I believe deity is like clay. Without an individual person's vision of what that clay is supposed to look like and how it is supposed to behave, it is just a mass of potential. We can imbue that clay with a face and a name and a personality, but when not formed, it reverts back into an amorphous state. My lump of clay is the same as your lump of clay. I still believe there is benefit in choosing a specific deity for specific needs. It's just calling forth a more focused, defined aspect of deity to fill the need.
All of the polytheistic religions I know of have an ultimate god/dess. The other deities below them are often described as their children, or are given god-like status by the ruling deity. The parent deity is a specific pantheon's lump of clay, given form. The deities below the parent deity are like a chunk of that clay given it's own specific form.
In my opinion, all religions are in a way polytheistic. In Christianity, God is the ruling deity, and Jesus is an aspect of God. There are plenty of references to that in the Bible, I believe. For the sects of Christianity that believe in patron saints, those Saints are like a specific container to help focus the worshiper's vision of God, and explain to Him their need. In another example, Buddhists have different forms or faces they put on Buddha, to express different things. Buddha is not considered a god, but is an aspect of the clay they believe in. Nirvana is their clay. Their minor deities are viewed, not as gods, but as ideas and symbols.
Even Atheists are right. They just see their lump of clay purely in scientific forms.
Often, religions say that deity is in all of us. Christians believe God is always in their heart. Pagans believe we are all gods and goddesses in our own right. These ideas seem completely opposite, but to me, it's just different ways of looking at the same thing. The spiritual clay that becomes deity is out there, available to all of us. It is in us and around us, just waiting for us to call upon it. That is how God is in our hearts. We are all gods and goddesses in our own right, because we all see deity in our own way, even when we are calling it by the same name. Gods wouldn't exist without us to envision them. We think, therefor, we are.
The only time I will ever say that someone is wrong in regards to their religion is when they say someone else's religion is wrong. Even if that is supposedly part of the teachings of their religion, I think it is a perversion. The belief that one's religion is the only true religion is a human idea formed by fear of doubt, and alpha-humans' need to conquer. I believe that the current interpretations of religious texts saying a god demands that all people believe religion in their way or no way, is a gross misunderstanding. The admonitions to share one's religion with the world are meant to spread peace. It's meant to give people who have no religion and WANT or NEED a religion answers and comfort. It's not meant to rip away a religion already in place in a person's heart, and replace it with another.
The spiritual lump of clay doesn't want us fighting in it's name. It doesn't really WANT anything, except to be what we need it to be. I think maybe it doesn't even want the anger and hate, but because it's nature is to become what we see it, it has no choice. To me, this is why, in the end, good triumphs over evil.
So, in a way, my religion is every religion. It's not Agnosticism. I definitely believe in deity. I just believe that we are all right.
You make a lot of very good points. I especially like the one where you point out that Pagan inner-theism and Christian omnipotent theism are 2 interpretations of the same understanding. Though... it makes me wonder about the godless; such as myself. Would my clay be Mass times the cosmological constant squared? I studied theology all through my early 20s and found that all the religious pray to one entity with many names. But I never quite understood a non-objective view of religion so I couldn't really grasp a non-subjective view of my own beliefs and incorporate "us" into the realm of mystics and physics. I do have a feeling that the 2 sides of the coin coincide (theists and atheists) but I guess I can't really see outside my box. Perhaps I get the same gratification and placement from the findings of math? Or perhaps God is energy. So the formula is actually G = MC² and my omnipotent being is just particles being thrown about by forces they create with their impression in space-time. Although probable... that would be kind of gay in a sense.
ReplyDeleteYour clay is the same as my clay :) And yes, your God is energy. It is science. It is math. It is everything. You may not have a need or a vision of the spiritual lump of clay, in the form of a god. Atheists are content to believe in scientifically proven theory, and anything left unproven either will be proven in time, or disproven.
ReplyDeleteEverything is energy. That is a basic scientific fact. When an atom is fused or destroyed, energy is released. That energy is shrapnel.
The Atheist view that death is the end, and that there is nothing after is as true as that there is Heaven or Nirvana or the Summerland. Your body lets go of the soul. The body decays, returning to it's basic physical elements, circle of life, lalala. Our souls are comprised of energy, so when we die, the energy is dispersed back into free floating energy (unless you become a ghost, but it's too late at the moment for me to go into that topic. maybe tomorrow.) As free floating energy, yes,, we again meet up with our loved ones, because our loved ones are also part of the free floating energy. We find ourselves in a place of perfect happiness and peace, because we are no longer bound by material need or human emotion. We face reincarnation, because energy is needed to form a new soul. It may not all be the same particles of energy over and over. It could be a blend of energy from multiple previous souls. Once dispersed, that energy no longer "needs" to remain part of a whole.
I believe that distilled down to it's most basic parts, everything is energy. Magick is just mind over matter, or in my view, mind over energy. There is the energy that has been given form an purpose, such as the energy that has coalesced into atoms>elements>objects, the energy that has been harnessed into the power that is used for our electrical appliances, and free floating energy, that has not been anchored. Most magick involves impressing upon this free floating energy the desire for a particular outcome. Success depends upon the strength of will of the caster.
But. again, it is very late, and my view on this is also very detailed. So I will save that discussion for a later time, also.