Reverence and spiritual journeys and empathy are I think connected. Through pleasure.
A spiritual journey can seem to be all in one's head, like an LSD trip or like a dream yet have positive results and benefits. It can refer to other things, too, like personal growth or hard work etc; but lets focus on the first one: the pleasure as a spiritual journey.
Yes people can mistake a drug trip for something spiritual, but it can be spiritual! Pleasure can function somewhat like ketamine therapy, bringing a person into a place of peace that allows them to release emotional knots that have caused them problems. Perhaps it opens their minds to solve problems, too. They can change in hours and live differently ever after, or so the internet claims. I'm going mostly on what I've seen and read, although I did once have a kind of supernatural experience. It was pleasurable, brief, somewhat confusing. To me it makes sense though that ketamine therapy or other pleasure might give people progress.
More than one person has told me that they solved problems in their dreams. They used it as a trick to get through classes! They'd focus on the problem just before bed, and when they woke up they'd have solved it. That's a spiritual journey I'd like to have.
If someone lacks empathy its not fatal, but it is regrettable. They may not feel what people expect them to feel which creates a communication problem for them. There are benefits to society which come from such gifts sprinkled into the population, but in a way it makes someone a sacrifice for the good of others. I think its asking too much of a person, so I would have everyone be empathic. Take as an example poor old Sherlock Holmes the fictional character. He lacks empathy sometimes and suffers for it. He's not completely without it, but he doesn't feel comfort from being around people. Even so his suffering drives him to be very productive which benefits society -- just not him. He's comfortable enough and makes a good living, but I don't think its an equal trade. This impedes pleasure, so it impedes the kind of spiritual journey I'm talking about.
Have you heard of the woman born without any amygdala in her brain? She has no capacity for fear at all, yet she manages to avoid dangerous situations. She doesn't take stupid risks. Lacking empathy would not by itself mean we ought exclude a being from humanity. No, however if humans generally lacked empathy then I think humanity would cease. We would lose something cohesive and spiritual (pleasurable).
Am I nihilist? No. No, but I see how pleasure and spirituality seem related. For some people the pleasure comes from appreciating what you have and learning to do so. That is their spiritual journey, and it can be very effective. That is actually the focus of many spiritual exercises -- learning to be pleased by existing.
