Toadfish Monastery

Harken to the Miracle of Saint MentalBlock! I love it.

Quote from: anthrobabe on March 10, 2007, 06:58:47 PM
Does SH have a dogma? If I had to say yes- the I would say the SH dogma is - there is no dogma in the sense that we have dogma handed down to us from a higher being and should we not follow that dogma then we will be in very bad trouble. SH says that humans are able to serve/solve the questions and problems of the world with reason and not superstition. Of course how can I ( with a straight face) tell someone that their religious beliefs are superstitious in nature( smacks of insulting a fellow person on a deep level and I wouldn't like it if someone called me "names" because of my beliefs)OH it all goes back here to the thought that science and religion must be mutually exclusive- and I don't think that at all. Do I make any sense at all?
I just really and truly love the whole "marrying people" thing- it's an emotional high, I find joy and honor in it.

I would love to be able to perform marriage ceremonies, too. I think that if two people want to state their dedication to one another in a ritual way, it's lovely, and they ought not to have religion in it, if they do not subscribe to religions. I would like to be able to provide that service. And in other rituals as well, such as funerals.

I like to believe that we sometimes receive guidance from the Great Everything. Sometimes when I am struggling with something, I will suddenly get a flash of understanding, as if from no-where, and I like to think that it's the Great Everything giving me a clue. It may be only my subconscious, but then again, maybe my subconscious is better able to communicate with the Great Everything than my conscious mind, which gets entangled with what seems like more immediate demands on my physical self.

Would you call that superstitious?

The need for dogma is one (of many) things I happen to disagree with Anton LaVey on.  Ceremony can be a useful tool, but it's much more lovely to adapt one's celebrations to fit changing circumstances than blindly follow set ritual.

I agree that ritual should be appropriate to the situation, which means changing it.

I got  caught up in a discussion of Christmas-time rituals with a group of Baptists in Central Texas this year. You expect--Texas, Baptist, evangelicals!! OH NOEZ!! Lotsa Christian stuff!!

Well, we talked about trees, when to open presents, what stories when, what to eat for which meals...not the spiritual, but the cultural trimmings.

Even the 'holy times' are more about the familiar than the holy for most folks. And the Germanic influence here is VERY strong.

I still laugh at the comment made to me years ago, when I was teaching in a Catholic school. One of the nuns made the observation that, for a non-Catholic, I was spot on in responses and all, even in the Latin Mass. I told her that I had agreed to be as inconspicuous in my non-Catholicism as possible, as a part of my contract. I was, after all, the first non-Catholic ever hired to teach at Annunciation. She said "But, dear girl, you're too perfect. Those of us raised from the bloody crib with the ritual just don't take it all that seriously!" (Imagine your own Irish accent, please. The Sister of the Incarnate Word  had a LOT of Irish imports.) She continued by saying "We beat the rituals into their heads at this age. If they don't absorb it by puberty, they never will. Our job is to get SOMETHING to stick long enough that they might remember it when life goes against them and the need it. Even if they don't believe, it can be a comfort."

I liked that nun...

Quote from: Opsanus tau on March 15, 2007, 03:02:34 PM

I like to believe that we sometimes receive guidance from the Great Everything. Sometimes when I am struggling with something, I will suddenly get a flash of understanding, as if from no-where, and I like to think that it's the Great Everything giving me a clue. It may be only my subconscious, but then again, maybe my subconscious is better able to communicate with the Great Everything than my conscious mind, which gets entangled with what seems like more immediate demands on my physical self.

Would you call that superstitious?

I wouldn't call it superstitious at all. I like that--"Great Everything"-- that's a pretty good way to define spiritual. I might just borrow that term!

Why not?

Actually, it's a variation of a term Sibling Chatty uses, but I forgot what that was, and said Great Everything instead. It's something like that.

I got a mind like a steel sieve!

Yeah, mine is rusty and full of holes, too.

to quote the Joker "A mind like a steel trap. Only it sprung!"

~Qwerty

Unnameable Everything

That way, nobody goes around trying to pin on a name!

like Great Everything?

*ZING*

oh I'm good.

~Qwerty

Ah, thank you, Chatty. I knew I could count on you.

Maybe we could just call it The Everything.

That way, when people ask us what we believe in, we can say "Everything".

Works for me.

Until I find a reason to not believe in something, I try to keep an open mind. Heck, I believe y'all Yankees when you talk about snow!! Fluffy frozen water...sure!! (Pull the other one, it's got bells on it!)

"Until I find a reason to not believe in something, I try to keep an open mind."

I'm the same way. The only problem with it is that I'm sometimes accused of having no convictions!

I have a very strong conviction about my agnosticism...

I really like Bob's description - in a quantum state of faith - although I think I approach 'quantum faith' differently.  I 'smear' my beliefs over a number of independant and sometimes mutually exclusive positions simultaneously, and might come up with a different answer to what the 'real' belief is every time I was asked!