Theism Isn't the Only Way to Explore the Sacred

 The God of my understanding and experience is a presence and a power, not a person, not a potentate.  

Love at its most perfect; that’s God.

The field of unlimited possibilities; that’s God. 

What’s really real; that’s God.

 

Light and air, water and star dust, and echoes of the big bang all coming together as you and as me; that’s God.

 

The Substance and Fabric and Vitality of life; that’s God.

 

The indescribable More; that’s God.

All-in-all; that’s God.

 

Or rather, those are the ways that I experience, understand, and try to discuss the 

unnamable Something that must be pondered but can’t be dissected, 

 

That can be experienced intimately but never known completely, 

 

That requires awe but not submission, 

 

That inspires love and never cruelty, 

 

That is part of everything but cannot be limited by anything. 

 

And I call that, for lack of a better word, God...

 

We’ve been to the moon. The internet connects us instantly to people across geography and time zones. We transplant organs. We have nano robots that do medical procedures from inside bodies. We cloned a sheep. We fly in the air. Every day.

 

We can live underwater for big stretches of time. 

We synthesized insulin. We can help a lot of people live past 100.

 

There are over 700,000 humans alive right now who are more than 100 years old. There are more centenarians on the planet than there are people living in Denver.

 

We know that homo sapiens (that’s us) have been around for 200,000 years with hominin ancestors going back 5 million years or more (maybe 10).  

 

We live on a small planet in a modest solar system that is one of 400 billion solar systems in a galaxy that is one of 2 trillion galaxies in a vast and expanding universe that is at least 13.8 billion years old and might actually be eternal (always is but never began).

 

The old guy on a cloud passing judgement, pulling puppet strings, deciding when people die, granting favors to the deserving few – 

 

is a mental image we inherited from a world that thought earth was flat and at the center of the universe. 

 

For God to be relevant and real to us, we MUST liberate Her from the middle ages and recognize the divine as part of the fabric of the universe that we actually inhabit. 

 

So, if God isn’t a superhero, but is the air we breathe and the light we see by and the electricity in the room and the love we feel more deeply than we can describe…

 

then we can pray to that God because that God is always with us, exactly where we are; 

we are part of its vastness; it individuates as us. The universe explores and knows itself as us.

 

So, yes we pray. We turn within, because God is there; or we turn outward, because God is there, or we turn to the Great Teachers (like Jesus), because God is there, or we turn to the traditions, because God is there, 

 

or we turn to one another, because God is there. That’s how and why we pray, because there’s not a spot where God is not. 

 

We aren’t calling out across a great canyon, we’re tapping Love itself on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, can I have a hug?” 

The answer is always yes.

(excerpts from Nov. 17, 2024 homily at Sunshine Cathedral)

 - dw

God Beyond Theism (What Some of the Great Thinkers Have Said)

God

“Omnipresence, the All-Presence, the Presence that is always present! The Presence dwells everywhere even to the uttermost parts of the Universe, now and forever.  What is our name for Omnipresence – “The Presence that filleth all?” [Eph 1.23]. We love to speak of it as God…Infinite Mind, Source and Cause, Principle. It, in fact, makes but little difference what name we use; the vital matter is that we…live in the consciousness of It.” Nona Brooks (Divine Science pioneer, Short Lessons in Divine Science)

“God is not person, but principle.” Charles Fillmore (Co-Founder of the Unity Church, The Revealing Word)

“Each one of us is inseparably one with God, the source and substance of life and wisdom and every good.” Myrtle Fillmore (Co-Founder of the Unity Church, Healing Letters)

“In Divine Science the term ‘Omnipresence’ is used more than any other word, and it is really the foundation principle of all our work. Wherever we use the term Omnipresence, we mean to convey…the eternal fact of the all-inclusive, all-pervading, all-infilling, all-sustaining Life, which [humans have] pleased to call or name ‘God’, and of which [we are each] a part.” Daisy Baum (early Divine Science teacher, Studies in Divine Science)

“God is invisible energy which permeates all that is.” William Warch (author, The New Thought Christian)

“God: The First Cause, the Great I Am, the Unborn One, the Uncreated…the One and Only. Spirit, or the Creative Energy which is the cause of all visible things. Love, Wisdom, Intelligence, Power, Substance, Mind.” Ernest Holmes (author, The Science of Mind)

