| | When major media interprets "higher power" as belief in a specific basically anthropomorphized monotheistic God, I think of how definitions may differ. Divine Universal and other forces, internal and/or external, that allow patterns to exist, come into creation, change, play, and cease. It's in the stars, the dark matter, our galaxies and planets; it's within us -- the Divine is both immanent (internal) and transcendent (external). Divine is best perceived from a pluralistic and multidisciplinary approach rather than a proprietary one (the same thing is true of virtues/ethics, they're not proprietary either). Deity Strong patterns and metapatterns (anthropomorphized or not) both immanent and transcendent. Forces of nature, various other phenomena, people, archetypes, various dynamics, and anthropomorphized Gods and Goddesses can all be considered Deities. Worship To honor to the worth of _____. This is not about groveling before some God in some cosmic hierarchy. Worship is often reciprocal in nature and suitable for power metaparadigm of mutual courtesy and respect (aka Equality). Doing wrong in the name of any God/ideology is nothing more than rationalized wrong, it's still not okay, and it's one's duty to imagine a better choice of action. An individual should, without eclipsing the primacy of ethics and virtues, be quite capable of navigating emotional, intellectual, political, sexual, religious, spiritual, and other landscapes. Validity -- Many Paths Go Up the Hill - Multiple paths/religions are valid.
- Orthopraxy (correct practice including but not limited to ritual, ethics, virtues, and the arts and disciplines of hospitality, equality, and robust pluralism) individuals may practice more than one path/religion (as long as one does not forbid the other) may allow individuals may work with Gods from more than one pantheon
- Much of religion's landscape is not be covered by hard vs. soft polytheism dichotomized arguments (the camps may have their wisdoms but the dichotomy doesn't cover much of the territory).
- The important thing is to know oneself and one's system and live it in a functional honorable ethical way that brings out the best in ourselves and hopefully others.
So those are a few of my definitions as an eclectic non-Monist (everything is not one being) Panentheist (Deities are everywhere) Pantheist (the physical world is Divine) Polytheist (there is more than one Deity) egalitarian involved in orthopraxy (correct practice). |
| | Posted 6/24/2008 7:02 PM - 40 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
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