AgogTheorist
Hi! Got storage?
Hi everybody. I've been looking around for a forum to participate in for quite a while, and when I finally saw this one my brain did a kind of pirouette and said "Yippee!" My brain is way smarter than me, so I figured I'd better give it a try.
Here's a little sumpin' sumpin' to introduce myself through my religious background.
I was born into a Mennonite Brethren (Christian) church, was baptized at it, and am still quite heavily involved there, voluntarily, as a youth leader, web developer, and more. It's a fairly intellectual and mildly progressive church -- we had a female pastor before it was cool -- but I've always felt kind of out of place anyway. Looking back, I think it stemmed from a personal lack of any kind of experiential faith. For example, the idea of a personal God has always seemed quite inaccessible to me. Which, I suppose, is a pretty fundamental issue!
I've always lived more in my mind than anywhere else. After I graduated university (computer science degree), I discovered I finally had time to learn things! I became somewhat of a generalist, interested in the physical sciences, psychology, philosophy, religion, etc. and especially how everything related to everything else in the grand scheme of things. I wasn't about to discredit religion just because my own experience of it was lacking, but I did begin to learn about other religions -- I couldn't very well trust my own without giving an equal opportunity to the alternatives.
So fast forwarding to today where I am in my late twenties, I find myself in quite a curious position, both literally and figuratively. I'm quite strongly pluralistic, with reasoning to back up my views. I've developed (mostly unintentionally) a personal theology in which I view God as kind of an ineffable "divine Idea" which is shared among various faith traditions where it is actualized in a variety of meaningful ways. I have a keen interest in the dharmic religions, and especially Hinduism, as they seem to speak to me in ways that Christianity couldn't, though I still consider myself quite a novice as my knowledge of them is primarily through literature. I'm hoping someday to make some kind of spiritual breakthrough and discover something that really moves me, and I suspect that the dharmic religions might help me along that path.
And throughout all this, my role as a supposedly wise and didactic youth leader at my Mennonite Brethren church has become increasingly awkward, though nobody has kicked me out yet.
So here I am, hoping I can supplement my book learning with a variety of ideas and opinions from all you lovely disembodied internet entities. From what I've seen so far, it seems like quite a respectful and accepting community, especially considering how polarizing the topics being discussed here often are out in the real world.
In closing, I'll reveal part of my idealistic dreamer side: I've often thought that there is great potential in organized religion to make the world a better place. It consists of already-established communities who desire to do good, yet so often they get caught up in pointless and often-destructive bickering at each other. Think about how much better the world would be if these inter-faith communities learned to look past their differences and appreciate each other for what they are, and ultimately work together for a common good. That is my very long term abstract vision, and I think I may just find some pointers on how something like that might be approached by observing this community.
TL;DR - Ask a non-theistic Christian anything.
Here's a little sumpin' sumpin' to introduce myself through my religious background.
I was born into a Mennonite Brethren (Christian) church, was baptized at it, and am still quite heavily involved there, voluntarily, as a youth leader, web developer, and more. It's a fairly intellectual and mildly progressive church -- we had a female pastor before it was cool -- but I've always felt kind of out of place anyway. Looking back, I think it stemmed from a personal lack of any kind of experiential faith. For example, the idea of a personal God has always seemed quite inaccessible to me. Which, I suppose, is a pretty fundamental issue!
I've always lived more in my mind than anywhere else. After I graduated university (computer science degree), I discovered I finally had time to learn things! I became somewhat of a generalist, interested in the physical sciences, psychology, philosophy, religion, etc. and especially how everything related to everything else in the grand scheme of things. I wasn't about to discredit religion just because my own experience of it was lacking, but I did begin to learn about other religions -- I couldn't very well trust my own without giving an equal opportunity to the alternatives.
So fast forwarding to today where I am in my late twenties, I find myself in quite a curious position, both literally and figuratively. I'm quite strongly pluralistic, with reasoning to back up my views. I've developed (mostly unintentionally) a personal theology in which I view God as kind of an ineffable "divine Idea" which is shared among various faith traditions where it is actualized in a variety of meaningful ways. I have a keen interest in the dharmic religions, and especially Hinduism, as they seem to speak to me in ways that Christianity couldn't, though I still consider myself quite a novice as my knowledge of them is primarily through literature. I'm hoping someday to make some kind of spiritual breakthrough and discover something that really moves me, and I suspect that the dharmic religions might help me along that path.
And throughout all this, my role as a supposedly wise and didactic youth leader at my Mennonite Brethren church has become increasingly awkward, though nobody has kicked me out yet.
So here I am, hoping I can supplement my book learning with a variety of ideas and opinions from all you lovely disembodied internet entities. From what I've seen so far, it seems like quite a respectful and accepting community, especially considering how polarizing the topics being discussed here often are out in the real world.
In closing, I'll reveal part of my idealistic dreamer side: I've often thought that there is great potential in organized religion to make the world a better place. It consists of already-established communities who desire to do good, yet so often they get caught up in pointless and often-destructive bickering at each other. Think about how much better the world would be if these inter-faith communities learned to look past their differences and appreciate each other for what they are, and ultimately work together for a common good. That is my very long term abstract vision, and I think I may just find some pointers on how something like that might be approached by observing this community.
TL;DR - Ask a non-theistic Christian anything.
