By Jonathan Jones

I’ve been thinking about my last column and wondering why billions of people have a belief in something even if it’s simply reading the stars in the paper each day yet I have no sense whatsoever of anything supernatural in origin. Sure, I attended church when younger but it was more to socialise over a coffee afterwards than to engage with anything spiritual.

I was chatting with a friend the other day about spirituality. He was saying that although he possesses a strong belief, spirituality for him was about connecting with something greater and doesn’t necessarily have to be about God. He said that when he hears a particular piece of music or sees the beauty of nature, for a split second he’s taken out of himself and experiences a oneness with everything. I mentioned that I do too. He said “then you’re spiritual, it’s as simple as that!” But is it?

In terms of belief, I refer to myself as agnostic. To theists, this is their chance to impose their views which often are along the lines of “I have the absolute truth and you will believe as I do or suffer the consequences.” To atheists, it’s someone who’s sitting on the fence and doesn’t have the courage to be one thing or the other. Biphobia anyone?

For me, it’s not that cut and dried. I neither believe nor disbelieve. There might very well be an underlying supernatural component to life, I personally have never sensed it in any form and without proof I’m not able to. Proof enough for me would be feeling that I’m not alone when calling aloud to whatever, I’d be perfectly happy with that.

I’ve met people who’ve said to me “of course I don’t believe in ghosts but I wouldn’t want to spend time in a haunted house” and seem to really baulk at the thought but why? If someone disbelieves then what’s the problem? If ghosts do not exist in these people’s minds then what harm is there in going to a place where they’re purported to be? Unless of course, people do believe but can’t bring themselves to admit it. I think a great many people try to apply logic to things which they believe cannot be and find that although that can help in very many cases, in some doubts will always remain.

I feel the most ’spiritual’ when I’m out in nature. There’s nothing I like better than sitting down on a bench someplace and just looking around. I love trees. I also love birdsong. All this activity is happening around us yet very few people stop long enough to appreciate it. I watch birds flying overhead and the various little animals scampering about, going about their day and no doubt, doing all the things which you and I do - looking for food, as well as tending and sheltering loved ones.

I may not have a belief in anything other than the natural evolving world but every now and then I find myself transcending the mundane and tapping into Something Greater than this world ordinarily reveals and that’s good enough for me. I don’t need reassurances of paradise after this life because I’ve got my very own idyll here, all around me all of the time. What more could I ask for than that?