Friday, May 15, 2009

the mystical paths article: focus on theism

Here is the core idea:

"what is it that G-d wants from us at these frantic times? It is not our deeply concentrated prayers, nor is it our lofty and detached meditations. He wants one thing most of all. He wants a happy baby and a relaxed new mother. This means a clean and well-fed baby and it means changing the baby’s diaper. This has now become the most holy work we can do. This is what we do to fulfill G-d’s wishes. He wants a happy wife and a clean, orderly home. He wants a happy family and, yes, even a happy daddy, too."

This got me thinking that someone who does believe, a theist, is not living in a world of transcendent feelings of universal connectedness 24/7. He or she may not even have some special "spiritual" feeling most of the day. Maybe it's much more mundane than that. Theism is like a background operating assumption. It's a way of putting life activities in an overall framework. It's participating in cultural group rituals. It is, yes, having some types of beliefs, but those are in the back of the mind and do not require constant reinforcement through emotional connections. I think that theism can even operate without much "belief," if that makes sense.

That still doesn't put me over the tipping point. I'm still in my atheist mindset, but I can see that theism may not differ as much as I thought previously. theists do these things, ancient rituals, and have a anthropomorphic worldview and a view of a "living" universe under a central intelligence existing outside space and time. But, other than that, we're almost the same!

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