Freeze-dried, like a new religion

[digitaldiscipline]

In the fine spirit of L. Ron Hubbard, the Pentecostals, and Aleister Crowley, I'm here today to start a new religion. Fortunately for everyone involved (all none of them), there are no silly initiations, hidden costs, or even tax loopholes. No, this is much more insidious.

Everyone Think.

Honestly, I think one of my biggest stumbling blocks to religion, among both those who discount it and those who practice it, is the branding of the Big G. Is there something out there? Maybe, but don't go slapping a crucifix logo or a six-pointed star logo or pentacle logo on it. Home-Brewed, For Personal Use Only.

People need divinity in a plain brown wraper. It'd keep them from having to smite the Joneses.

If everyone contemplated what they saw as the divine (capitalized or not) on a personal level, it wouldn't matter if the guy across the street did it a different way, as long as each person's version worked for them.

Not everyone needs something bigger than themselves to turn to; looking inwards, towards self-reliance, is just as valid.

From a conversation:

H: Turning to oneself--the centerpoint of my atheism-- made me arrogant and self-righteous and at times utterly unbearable to be around.
Me: Hey, I resemble that remark! ;-)
H: It was like faith out of tune. Sounded right to my ears, but everyone around me was cringing.
Me: What's that old line about dancing and insanity. . . ?

Nobody needs to prove that their god can beat up somebody else's god.

It's the same impossible approach I have to politics - delete the lazy intellectual shorthand of the formal parties, and make everyone reach for their own conclusions instead of blindly ascribing to a label that encompasses things inaccurately and incompletely.

Initially, people will probably feel lonely and isolated, "I don't have anyone else to share my faith with, or show me the way." But that will change. As people discover their own personal take on the divine, be it Buddy Christ, Foamy the Squirrel, or a small glow in the vicinity of their fourth rib, they will cherish how precise and perfect their discovery is for them. Church would be supplanted by get-togethers where people could talk about how their faith works for them, rather than being told how to do it, and that they'd be punished for doing it wrong.

Encourage somebody to craft something for themselves, and it will be more meaningful. Any boob with opposable thumbs and $68.75 can slap together something from IKEA. But there's pride in craftsmanship when make it yourself, and that can never be stripped away.

That's what's going to be weird about evanglizing - with nothing to market it, the idea needs to sell itself.

"I have the body of a God. Bacchus was a God, right?"

Comments

[algernon33.livejournal.com]

Preach On Brother Man!

What a great idea for a Religion..

Drink, can we Drink alot?...

-A33(Who believes Churches would do better if they had a Open Bar and Wondering Shooter Girl and Boys...)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

You can drink as much as you want. Just don't hump anyone without permission, or spill your drink on them.

[helcat.livejournal.com]

I may have several usernames, but I am not a them. :P

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to out you, hon. I presume that's a moot point? :-)

[helcat.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'm pretty out at this point. I want people to be able to find my take on the dialogue if they are interested in it.

And FYI, Episcopalians tend to be pretty open bar.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure if you wanted the other compartment open to the air, so to speak.

So, for folks interested in H's take on faith, point your browser at gallycat.

[helcat.livejournal.com]

Generally, the open journals are open, the closed journals are closed, so you can take your cues from how many f-only icons you see floating around.

I don't know why I don't feel comfortable broadcasting the link from deviathan, but I've done it in several comment threads where the topic has come up. I think it's partially avoiding the "look at me! i'm putting spikes on the bible belt!" factor. That said, since outing myself, I have found a number of 20/30-somethings trying to organize the grassroots christian left, and I seem to be the D.C. point of contact in the blogosphere all of a sudden.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Ah, but see Bacchus was a Roman god. Nobody pays any attention to god--stuff coming out of Rome these days.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Funny guy, big white hat?

[selkiesiren.livejournal.com]

Pretty much you've described my flavour of Christianity.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

That's just the thing - there's no Christianity involved. No brand, no logo, just the underlying "stuff."

