In a world that prioritizes consumption over compassion, it’s easy to lose sight of what makes life truly fulfilling. The vision of the Spiritual Naturalist Society (SNS) points to the fact that “our consumerist culture aims to make us all good Walmart shoppers but not good or happy people.”
This insight taps into a broader societal dilemma that cognitive scientist John Vervaeke from the University of Toronto identifies as the Meaning Crisis. According to Vervaeke, the recent emergence of Spiritual Naturalism (SN) is in part due to this growing chasm between what our culture tells us to value and what we need to flourish as human beings. He also notes the potential for SN to take on this crisis as it attempts to bridge spirituality with science and rationalism.
Yet, spirituality itself has long been misrepresented and misunderstood. As the philosopher Robert C. Solomon lamented in Spirituality for the Skeptic, spirituality “has been hijacked by organized religion, New Age eccentrics, and divisive sectarians.” This hijacking has distorted spirituality, packaging it in ways that alienate those who seek a more rational and evidence-based understanding of life’s mysteries.”
The New Atheist philosopher Sam Harris holds a similar view, adding that it is “one of the most damaging lies of religion” that aspects of spirituality such as charity, community, ritual, and contemplation can only be embraced through faith. Until we can talk about spirituality within the scope of reason, Harris warns that “our world will remain shattered by dogmatism.” For too long, spirituality has been held hostage by supernaturalism, but there is no reason for it to remain so.
Eric Steinhart, a philosopher and professor at William Paterson University, adds that theists have hijacked spiritual concepts for nearly two-thousand years by tying them to God. He argues that the notion of NOMA (that religion and science are Non-Overlapping Magisteria) facilitates this hijacking by insisting that if there is no God, there is no spirituality. Steinhart challenges this notion in his book, Believing in Dawkins, urging that words “are our servants and not our masters,” and that we can reclaim spirituality within a naturalistic context.
Harris parallels Steinhart’s sentiment on the word “spirituality” in his bestseller, Waking Up. He writes: “Yes, to walk the aisles of any “spiritual” bookstore is to confront the yearning and credulity of our species by the yard, but there is no other term—apart from the even more problematic mystical or the more restrictive contemplative—with which to discuss the efforts people make, through meditation, psychedelics, or other means, to fully bring their minds into the present or to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness. And no other word links this spectrum of experience to our ethical lives.”
Likewise, the atheist philosopher André Comté-Sponville declares spirituality “a part of our humanity,” our “noblest part,” “our highest function,” and “far too important a matter to be left to fundamentalists.” The Religious Naturalist philosopher, Jerome Stone, similarly regards spirituality as “part of the richest flavor of life,” likening it to love and beauty. Perhaps most importantly, Stone adds the potential for spiritual practice to “provide strength and suppleness,” as well as to motivate action for social, political, and environmental activists.
Indeed, SNS founder Daniel Strain reminds us that with a foundation in the wisdom and perspectives that inform Spiritual Naturalism, we can live in accordance with our best nature as rational and moral beings. For Strain, working for the good of the world isn’t just ethical—it’s a source of true happiness. By engaging in such practices, we can build a life that is both existentially and socially transformative. However, until naturalists can embrace this aspect of our humanity, it will continue to only provide supernaturalists with its social and political advantages.
Spiritual Naturalism then, is not merely a worldview—it’s a growing movement, a subculture that seeks to maximize human flourishing through reason and evidence. If developed successfully, this subculture will compete against the dogmatism and nihilism that have dominated our public discourse for far too long. To build this culture, it is vital that it “be genuine, moving, effective, and transformative,” as mentioned in the SNS vision statement. Until then, it will remain what Harris has described as “the great hole in secularism, humanism, rationalism, atheism, and all the other defensive postures that reasonable men and women strike in the presence of unreasonable faith.”
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Learn about Membership in the Spiritual Naturalist Society
The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship.
SNS strives to include diverse voices within the spectrum of naturalistic spirituality. Authors will vary in their opinions, terms, and outlook. The views of no single author therefore necessarily reflect those of all Spiritual Naturalists or of SNS.
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References:
Comte-Sponville, A. (2008). The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality. Penguin Books.
Harris, S. (2014). Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
Solomon, R. C. (2003). Spirituality for the Skeptic: the Thoughtful Love of Life. Oxford University Press.
Steinhart, E. (2020). Believing in Dawkins: The New Spiritual Atheism. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stone, J. A. (2017). Sacred Nature: The Environmental Potential of Religious Naturalism. Routledge.
Strain, D. (2016, June 17). “Activism as Practice. The Spiritual Naturalist Society.” https://www.snsociety.org/activism-as-practice/
Vervaeke, J. (2015, November 28). “Spirituality and responding to the meaning crisis, part 1: The meaning that was lost.” The Spiritual Naturalist Society. https://www.snsociety.org/spirituality-and-responding-to-the-meaning-crisis-part-1-the-meaning-that-was-lost/
Vervaeke, J. (2016, January 10). “Spirituality and the meaning crisis, part 2: The emergence of the crisis.” The Spiritual Naturalist Society. https://www.snsociety.org/spirituality-and-the-meaning-crisis-part-2-the-emergence-of-the-crisis/
Vision statement. The Spiritual Naturalist Society. (2019, September 4). https://www.snsociety.org/about-sns/vision-statement/
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