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Spirituality: The Age of Aquarium
2007-11-04 01:45:00
The Age of Aquarium Schools of Fish and ThoughtThe theists prayed and said “Amen,” while atheists said “Ahem . . .”“There’s no such thing, you silly goofs; you haven’t any proof.”Panentheists sought elbow room, they tried to wriggle in.That en’s a tricky syllable; it splices God’s hair thin.“How do you know?” agnostic said, referring to the “en.”“I see your point – and his, and hers – yet don’t know“Which to choose.” “Wait, I know,” Ag’s friend piped up, “Try starting“Your own school. Decide it’s all a paradox; become a panagnostic.”Meanwhile, the atmosphere and seaContinually grew hotter. A school of fish went belly up;They never even muttered. A school of fish up-belly wentAnd not a word was uttered.The nameless One did scratch his head, non-literally befuddled.“What’s up with this?” God asked himself, “Creation’s gotten“Muddled. These chat a lot and don’t do much; those never were my“Wishes. Next time I’m in t...
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God-Fearing Atheists? Part II
2007-10-30 19:27:00
More Problems with Atheism as a Purported School of Thought2. Scientism: An understanding of the scientific method – the recognition of science’s strengths, coupled with awareness of its limitations – is something shared by clear-thinking human beings, whether religious or atheistic. Scientism, in contrast, is the window dressing that atheism uses when it tries to present itself as a school of thought rather than the simple and tenable rejection of the idea of God. Scientism includes notions like reductionism and the idea that anything that science can’t address is necessarily unreal or less important than those topics that it’s well equipped to study.3. Reactivity and Negativity: Reading atheist writings, at least on the blogs, one could easily come away with the impression that the only institutions on the planet that contain elements of corruption are religious ones. Religion is the source of all evil. If only religion didn’t exist, God would be in his heaven and all ...
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God-Fearing Atheists? Part I
2007-10-27 21:00:00
Disclaimer: I’m no expert on this topic; my impressions come mainly from reading atheist blogs from time to time. I’m open to being educated/corrected. Also, to atheists who may be reading: please note that my intention here is to be thought-provoking, not antagonistic. See, for example, the previous post where I’ve done something similar with theism and pantheism. Note also that in what follows, I distinguish atheism as the simple and understandable disbelief in God from atheism as a kind of members club posing as a School of Thought.Having an Attitude: William James describes religion in its broadest terms as a person’s “attitude toward life as a whole.” Atheism isn’t nearly that comprehensive; it isn’t religion’s opposite or an alternative to religion. An atheist can be a misanthrope, a Buddhist, a secular humanist, or someone who’s in despair because he’d like to be a theist but finds it impossible to believe in God. Atheism isn’t a cohesive school of tho...
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God Problems
2007-10-24 01:02:00
As excerpted from a comment by Hazzbuzz a couple posts back:“How can you feel more connected to God or more isolated from God if God is nature and nothing more . . . ? Wouldn't . . . it mean doing whatever comes naturally even if that was hitting your neighbour over the head with a large stick? . . .“I'm still not sure about morality but there is something empty about looking at it that way which doesn't quite fit with my experience . . ."Pantheistic Problems Morality: Others have made similar comments now and then that lead me to think they may view pantheism as problematic in the same sense that Hazzbuzz does. The problem is that nature isn’t moral. The perception is that theism is required to make moral sense of life.Faith: A second problem people often have with pantheism is the idea that nature doesn’t justify faith. Mortality is the central issue; many see the only resolution to the problem of mortality as a supernatural God that brings the dead back to life.Personho...

Spirit of Kermit the Frog
2007-10-21 05:04:00
What follows came to me in a dream last night. Kermit told me that this is his final and yet strangely non-definitive version of the famous ballad. I do not know if my experience or the automatic writing that followed were natural or supernatural. Perhaps they were just sort of unnatural.It’s Not Easy Being BeingIt's not that easy being beingHaving to blend each day with other kinds of thingsWhen I think I might prefer being ontologically distinctOr something multisyllabled like that.It's not easy being beingIt seems you blend with Cheney-Bush and such depressing thingsAnd people tend to pass you over 'cause you'reNot standing out like flashy quarks or supernovaOr graham cracker pies.But being's the color of springAnd it can be so totally not springAnd being can be big like an ocean or confusingLike trigonometry or stuff like that.When being is all there is to beWhy, it could make you wonder why not meAnd pantheism, or if panentheism might not doBut I was raised a theist and ...
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Is Your God Organic or Supernatural?
2007-10-17 04:13:00
How do we distinguish the supernatural from the natural?To know that an event or presence was supernatural would seem to require that we know all there is to know about nature. Otherwise, however unusual the experience was, how could we be certain that it was not a rare natural occurrence? Perhaps bleeding statues, miracle cures, communications from the dead, and so forth, don’t exist in defiance of nature’s laws, but express footnotes and exception clauses.Going from minor supernatural events and entities to the major one: what about God? Let’s emphasize the possibility of a completely supernatural deity by viewing God as the radically Other creator of creation and not as a divine principle or animating energy.Wouldn’t the Entity that generated all creation be intimately connected to it? What would make such a God supernatural rather than the supremely vital Force of Nature?
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Spiritual Split Personality
2007-10-14 00:20:00
Less Can Be MoreThe material in the previous post was edited out from the manuscript for Original Faith; in the discussion thread, Pauline asked why I removed it.To me, an interesting aspect of writing the book was that in the end, I found myself deciding to omit quite a bit of material that I thought was fairly good and at times very good. At some point in refining and organizing my drafts, the following criterion emerged for whether to include material:Does it contribute to developing the book’s message? Does it contribute to the flow of the whole?If not – if, say, it was a redundant idea despite being expressed well, or well written and yet somewhat off topic, or personally meaningful but not really such a great illustration or example of a particular point – then I found that such material detracted from the impact of the book as a whole. It bogged it down.Running on EmptyAlso in the previous post’s thread, this from Lady Luxie: "How can I disappear to emerge nothing but...
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