I am reminded of Voltaire’s wry observation - “God created humankind in His image, and we returned the favor.”
Of course, there are other alternatives to Western-style monotheism such as Asian polytheistic and contemplative atheism like Buddhism/Taoism which separates morality as a human endeavor from confusion and contamination of the transpersonal aesthetic.
Confucian moral teachings are common sense rules for human moral behavior, not a religion. Decoupling morality from mysticism, a clear separation of church and state, might avoid much of the violent self-righteousness that polarizes us today.
Ah, this: "In my panentheistic understanding, the concept of ‘God’ is a human conception of the ineffable, omnipresent mystery of the universe itself, surrounded by that which cannot be expressed at all." I thought the term was "pantheistic". It took me decades to understand what I called "(the) Universe" is what others meant by "God". The G-word often felt a bit dangerous b/c I understood the definition to vary among users. I still prefer not to use the term. (For that matter, I'm still averse to talking about these issues at all, since not everyone has an experience of the universe or conversations with the universe or has figured out the way the universe speaks just to them, which also took decades to understand) Thank you for writing such a clear explanation. Now, I'll need to get the book!
My theory is that we experience God when we are in touch with our right hemispheric consciousness, based on the work of Dr. Iain McGilchrist. A lot of the right hemisphere's characteristics match well with what the mystics report about God and enlightenment. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Adding to this reading list: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. It was written by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist who chronicles her own experiences after suffering a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain and her remarkable eight-year recovery.
I am reminded of Voltaire’s wry observation - “God created humankind in His image, and we returned the favor.”
Of course, there are other alternatives to Western-style monotheism such as Asian polytheistic and contemplative atheism like Buddhism/Taoism which separates morality as a human endeavor from confusion and contamination of the transpersonal aesthetic.
Confucian moral teachings are common sense rules for human moral behavior, not a religion. Decoupling morality from mysticism, a clear separation of church and state, might avoid much of the violent self-righteousness that polarizes us today.
Ah, this: "In my panentheistic understanding, the concept of ‘God’ is a human conception of the ineffable, omnipresent mystery of the universe itself, surrounded by that which cannot be expressed at all." I thought the term was "pantheistic". It took me decades to understand what I called "(the) Universe" is what others meant by "God". The G-word often felt a bit dangerous b/c I understood the definition to vary among users. I still prefer not to use the term. (For that matter, I'm still averse to talking about these issues at all, since not everyone has an experience of the universe or conversations with the universe or has figured out the way the universe speaks just to them, which also took decades to understand) Thank you for writing such a clear explanation. Now, I'll need to get the book!
My theory is that we experience God when we are in touch with our right hemispheric consciousness, based on the work of Dr. Iain McGilchrist. A lot of the right hemisphere's characteristics match well with what the mystics report about God and enlightenment. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Adding to this reading list: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. It was written by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist who chronicles her own experiences after suffering a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain and her remarkable eight-year recovery.