atheist

[Robin Hamilton]

From: "Seán Fitzpatrick" <grendel.jjf at VERIZON.NET>

> As a counter-example, is there a school or tradition or example of atheism
> that denies the existence of superior non-material powers but does not
> exclude a spirit realm?

Possibly the idea of the numinous as developed from the original formulation
by Rudolph Otto in _The Idea of the Holy_ (1917; English translation 1923).

One definition (sic!) of this would be the area of exploration of the nature
of religious experience without a necessary appeal to the existence of a
transcendent deity.

>From WIKI on 'Numinous':

"The idea is not necessarily a religious one: noted atheists Carl Sagan,
Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have
discussed the importance of separating the numinous from the supernatural."

Robin Hamilton

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org