“[A]n eternally existing substance, uncreated and never-ceasing motion, infinite time and infinite space, are inseparably connected. Any particular substance, motion, interval or space must be part a great unitary whole which includes yet transcends them all…[T]here is one, and only one, eternal, omnipresent Reality, whence came all that ever existed, or ever will exist, which includes and is all that ever proceeds from it, the one, ultimate, all-embracing Cause…It is self-existent, uncreated, indestructible, at once the basis and the essence of all being, the once source to which all activity is ultimately traceable.” Horatio W. Dresser (early New Thought philosopher, influenced by the work of Phineas P. Quimby, The Power of Silence)

“God is the principle responsible for all creation. The Principle cannot abandon the creation, without the creation ceasing to be. So, truly, God is in all things…This God is…an indwelling Spirit, ever eager to find expression through creation – through you.” William L. Fischer (author, Alternatives: New Approaches to Traditional Christian Beliefs)

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or passions; of infinite power, wisdom and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible.” (from the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England)

“…God is called the being as being or the ground and the power of being…” Paul Tillich (Protestant Theologian)

“Apparently humans everywhere and at all times have concepts of a power [or] idea…that lies beyond everything. This idea…is called God.” William Hendricks (Protestant Theologian)

“God is…Living Intelligence…God is universal, infinite Mind. God is Spirit. Spirit is vital essence, formless, radiant, vibrant, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient…God is stable Principle…The Creator is absolute Good…God is infinite Being…God is the originating cause and the continuing source of all life, all being, all creation. God is at the same time the supporter and the support in its essence and basis. God is the creator and moves within the creation unceasingly.” Helen Zagat (author, Faith & Works)

“As inadequate and confused as the god metaphor may be in the Christian tradition, no other word has yet appeared to replace it.” James Rowe Adams (Episcopal priest, founder of The Center for Progressive Christianity, From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors)

“We must get away from this theistic supernatural God that imperils our humanity and come back to a God who permeates life so deeply that our humanity becomes the very means through which we experience the Divine Presence.” Bishop John S. Spong (retired Episcopal bishop)

“…much of 20^th century theology…tended (1) to recognize all statements about God as poetic and metaphorical rather than factual and literal; (2) to delve for divine images in women’s experience, in nature, and in Asia’s great non-theistic religions; and thus (3) to emphasize God’s immanence, intimacy, and dynamic relationship to the universe, rather than the traditional theistic attributes of transcendence, remoteness, and static perfection. With the increasing dialogue between the great religious traditions of the Occident and Orient, these trends will almost certainly continue.” Paul A. Laughlin (religion scholar, Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should know about the Faith but Probably Doesn’t)

“…there is some minimal good, beauty in all life, including my own, and…what finally matters, even to me, is the life of the Whole, the Something that includes me, outlasts me (save as I contribute myself to it), and contains more good than I can distinctly imagine.” Charles Hartshorne (philosopher)

“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in one drop.” Rumi (poet)

“I am an event. You are an event. So is a bear, a rainforest and the winding of the helix within us all. All are active participants within the bigger picture…[Some] would call that big picture God, a reality that includes all of us but is larger than any of us.” Gary Kowalski (Unitarian Universalist minister, Science and the Search for God)

“If the idea of a personal god is incomprehensible to you, drop it. Substitute instead the idea of eternal Absolute Goodness…the ‘universal energy’…” Thomas Shepherd (New Thought Theologian, Good Questions)

“Our English word ‘God’ is derived from the German language and means ‘the good,’ but in the Near Eastern languages – Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic – the term ‘God’ has a deeper significance than simply ‘the good.’ The Aramaic Alaha, the Hebrew Elohim, and the Arabic Allah all come from the…root words AIL and EL, and mean ‘to aid,’ ‘to help,’ ‘to defend,’ ‘to sustain,’ and ‘to succor.’ The name of God in the biblical languages also has various subordinate applications which express the idea of might, power and strength. Thus, God is thought of as All Might, All Power and All Strength. And in the East in general God is understood as the very essence of all life and as the great Provider.” Rocco Errico (author, bible teacher, expert on Aramaic idioms and culture, Let There be Light)

“God is all-pervading Spirit…our life, substance, intelligence and power is God. [God] is our love, truth, beauty and perfection.” Malinda Cramer (founder of Divine Science, Divine Science and Healing)

Spiritual Discussions

REASONABLE, RELEVANT RELIGION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQo220K_-8&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw

