The Universal Need for Spirituality

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I think of religion as what happens when spirituality gets sort of honed into something very mimetically powerful. I suspect that if you took a hundred modern atheists and put them in the woods and had them like rebuild civilization that sort of some new spirituality would eventually arise. Yeah, me too. I have no desire at all to be spiritual. But I often joke that I'm religious but not spiritual because I enjoy going to Zoroastrianism for its historical and cultural association with my family. Nevertheless, I would push that button. If I could push a button and there would be no more belief in God or gods that would just not be a thing that humans do ever again.

When is a certain speech act an opinion versus a call to action? Does that distinction matter for censorship purposes? Why does it seem that human behavior tends towards censorship rather than towards freedom of expression? Is feeling emotionally or politically harmed a valid reason for censoring certain speech acts? Will it always be the case that, given enough time, truth will win out over ignorance, bullshit, misinformation, and lies? What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for creating a society in which truth wins at the end of the day? Why are citizens so often attracted to populist and/or fascist ideologies and political parties? What value does religion provide to a society?

Iona Italia is the editor-in-chief of Areo Magazine and the host of its Two for Tea podcast. Iona is the author of two books: Anxious Employment (a study of eighteenth-century essayists) and Our Tango World (sociological and philosophical musings on dance and life). She holds a PhD in English Literature from Cambridge University and publishes weekly creative non-fiction pieces on her Substack, The Second Swim. Her background includes a decade in academe and a 12-year career as a tango dancer and teacher. Iona lives in London with four old friends. She loves dancing, running, choral singing, chess, dogs, and sci-fi.

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