[selkiesiren.livejournal.com]

I understand that. I am not meaning to say that everyone needs to walk my path. I accept others right to choose their own path. Just that, for *me*, the "underlying stuff" *is* my faith, which I term "Christianity".

Jerry Falwell, however, disagrees with my assessment of my beliefs. And, can I just say, I am good with that.

[david-deacon.livejournal.com]

You've come up independently with the same idea Moses had when he said "No graven images." If your idea of God is totally mental, internal, it's more difficult to start fights, let alone 3000-year-long wars, over that sort of thing.

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's an impossible approach alright! You underestimate the human desire to belong, be part of a group. It can go sheepy or it can be self-affirming. Either way, most ppl want to share some commonality with others, whether it's a belief in a certain religious system or a shared passion for stompy music & black clothes.

There's a deep comfort in similarity. Maybe it's genetic. Dunno where it comes from, but I know that it's a huge, overriding concern of pretty much all ppl all over the world (& it has caused the vast majority of the world's problems too -- so fix *that* & we'll be set ;-).

Because . . .

[deansavatar.livejournal.com]

before anything else we were tribal people, and that is where we descended from.

Re: Because . . .

[etcet.livejournal.com]

mighty_man puts it thusly:

"I'm on the same team as everyone else - my own."

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I do agree with you here, and trying to move from "We are XXXXX-ists" to "We're sharing our own personal happiness with others who have" is tricky.

But I wonder - if you see someone who has achieved peace and joy, would you want to understand how they did it, so maybe you could, too? Not just mimic what they did, but find your own?

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Me personally? Sure. I just don't think the generic "you" would dig it. Finding your own way was big for the hippies in the '60s, but it hasn't been a mainstream thing, & I rather doubt it ever would be.

There's also a lot of ppl who say they've found peace & joy thru the exact same way s'one else did. For all of organized religion's many faults, lots of ppl say it gives them comfort & their own spirituality is happily in line w/what some book or preacher sez. Some of them might say they *are* sharing their own personal happiness w/others who also have.

Just playing devil's advocate here. I'm not anti-religion; while I don't believe in one for myself, I've always been fascinated by the tendency towards belief.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I know you are, and what's tricky is that, one the one hand, I agree with you completely, but at the same time, I hope we're both wrong. :-)

[helcat.livejournal.com]

BTW: I was wondering if regulation hats and scarves and things will be part of this whole talking for free thing.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

*blink, blink*

I'm going to sit here quietly and completely not get the reference.

[helcat.livejournal.com]

Well, points to the first person who does, then!!!

[yokes1971.livejournal.com]

I'm in as long as there are no aerobics involved. as a recovering rc I look for religions that dont require too much exercise.

Oh and there has to be beer and hockey or I am out.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

You can buy beer; as far as hockey, you might need to take the beatdown to Bettman & Co.

[bynner.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting idea, but the trouble with let-everyone-make-up-whatever-suits-their-personal-idiosyncrasies runs counter to the let-objective-standards-and-peer-review philosophy we use to establish what is "true" or "accurate" in scientific arenas. If you tell people they must use one method to reliably establish truth in areas A, B, C... through ZZZZZZ. They will want to apply a similar system to Area ZZZZZZ+1... God. Otherwise, you're asking them to admit that their "Divine Truth" is no truth at all, but pure sophistry, which will annoy the fuck out of them... then you'll go straight back to war. Not that there aren't probably some middle-grounds we could find that are better (<-- that term, itself, being subject to considerable debate).

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Religion is not science; this allows people to not have one color the other if they don't want to.

Feel like being a strict rationalist? Groovy - search out divinity within yourself, or in the physics of the universe. Feel like being a goddamned hippy? That's fine, too - if divinity bubbles up through some cloudy water with a lighter nearby for you, go with it.

Otherwise, you're asking them to admit that their "Divine Truth" is no truth at all, but pure sophistry, which will annoy the fuck out of them...

