From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Sep 22 2001 - 03:54:16 MDT
Mike Linksvayer <ml@gondwanaland.com> writes:
>
> Unfortunately, quite a few people seem to have found or rediscovered
> their belief in a god/higher power in the aftermath of this tragedy.
> I've been trying to find a label for people who have such a belief
> but don't believe in the mythology of any specific religion.
>
Actually, if anything, it knocked down a lot of my belief in such. Too
bad too as some of those beliefs might have been a comfort. But when
something really rough hits I need to be realist and the same time
I seek what grounding I can find. Too many religious people were
handing out too much snake oil that was neither effective in treating
the massive trauma of the people or of facing the problems squarely.
> "Non-creedal theist" or "non-denominational theist" might work,
> though I get the impression that [non]creedal and [non]denominational
> have fairly specific meanings among protestant christians.
> "Non-religious theist" or plain "theist" don't sound right either,
> as religiousness and theism appear to be synonyms.
Sigh. Buddhism is not the least bit theistic. Many branches of Hinduism
are either not theistic or panentheistic or see theism as just one way
people wrap up their ideas of perfection or of hope at some stages of their
development. Many Christians don't believe in a God that looks very
much at all like what many of us may have learned in Sunday School. And
I don't know where the place the cybergnostic among us.
- samantha
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