ThirstyFish

Sam Harris, a religious critic who is one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism, recently published a book titled Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. In it, he covers a wide range of topics like secular spirituality, the illusion of the self, and meditation. Sam Harris writing about spirituality is somewhat analogous to a lion writing about vegetarianism. In 2012, it was Harris who wrote: "We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it". What does a Muslim look like? Spot in the photo.

Interconnectedness is a central concept in all mystical traditions throughout the world. Without it, a mystical tradition can not be truly regarded as such. Simply defined, interconnectedness is a worldview which recognizes the "oneness" in all things. Take that out, and what you are left with is "division" that has plagued orthodox religions throughout their histories. So we have an atheist who sanitizes those he regards as "civilized" and through hasty generalizations, demonizes those he considers to be uncivilized, spewing divisive hatred, all while promoting an idea of a certain type of "secular spirituality" as an integral part of knowledge.

The word religion is derived from the Latin word religare which translates as "to connect, to bind together". Interconnectedness is an essential precept in all spiritual traditions. I can not imagine a spiritual system that is established on the idea of disconnectedness. On the other hand, history has proven that all religious orthodoxies show a tendency to disconnect themselves from other traditions, corrupting their own message. They develop and nurture a disdain for those who are not like themselves. They shroud themselves in their own sense of supremacy while drawing a caricature of the followers and the message of other religions; It's called bigotry.

Truly, there are a "mother-lode of bad ideas" out there. And, one of them is a secular spirituality modeled after the same plague that corrupts institutionalized orthodox religions.