Green Oasis

Can atheists be spiritual? I hope that after reading further you will be able to answer this apparently oxymoronic question with a comfortable “YES”.

The latest Humanist Symposium led me to a beautiful article answering the question can atheists be spiritual?. It expresses a lot of my own thoughts and feelings. It brightened my day.

I wish there was a better word for it, but the last year or so has been a time of increased spirituality and openness for me.

This spinning silhouette optical illusion is pretty funky. Check it out first, then come back. I’ll wait.

…

For me, she spun clockwise first. I wonder if this depends on a person’s handedness. I tried really hard to get her to change directions by convincing myself that the outstretched arm was her left. I couldn’t get my mind to make the flip that way. She stubbornly insisted on spinning clockwise.

I changed her direction by staring at the shadow of her foot. I have to really focus on the shadow without allowing my peripheral awareness to see the black silhouette. All of a sudden, she’s spinning the opposite direction!

Her apparent direction of spin has some persistence. I can look away for about five seconds and she’s still spinning counter-clockwise when I look back. Too much longer and she goes back to clockwise rotation.

Sometimes her movement stutters back and forth as my mind struggles to reconcile her ambiguity.

Fun.