Jokes and Humor

Spiritual practices often involve beliefs about the world that might not be compatible with scientific rationalism, and that's a valid criticism, but I think it's a mistake to only consider them as epistemological perspectives. The value of that stuff is for people to have tools for organizing meaning in their lives, conceptual foundations for community, culture, art, etc. I'm an atheist and have many of the usual atheist objections to religious beliefs, but spiritual feelings and experiences are valid and can be considered as distinct from questions about what is reality and how to accomplish goals, and I can respect people who are trying to explore those things.