Atheists, Choose a Religion!

[caroljane]

I would tend to "go through the motions" Church of England whch was (is?) relaxed on attendance and dogmatism.

Mainly, the Anglican hymns are rousingly superb, and I would belt them out with enthusiasm.

UU, according to William and Rich, sounds interesting and maybe second choice.

Tony

Yes! From Peter Abelard to Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf, orchestrated by the greatest composers who ever lived, the hymns are enough to make you believe that God is indeed an Englishman.

It was in church that I learned to love language: "Crown him the lord of years, the potentate of time, creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime!" The orotund phrases with the triumphant music were incredibly satisfying.

Welcome to the parish - with Xray and WSS we can fill up a whole pew. No God required.

Just watch out for the lightning strikes!

Adam, LOL.

The church has a top-of-the-line lightning rod in the steeple which has never yet failed.

But to be on the safe side I don't think we dare invite George H. Smith, however well grounded he and his arguments are.

[Xray]

So here is a thought experiment. If you had to be reborn within a particular religion and had to continue to follow that religion until the day you die, which would you choose and why?

I'm an agnostic currently leaning more toward the atheistic side of the fence but suppose agnostics can take part in your interesting thought experiment too, Joel.

I would choose Pantentheism as a variant of Pantheism. I have always found appealing the idea of everything being connected with everything in some way, and could relate to the idea of divine energy pervading everything in the universe, which would make us part of the divine energy as well.

ms Xray:

Panentheism is what you meant which is quite interesting.

Similar to Siddhartha in terms of the stream of life concept? Wherein, Hesse has the main character achieving "...transcendence when he can accept that all is false and true at the same time, that all is living and dead at the same moment, and that all possibilities are united in the spirit of the universe."

Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy

"'Panentheism' is a constructed word composed of the English equivalents of the Greek terms “pan”, meaning all, “en”, meaning in, and “theism”, meaning God. Panentheism understands God and the world to be inter-related with the world being in God and God being in the world. It offers an increasingly popular alternative to traditional theism and pantheism. Panentheism seeks to avoid both isolating God from the world as traditional theism often does and identifying God with the world as pantheism does. Traditional theistic systems emphasize the difference between God and the world while panentheism stresses God's active presence in the world. Pantheism emphasizes God's presence in the world but panentheism maintains the identity and significance of the non-divine. Anticipations of panentheistic understandings of God have occurred in both philosophical and theological writings throughout history (Hartshorne and Reese 1953; Cooper, 2006). However, a rich diversity of panentheistic understandings has developed in the past two centuries primarily in Christian traditions responding to scientific thought (Clayton and Peacocke 2004)."

Is this what you were referring to?

Adam

Yes.

[Xray]

I had better show solidarity with my fellow Canuckistani and be a godless Anglican.

I had been a godless (or at least heavily doubting) Catholic for many years before I finally decided to leave.

I vividly recall the doubt I had at age nine when I just refused to believe that our priest Mr. R. could erase my "sins" by mumbling "Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis" in the confessional.

"No", I thought, "Impossible. Mr. R. cannot do that." I had never been a very gullible child, but here I was absolutely certain.

From then on I built up an inner distance to the Catholic church and it was this distance which later helped me to survive seven years of continuous Catholic indoctrination I received in the nuns' school I attended from ages 10 to 17.

I can sit through a lot of shit if I know at least one of my co-congregants secretly harbours disbelief. Would you please consider joining us there in the next life? I am sure we could have a lot of fun.

I'm sure of that as well.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Xray