Social Necessity of Spiritual Need

I have always followed a spiritual path, which involves ethics, since my late 20's.. I don't know whether it was a spiritual need it just seemed to me to be a sensible way to live...

Hmm ,Interesting as C S Lewis is ( and I have enjoyed many of his writings) I actually think that statement begins with a fallacy or at least an unproven statement which he asserts with such authority that people assume it is a fact rather than a belief.

It’s a clever sleight of hand that he uses often in his writing.
( And notice the nod to his misogynistic views😱😬)

He was undoubtedly a spiritual person. It permeates all his writing. But was he “good”. At lot of the time he was simply awful to those he considered less than himself. Arrogant, unjust, selfish, conceited and definitely indoctrinated.

Oh dear.

A humanitarian person…..

And can be a 'spiritual' person and not be very nice

Yes, surely you can be a good person and 'act in the general good' without there having to be some kind of spiritual input.

By "spiritual need" I mean one's need to purpose to act in the general good,

I am not clear why you think that behaving in the general good has anything to do with anything spiritual.

Caleo, thanks for responding. As I said, I meant no offence and my posting was absolutely not meant personally.
I suppose "inner need" might be what you meant, rather than "spiritual need" which implies the presence of a personal spirit (internal or external). Many people don't feel they have a spirit, either in terms of conventional religious belief or secular principles. It's an interesting subject and one which requires some quite rigorous consideration in order for humanity to rub along successfully with each other.

Galaxy

Can you. I am not being deliberately difficult. But take arrogance, it is for example a prerequisite of many skilled surgeons .

Galaxy
What’s the difference between god and a surgeon. God doesn’t think he’s a surgeon 😂 Love that one.

Galaxy

Can you. I am not being deliberately difficult. But take arrogance, it is for example a prerequisite of many skilled surgeons .

I would say surgeons need to be confident of their own skills in the light of their training, but they shouldn’t be arrogant (I know many are!)

I'm not sure that looking for indoctrination, greed, arrogance, selfishness, laziness, apathy and conceit is always enough to judge right from wrong on controversial issues (trans rights?)

If there is no objective moral standard, like a measuring stick to measure things by, I think right and wrong can only ever be a matter of opinion.

I think Caleo has perfectly described Humanism in my view and something I try to live by. I'm not so sure about the spiritual aspect.

Can you. I am not being deliberately difficult. But take arrogance, it is for example a prerequisite of many skilled surgeons .

I agree it's important to long for the world to be a better place. Perhaps one could say to long for justice and compassion in the world? A sense that things are not as they ought to be, the world is broken?

I think the existence of this feeling fits right in with the idea that we are made in the image of God, by a God of justice and compassion. And with the teaching of the Bible that the world was broken when mankind decided not to trust and follow God, but to go their own way.

This feeling is harder to explain if physical matter is all there is, and we are only animals who came into existence by chance.

Galaxy, that is a problem for sure.
You can identify the good by its absence of

*indoctrination
* greed
*arrogance
*selfishness
*laziness
*apathy
*conceit

But your right might be my wrong and vice versa. I dont think 'spiritual' people are necessarily 'good' people if that is what u mean.

Lucy Anne, yes, you have to have Hope. Also Charity. I am not so sure about Faith.

(out)

Thank you Skye17. That is interesting about CSLewis. I accept Sehnsucht as a justification for doing history i.e. finding put about man's past. I feel Sehnsucht when I watch Prof Alice Roberts on TV.
However my interest is not so much historical as political. I think we need to feel passionate about what is right and what is wrong.

You have to have Hope

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.

Cross post - I see it isn't.

'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.

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

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?

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.