Spirituality in the Wilderness

Many people gain a sense of spirituality and have spiritual experiences through nature and in particular in wilderness environments. Natural vistas such as mountain tops or views of the ocean seem to have a special resonance for many people. These are places where the scale of nature is apparent.

This notion of nature as a place of spiritual experience is found in pantheism, the notion that the universe is one being of which we are all part. This is also a theme of many Deists, who believe in a created universe but not in a personal God. A third group, Panentheists, see God as within all aspects of the universe but also transcending the universe.

It is within nature that many Atheists most strongly feel a sense of spirituality. For many Atheists the universe and its workings are worthy of awe and wonder without the need for supernatural beings. For some, the beauty and complexity of the universe is diminished by the supernatural. The supernatural simplifies and trivializes the vast scale of interactions that give rise to all of the complexity that the universe shows.