Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Raymo , Chet (2008-09), When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist, Sorin Books, Retrieved on 2011-05-29
Folksonomies: spiritual naturalism naturalism Memes
29 MAY 2011
The Golden Mean is the Secret
The golden mean is the secret of tolerance, of modesty, of a healthy skepticism-of knowing that every dogmatic definition of God is a pale intimation of the truth and, inevitably it seems, an excuse for jihad, pogrom, or crusade.Every definition of God is "a pale intimation of the truth"
29 MAY 2011
Truth with a Capital T
Like most scientists, I don't claim Truth with a capital T, but I am convinced that the manifest successes of science are a sure sign we are doing something right.Folksonomies: truth
Folksonomies: truth
Scientists don't claim to have it.
29 MAY 2011
Recognition of Ignorance is a Prerequisite for Science
Only when a few curious people said "I don't know" did science begin. Recognition of our ignorance is a prerequisite of scientific discovery.Folksonomies: scientific discovery ignorance
Folksonomies: scientific discovery ignorance
We have to acknowledge that we don't know.
29 MAY 2011
Self-Awareness is Not the Self
Is self-awareness what constitutes a self? Self-awareness can be altered by psychoactive drugs, electrical stimulation, political or religious propaganda, even advertising.Folksonomies: consciousness identity
Folksonomies: consciousness identity
Self-awareness is too easily influenced.
29 MAY 2011
Why "Spiritual Naturalism"?
Our response to the natural world is one of reverence and humility in the face of a mystery that transcends empirical knowing-now, certainly, and perhaps forever. "Agnostic" does not do justice to the celebratory aspect of our position. Nor does "pantheist" adequately express our sense of what nature hides. "Creation-based spirituality" has a respectable pedigree, although "creation" hints at an anthropomorphic Creator. "Religious naturalism" gets close to the mark.Because atheism and agnosticism don't convey they joy we take in the natural world.
29 MAY 2011
Spiritual Naturalist Definition of God
So this is my Credo. I am an atheist, if by God one means a transcendent Person who acts willfully within the creation. I am an agnostic in that I believe our knowledge of "what is" is partial and tentative-a tiny flickering flame in the overwhelming shadows of our ignorance. I am a pantheist in that I believe empirical knowledge of the sensate world is the surest revelation of whatever is worth being called divine. I am a Catholic by accident of birth.Not a personification, but a nebulous concept meant to be explored.
29 MAY 2011
The Personhood Associated with the Word "God"
In his Spiritual Exercises, the Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis writes: We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence. But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir the heart profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch, body with...While deists and others use it to mean a spiritual force, the word is so infused with the idea of a consciousness similar to human beings that it seems irretrievably corrupted for use by spiritual naturalists.
29 MAY 2011
Science Works Better than Religion
Religion, magic, science: All assume a reality behind the commonplace that gives meaning and structure to the world, and which might somehow be made to work for our benefit. Thus we have offered prayers, incense, and sacrifice to the gods, cast magical spells and incantations, or built, for example, colossally expensive particle accelerators to probe the inner secrets of atoms and the first moments of the ultra-hot big bang. To what effect? As for prayer, the gods have been dramatically nonf...If we think of the particle accelerators, NASA, Universities, and other buildings, then cathedrals to science outnumber those to religion, and that is because science produces results.