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ExistentialMusingsOf a Commoner
by Gary Bonsall Sr.
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Social Aspects of Spirituality
As schools of thought continue to clash on the battlefields of reason, how are we to makesense of that one aspect of humanity that just won’t go away, the one that, no matter how manylegal or verbal spears are hurled at it, keeps scrambling back to its feet to take on all comers, the onewe call spirituality? Researchers keep digging ancient bodies out of the ground; DNA analysessuggest we are related to some of them; findings in geological strata continue to indicate there was atime on the earth that was devoid of primates but replete with other life forms. Amid it all,Darwinism has yet to link you and me to the primordial soup in any tangible way; only a hypothesisserves to skewer us together. Personally, I have no problem embracing science and Creationismsimultaneously, but we’ll save that paper for another time; this one is written for the skeptics; theones who simply can’t see any benefit in spirituality and might even go as far as to label itdetrimental to individuals and their social progress.Primitive humans lived out their lives in a world of natural forces such as storms, floods,lightning, predators, famines, illness, pain, and death. Some of the forces were hostile while otherssuch as gentle rains, procreation, sunshine, soft breezes, and availability of food were friendly.These forces all existed whether humans liked it or not and were understood by humans within thelimits of their own experience. They could not negotiate with unseen forces so to understand them,they thought of them as consciousnesses with minds, wills, appetites, and emotions. The forceseventually came to be called spirits and they existed in many forms: demons, evil spirits, ancestralghosts, angels, gods, goddesses, and so on. A similar notion was applied by primitive humans tothemselves as their internal experiences of consciousness, feelings, will, and ideas caused them toenvision a self they did not identify with their bodies so they concluded that their own essence was
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not body, but “soul.” Archaeological evidence of customs in even the Old Stone Age indicates arudimentary concept of spirituality. These profound processes were developed over long periods of time and arose from humankind’s deepest needs to survive the onslaught of the aggressive forces of nature and later of society. These personified forces not only offered rhyme and reason tomisunderstood natural forces, but eventually helped humans achieve fulfilling goals; enabled themto grow in spirit; and become more stable, confident, loving, and at peace with themselves.As time passed and people found that they shared similar convictions, doctrines developedand those with similar beliefs decided they belonged together as part of the believing group; morethan that, they attempted to participate in the spiritual experience that the doctrine referred to. Asspiritual institutions developed, leaders emerged who were empowered to distinguish between trueand false doctrines. Beliefs were formalized and an intellectualization took place which resulted intheologies, bringing forth interpretations and reinterpretations of the meanings of the faith for anygroup of people at a given time. In other words, doctrines and practices evolved along with thedeveloping needs of the society they were in place to serve.All of life, including food, work, suffering, human relations, sexuality, marriage, education,the arts, and government, can be given spiritual significance. Many spiritual systems have detailedrules of purity that bear on every aspect of behavior. In this way the spiritual reality isacknowledged to be the true and proper basis of all life. Although spiritual solitaries exist, mostspirituality has a social aspect that leads its adherents to form a community which may be more or less tightly organized. In earlier times, the spiritual community could scarcely be distinguished fromthe community at large; all professed the same faith and the ruler was both a political and a spiritualleader. Over the course of time, however, spiritual and civil societies became distinct and often evencame into conflict. In modern secular states such as India and the United States a plurality of 
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