TomboyMom

Talking to lots of friends about religion lately. Several, when questioned about their belief in God, have said things like, "I believe in something greater than myself." Extremely vague. One said she believed in something greater than herself which she does not believe is responsible for creating the universe, and her reason was that something helped her get sober. (She is active in her reconstructionist synagogue. ) Another said she did not believe in God until she went through some very hard times, and something greater than herself led her out of that and into the good place she is in now. Seems like people can give up on Chrisitianity, but not on the vague concept of a divine being that has an interest in their well being.

What do you think about this kind of theism?

Rene

Infidelettante

TomboyMom, what works is true.
JT

fried beef sandwich

Well, it's no surprise that people adopt various attitudes and beliefs to help them through hard times, even if said attitudes and beliefs are not logically justifiable or very well thought-out.

I suppose the way it could happen is: A previously untapped source of inner strength can be experienced in a "religiously divine" way, so to speak, and then conflated with the idea of a vague being or existent force manifesting itself in one's life.

Sounds fine to me as long as they don't oppress others on the basis of not being like-minded. Those are my initial thoughts on the matter.

btw, what's a reconstructionist synagogue?

emotional

I thought New Age was pantheism.

cydonia

I went through this myself. It didn't become vague for a while however, whatever new age book I would be reading at the time made it specific enough that I could explain to people how they were really living in an illusion, they were one with the universe etc. Think Deepak Chopra, Religious Science. Anything that made me feel good became true, as long as it wasn't the christian god I was terrified of.

The probelem is once you start finding holes in christianity, pretty soon you'll be finding holes in the beliefs that replaced them. Then you're in danger of losing that supernatural/spiritual band-aid.

For myself, I wasn't ready to give up that band-aid. So my beliefs became more generic, allowing me to believe in something outside of myself and still feel like I was being rational.

But now I'm here.

(I should add, though, even though my beliefs became more vague, I took them very seriously. That was one of the paradoxes that drew me closer to agnosticism. I was never "Oh the universe is like totally beautiful there's like this energy or something that's in the planets and I'm a Capricorn" I think people that are that superficial really don't think about their beliefs.)

Viti

I went to vague place as a step on my road to atheism. I knew organized religions were full of shit but couldn't let go of "something" right away.

Luiseach

I think it could be one of the steps towards a full acceptance of the non-existence of the supernatural. An intermediate stage, perhaps.

markfiend

Most new-agers (sew-agers) I have met claim to worship a goddess. Who looks to me awfully like Jehovah in a dress.

sakrilege

When I was deconverting, I went through a stage where I wanted god to exist so that I wouldn't feel alone and to have something that knew what was going on. When I did let go the god concept, for awhile I felt overwhelmed by being alone in the vast universe, kind of like being on a plane and the pilot dies and noone else knows anything about flying. This may be why some people cling to a 'higher power' IMO.

Diadectes

Emotional, how do you define pantheism?

While I am sure there are some so-called 'New Agers' who have adopted some of the tenets of pantheism, panthesim itself is not 'New Age'.