1230 What Am I?

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Every once in a while someone will ask what religion I am.

I guess I'm technically not Christian, although a Puritan rearing tends to stick with you a while. Roman, when asked, would answer, "Well, I'm Jewish. She's ... uh ... something else." When I have to fill out a form in, say, a hospital or something, I check "none", because I don't want anyone in a collar visiting me. (They do anyway.) Or I'll write in "Pagan" just for the reaction it gets.

It's not that I have no beliefs - I do, and they are very strong. They just don't seem to fit any organized school. It's all mine, born of personal experience and revelation, and I believe it's as close to truth as I can get. It doesn't have a name. It's simple. Any other system of belief out there that does have a name seems to attempt to get too detailed, tries to explain everything, tries to make people feel good, tries to make it easy, and ends up too human.

Some things from named systems do fit into my system, such as

• The integration of Naturalistic Pantheism
• The philosophy of Spinoza
• The ethics of Taoism
• The cycles and striving for enlightenment of Buddhism
• The reverence and care of Zoroastrianism
• The belief in the power of belief in Wicca
• The "God within", or "Inner Light", of the Quakers

But in each of those philosophies or disciplines, there is much that I don't accept, especially as pertains to the definition of "God", or the origins of good and evil, or the purpose of life, so I can't call myself an adherent of any. "Adherent", by the way, the very concept of "adhering to", is anathema to me anyway.

I suppose I've written about this topic before. I didn't go back and look. It might be different from what I've said before, but that's not evidence of conflict, only growth. And that's ok. That's me. That's what's supposed to happen.
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