Bynner, I already do. *laughs happily*

[roaster.livejournal.com]

Well my religion will have many dogs in it, it will be a holy sacrement to take a dog for a walk. Treeing a squirrel will indicate a day of rest, or maybe a trip to the beach. Anyopne who don't like dogs will be named as an apostate and have to make do with Cats and or Gerbils. I may also try to work Weasels into it as well as it can be scientifically proven that Weasels are the best. Or maybe Meercats, no its got to be Weasels.

It does make sense, if you have shared any space with a Welsh Border Collie, and then you Deifiy them and cast them in the role of supreme creator, it makes you understand why the universe is so bloody mental.

Come on lets do something with sticks!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

"Humans provide all of their pet's needs. This makes dogs believe them to be gods, while cats see it as proof that they are."

[roaster.livejournal.com]

Because of my recent convertion to the religion of 'Canis Familiaris' I can now point at you and scream - 'BLASPHEMER!!!'

On a more serious note I think you were talking down the Gnostic route. I think this was an internalized view of religion, I'm not sure but tI think the Cathars were a Gnostic sect. I'd pick the brains of cavalorn on this one he knows muchly about it.


gnosticism

n : a religious orientation advocating gnosis as the way to release a person's spiritual element; considered heresy by Christian churches [syn: Gnosticism]

gno·sis ( P )
n.
Intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths, an esoteric form of knowledge sought by the Gnostics

[etcet.livejournal.com]

It is a tad like that, though if "spiritual element" for $Person is their understanding of Jesus and/or Big G, that's not discounted.

I don't think conscious divinity would always be intuitive; I fully expect that introspection and self-examination, as well as observation of the world/universe at large, are things that would take some pretty heavy contemplation for a lot of folks.

Once you've approached [general "you" here] your own personal take on divinity, though, you might be able to more intuitively react to situations based on it. . . . like learning balance as part of studying dance - if someone throws a baby at you, you'll be better equipped to catch it, though it's not part of your established training.

[christyr1q.livejournal.com]

The young adults group at the Campbell UMC that I attend when in town is a great forum for me to discuss spirituality. We attend church, but are at various levels of belief. We've been reading a book on God that features writings from many faiths. We've also done Yoga, meditation, journal writting, and other things to explore our own faith.

I like the our group. We all have somewhat differing views on the almighty, but can discuss it. Even though this is through an organized religion, I think it aligns reasonably well with your thoughts too....

[ex-xn667.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that :) I think you've kept up enough with my own nutjob entries, even if only to know when to skim past them, to know that I'm there, hehehe.

A few incidentals for ya in light of various and sundry comments above (read: brief reading list for comparison, discussion, and launch-pad cognitive models which others might get some use out of, if only in the throwing away of them):

William James, Varieties of Religious Experience. Pretty much what it sounds like. Brilliant work. Thought-provoking, not stultifying.

Nag Hammadi Library and nearly anything by Elaine Pagels for a quick n' dirty on Gnosticism.

Wikipedia's entry on Quakers for a quick intro. If you know who/what they are, cool. If you don't, or only think you do, they probably aren't like it at all, heh. Quaker at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker)

Oh, and cuz I think everyone that's ever inspired me in any way is a saint (getting mighty crowded in those ranks), I'd recommend the gospels of Harry Harrison as revealed in the Stainless Steel Rat :>

Praise Bob! 93! 23! Hut, hut, hut!

hmmmm

[analmuch.livejournal.com]

Interesting...although I believe religion is more of big business without the chance of getting promoted. Think about, people scare the masses into believing they will go to hell if they do not comply(intimidation from the boss(es). You get excommunicated or barred for not following predeterminted rules(getting fired). If you follow the rules like a good little religous boy (or girl) you get the "divine reward". (PAYDAY!!!!!)

I would much rather start my own business with myself at the leader. Our symbol will be the mighty Foamy and we will live to party. Clothing is optional.