuum.

For some instances, I have just learnt I am going to be a granny again.
In no way do people create a baby> Well you know what I mean!

And all we have to do is look outside at nature.
We dont make the sky. Or leaves appear on trees in Spring, etc. We dont and didnt make all those things.

And do we not all feel things as well?
Difficult to put into words.

I just don’t get it fancythat.

I don’t believe in heaven or hell or any kind of afterlife except that our bodies change their state of matter.

To me it’s obvious that a human baby is made by human fertilisation and growth. Nothing else. We can watch how it happens now from start to birth.

And what we call Nature, for want of a better word, is essentially the same process applied to other species. With all its failures and missteps and very, very often extinction.
I don’t see a mastermind at work there or an overarching benevolent creator.

I’m afraid nothing you’ve said has made me understand what you mean by a spiritual need.

Are you the same person who's posted similar things on GN recently? This post doesn't have the same narrative feel to it as a grandma asking other grandmas for their thoughts on this & that, so do you represent a religious group trying to recruit people? In these days of online influencing, I just have a nagging feeling, that's all - I don't mean to insult anyone but this just doesn't feel right.

NonGrannyMoll,, Caleo has posted before and I don't think they are a religious group

Or represent one, I should say.

"Caleo has posted before"
I take your point but, on the other hand, recruiters do keep pegging at it repeatedly - just one hit wouldn't achieve much.

I am not a " religious group" . I am an autonomous very old woman searching for thoughtful responses to her posts.

I would rather read a well -argued response than any "narrative" , NonGrannyMoll. However I do agree that Gransnet mostly publishes anecdotal narrative responses to an OP such as mine.

Thank you Lathyrus3 for your eloquent post with which I completely agree.
OP has failed to define what they mean by ‘spiritual need’ & I think it is quite arrogant of them to assert that it is a universal need without making clear what they are talking about.

PS If I were a "religious Group" seeking support I'd take it to task, if it were indeed capable of any serious argument,

Janeainsworth I am disappointed that you called me "arrogant".

I'd have preferred you to call my term "spiritual need " vague and imprecise.

However you make a good point. By "spiritual need" I mean one's need to purpose to act in the general good, as opposed to being stupid, selfish, greedy, arrogant. conceited, or indoctrinated.

I'm still not sure what you mean by "Spiritual Need"

Perhaps you could explain this?

Maybe you mean we have a "need" within us for something spiritual?

... but probably not because you say "Social Necessity" - which is altogether different it seems to me...

'Spiritual need' reminds me of what C S Lewis wrote about Sehnsucht - a German word for yearning or longing. He said there can be an inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what, 'a desire for our own far off country ... for something that has never actually appeared in our experience'.

He wrote of experiencing this piercing desire 'at the smell of a bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World’s End, the opening lines of Kubla Khan, the morning cobwebs in late summer, or the noise of falling waves.' I think different things provoke it in different people.

This was a factor in Lewis's conversion to Christianity. The Bible says, 'He has put eternity into the hearts of men.' (Ecclesiastes 3.11)

Lewis wrote:

'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.'
(C S Lewis, Mere Christianity, my emphasis)

This may not be quite what Caleo is thinking of, though.

Cross post - I see it isn't.

I myself am wary of the word 'spiritual'as it's so often taken to mean something supernatural or mythical.
Religious behaviour is often taken to refer to the supernatural or the mythical . I don't support either of those and I am more a Humanist than a religionist.

I simply can't think of another term that would suffice , and if anyone can think of another term for longing for the world to be a better place I'd welcome the suggestion.