 

SAVED FROM WHAT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfi5ZMjeOnk&feature=player_detailpage

RESPONSIBILITY WITHOUT BLAME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0J7AyBD0Hg

IS THERE A SCIENCE TO PRAYER?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGsWYAE10JI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEGsWYAE10JI&app=desktop

OMNIPRESENCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqEIejhV9Rk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw

We Remember, Give Thanks, & Hope

World AIDS Day Prayer (2013)
Rev Dr Durrell Watkins

Spirit of Life,
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who died too soon from complications of a virus that has taken too many.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who lost loved ones to the epidemic.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who dedicated their lives to raising awareness and improving access to treatment.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who never gave up hope.
On this World AIDS Day we remember those who had to face not only the pain of dis-ease and the terror of the unknown, but also marginalization and demonization from those who chose to "blame the victim."

On this World AIDS Day we give thanks for those who survived the most frightening days.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks that life-saving medications were discovered and that treatment options get better all the time.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks for complementary therapies.
On this World AIDS Day we give thanks that miracles have happened among us.

On this World AIDS Day we continue to hope for a cure.
On this World AIDS Day we wish for those who are not infected to remain uninfected and for those who are infected to remain optimistic and to live abundantly, joyously, and in good health.

Omnipresent, all-inclusive, eternal Love,
Receive our prayers today and rekindle within us a desire to live, to love, to share, and to make our world a better place.
Amen.

More Than One Way to be Religious

More Than One Way to be Religious

WRITTEN BY REV. DR. DURRELL WATKINS

“Prophet” Cindy Jacobs recently declared that weather hazards and ecological problems are the result of divine wrath in response to presidential decisions. And without offering specifics, she prognosticated that more calamities are on the way. Of course, it’s a safe bet that something unhappy will happen somewhere. It doesn’t take a great psychic gift to make that guess!

Before this embarrassing statement suggesting that weather is caused by the gods and “bad” weather is the result of divine displeasure I had never heard of Ms. Jacobs, but I’ve heard her kind of blame, shame, and scare theology all too often.

I spend my life building religious community. I offer a message of hope and healing to help people navigate the chances and challenges of life. I try to affirm the sacred value of all people. I work to get people to stand up and speak out for peace, diversity, equality, and justice. That is, in my view, is religion's high purpose.

Religion gives us language and space to celebrate joys, face difficulties, and form human bonds that prove to be the cure for loneliness. Religion is not meant to increase our fears, strengthen our prejudices, or give us enemies to blame for the uncertainties of life.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, heat-waves, blizzards, and even terrorist attacks have all been blamed on liberals, pro-choice politicians, same-gender loving people, and whoever else rightwing extremists might name as the reason for misfortune that they insist is Heaven sent.

I remember at the beginning of the AIDS crisis some preachers claiming that the disease was God’s punishment against people who Christian fundamentalists found to be unworthy of respect or even tolerance. Almost as reprehensibly, many other clergy remained silent as people continued to suffer and die from the then little understood but clearly devastating disease.

I don’t know why anyone would choose to embrace an understanding of spirituality that suggests a deity will send disease or any disaster. Such petty instance that everything unpleasant is proof that a supreme being hates all the people they hate makes religion seem irrelevant and oppressive; it also makes representatives of religion seem more committed to hatred and bigotry than to enlightenment and progress.

As a representative of religion (progressive religion, but religion nevertheless), I very much resent that religion is so often misused and I wish to offer a better, kinder, more reasonable, and more useful understanding of faith.

It is the worst sort of opportunism to use tragedies as a means of promoting hatred and intolerance. The appropriate response to tragedy is compassion, not blame. The best use of religion in times of trouble is to offer comfort, not condemnation. And if we listen to the “better angels of our nature” we will affirm human dignity in the face of chaos rather than using chaos as a weapon to further dehumanize those we may not understand or like.

We are each entitled to our own understanding of the Sacred, of course. But I, as a religious person, will have no deity that would not bless same-gender love, that would send storms to punish many just to torment a few, or that would send rather than heal disease.

But thankfully, there are other understandings of the ultimate reality that many of us call “God.” Some of us believe, teach, and experience the divine as a comforting presence, an urge to do good, the capacity to love, forgive, and share, and a deep desire to bring peace, hope, and healing to all people.

