Friday, November 18, 2016

Basic Definitions by Don Murray - A Conversation Starter for Maritime Progressives

God – The great Mystery that can never be adequately named.

God – the big-guy in the sky who is in control of everything and just might be out to get you.

Theism – belief in the big-guy God

Atheism – Not believing in the big-guy God. Often confused with not believing in any sort ot God.

A-theism – Very specifically not believing in the big-guy version of God.

Non-theism – Not as easily misunderstood as “atheism”.

Pantheism – God is everything, the whole universe.

Panentheism – God is within everything.

Polytheism – There are many gods.

Humanism – Human values are the foundation of life, not engendered or supported by anything beyond the human.

Religion – (original meaning) a system of beliefs, rituals and practices that enable us to connect and commune with God, the Ultimate Mystery.

Religion – (contemporary) An outdated set of dogmas and practices that fails to speak to our souls. 

Spirituality – An innate desire to commune with something beyond and grander than ourselves; God, the Ultimate Mystery.  

Mysticism – The feeling of intimate communion with or oneness with God, the Ultimate Mystery.

Fundamentalism – My beliefs are right, and yours are wrong; no questions asked.

Fundamentalism – can be religious, scientific, political and most anything.

The Material Universe – The body of God (Sallie McFague). About the same as panentheism. 

The psychic/spiritual Universe – the mind and heart of the Mystery that is real and alive and finds expression in each of us, if we are paying attention.

Energy -- The basic stuff of the material universe, the psychic/spiritual universe, thought, life, everything that exists. There is nothing that is not an expression of energy.

Energy = God – The scientist calls it energy, the theologian calls it God.. 

Psyche – our inner self which is part of the universal Self. The voice, our awareness of our inner being, is the voice of the Mystery of the universe urging us to be what is in us to be.

Evolution – The continuous development and growth from all that has gone before, starting with the Big Bang.

The Big Bang – The popular name for the minuscule drop of energy from which the universe and all that is evolved: itself a mystery.
  
Consciousness – the energy of the universe that is life and awareness (Eve’s knowledge of good and evil) within us pushing us to grow and become our own unique selves.

The nature of energy is to push toward consciousness.

Carl Jung – the Universe is itself in the process of growing in consciousness.

Carl Jung –  our consciousness enables the consciousness of the Universe to evolve. 

Carl Jung – The journey and goal of life is to become conscious, mature, fully human.

Jesus is an excellent model, even if he is only human and not God.

Jesus partakes in the divine, even as we all do – he being a big step ahead of most of us.

The Universe Story – everything, including humanity, has evolved from the Big Bang through 13.7 billion years. “You are a child of the Universe”. It is the universal, all uniting, story incorporating all others. “We were stardust, now we sing operas.” (Drew Dellinger. Need to check the quote.)

1 comment:

  1. Much food for thought and even some for laughter! Thank-you, Annika.

    ReplyDelete

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