That was very well said.  To inspire and aspire towards the alpha in mankind.  The exaltation of the nobility of achievement and self worth is a highly spiritual endeavour!

As Objectivists we recognize that we, as humans, have what can be described as “spiritual” needs. Rand spoke of the spiritual as “pertaining to man’s consciousness.” Spirituality pertains to our apprehension, appreciation, and experience of value and meaning in our own lives. In Secular Spirituality I offer one perspective:

the source of the sacred and the spiritual are in each and every one of us. Our self-reflective, creative capacity is the nature and source of the human spirit—of those things that arise from our unique form of consciousness. We are the creators, the motive force, the prime movers of our own moral characters, of our own knowledge, of our own world. And it is in the exercise of our most human capacities that we can find the sacred and the spiritual.

I attempted to offer a particular example of this perspective in my piece The Spiritual Significance of Mars.

Since the spirituality that will fulfill us is so individualistic, organized Objectivism has tended to leave its pursuit to individuals. But Objectivists also should recognize that one aspect of the spiritual is to be inspired by the vision of flourishing as an individual in a culture based on Enlightenment values, populated by other individuals who hold such values in their minds, hearts, and moral senses. As I’ve often said, in a society in which we each pursue our own rational self-interest, we will be enriched, entertained, educated, enlightened, and inspired by our fellows. We will long to live in such a world. If organized Objectivism can project that vision, then we’ll have a chance in the future of winning the world for and with our values.

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com...

I guess he's another White Hispanic like George Zimmerman.

But still, organised Objectivism cannot accommodate folks' spiritual requirements, or even acknowledge it has a problem in that regard, let alone a problem that could be couched in that way.

This is your whole credo summed up in one sentence. And its right.

Lindsay says:

"...organised Objectivism cannot accommodate folks' spiritual requirements, or even acknowledge it has a problem in that regard, let alone a problem that could be couched in that way."

I think this is exactly right. The Objectivist philosophy, or some similar ones, needs to be developed and expanded further to provide people with a deeper and stronger sense of spirituality, and to give the individual a greater meaning and purpose to his life. This is difficult to do, very likely, but it's properly one of the jobs of philosophy, and people truly need this. A rational thought-system should be able to do these things far better than a necessarily irrational, nonsensical, immoral, religious one.

... just ousted one pope, who wrote the manual on protecting kiddie-fiddler priests, under odd circumstances. What was about to be exposed, I wonder? Will it still be?

But still, organised Objectivism cannot accommodate folks' spiritual requirements, or even acknowledge it has a problem in that regard, let alone a problem that could be couched in that way.

..but when? I couldn't believe the radio minutes given to this smoke out the chimney business, and the afterthoughts that, as it took only a day or so, there must have been only one or two likely non-paedophile cardinals to choose between. A disgusting, ridiculous spectacle. (I must read that Catholicism vs Objectivism thread again to reconsider Lindsay's proposition that the paedos get their marketing right compared with O-ism.)