We are each entitled to our own understandings, but I for one will always choose those that build up rather than tear down, that heal rather than hurt, and that affirm diversity rather than demand division. I just wanted another religious voice to be heard today.

Durrell Watkins holds sociology and theatre degrees from Henderson State University and Goddard College, respectively, as well as a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Episcopal Divinity School. He is the author of Wrestling with God without Getting Pinned: Old Stories, New Thoughts, & Progressive Spirituality (Outskirts Press, available at Amazon.com), and is the Senior Pastor of the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale (www.sunshinecathedral.org).

On-going Confessions of a Non-Theist

I've got to find a better word. "Non-Theist" is assumed by atheists to be the same as their rejection of anything divine while traditional religious types just can't seem to imagine the divine as anything other than an invisible person, granting (or denying) requests, deciding (for some strange reason) when people will die, and sending the occasional natural disaster.

I believe in the Sacred. Mystery. Wonder. Awe. The interconnectedness of all living things. I believe in Intelligence, Wisdom, Love, and the amazing Process of life. I believe in prayer (though I may call it thought, feeling, wishes, visualization, or hope). I refer to my prayers being "received" rather than heard. I sometimes even call the Whole in which I believe, of which I am a part, and in which we all "live and move and have our being," God. I believe in God, I just don't believe in the God I used to believe in or that others seem to accept. My God is more than any image or name or understanding. God symbolizes infinite possibilities, extravagant love, deep wisdom, the unity of all that is. God is a clumsy word for that which can't be named. It's often the best I can come up with, but it's still just a word that represents what can't be known and what can't be limited by human understanding or language.

Emptiness - that's the Buddhist attempt to name what is "really Real."
Inward Light - that's what the Quakers came up with.
Mind - that's what some of the ancient Greek philosophers called It.
Ultimate Reality - I believe that's one of the terms Hindus use.
The Universe, the gods, Spirit...different names, all pointing toward the eternal Truth. Allness. Isness. "God."

Panentheism tells us that God is in us and we are in God. Theism believes in a God outside ourselves. Deism believes in a Theistic God who retired. Pantheism believes that God is in every living thing. But Panentheism believes that God is everything but the Whole is MORE than the sum of Its parts! How can you adequately name that which is All and More? My brand of non-theism is actually panentheism, but that requires explanation, too.

I'll keep working on it, but I dread the day I succeed at finding a term. Because once you can name and explain a thing, you have diminished it. And a diminished, understandable deity is just one more false idol that needs to be destroyed so that the search for the Infinite can resume.

Let's Clear Up This Non-Theist Business

I'm a non-theist. I say it often. I say with conviction. I say it without apology.

However, there seems to be some confusion when people learn this about me. They find it strange that as a non-theist I remain religious, OR they assume non-theist means "atheist" and therefore label me "godless."

Now, I don't really care. My opinions are my own and your opinion of my opinions isn't likely to change them. A good argument might, a sound case, but just a differing opinion probably won't.

Still, it doesn't feel quite right to hear that I don't believe in "god." The god I contemplate and seek to worship isn't a separate Other. The god I contemplate and seek to worship isn't gendered, human-like, or provable. It may in fact be only a concept, and this possibility doesn't disturb me.

When I say I'm a non-theist, I mean I don't believe in Zeus (by any name, including the generic "God"). But mystery, that's something else! Beauty? Absolutely! Hope? You betcha. The interconnected, infinite web of all existence? Without doubt!

So, I do believe in the field of infinite possibilities, the energy of life, the great and grand Whole that is more than the sum of its parts (and in which we each "live and move and have our being"). One could call It spirit or principle or life or mind (and, of course, each of those words could be capitalized: Spirit, Principle, Life, Mind).

When we examine it all closely, I seem to believe in much (maybe even most) of what "god" represents - I just don't think that god is judging or condemning anyone. I don't think god is making arbitrary decisions or controlling every event in life. I don't think god is someone/something separate from us (or from the earth or the universe).

I believe in the powerful process of life in which we each participate. The "isness" that many call "god" is not separate from you and me - we are part of It! That's my theology. God is all, and because god is all, we can call It anything we want. I usually don't call it "god" but It is no less what It is regardless of what we call It. The energy field of existence and possibilities is definitely something in which I believe, but that still isn't a warrior-thunder god on a throne, punishing the wicked and rewarding the faithful, is it? So, until I find a better term, I'll stick with non-theist. And yes, a religious non-theist at that. That's the fun part!