Spiritual Atheists and Thinking Believers

Over at Salon, physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, is participating in an interesting discussion about religion and science. His latest is worth a look:

...we should continue to oppose those practices of religion that do damage, we should continue to oppose irrational thinking on issues that require rational thinking and evidence. But, at the same time, I would argue that we should allow our existence to encompass some things that we cannot explain by rational argument and proof. We live in a highly polarized society. We need to try to understand each other in respectful ways. To that end, I believe that we should make room for both spiritual atheists and thinking believers.

I would agree. Even though I oppose the irrational and harmful aspects of organized religion (and they are legion!), I also think I can benefit from the teachings and experiences of thoughtful and thinking believers, especially when I can define spiritual in as wide and expansive a manner as possible. In fact, I think this division between believer and atheist is harmful and unnecessary. To me, the spiritual and the material are simply different ways of looking at the same thing, and, in the final analysis, are merely artificial terms which try (inadequately) to describe the same thing.