Pantheism Theosophy Rosicrucians Unitarians

[steve_bank]

As far as I can tell no religion with history is without interpretaion and a bit of fuzziness. Mormons are only about 200 years old and they changed significantly. Pantheism appears to be a general wprd going far back.The problem with philosophy and relgion is that it is near impossible to derive a singular meaning from a word or concept with history. Many variations, offshoots, and derviatives over time.

The only thing that is important is the benefit you get from a set of beliefs. My scientific views satisfy me, I have no need for religion, or any specific philosophy for that matter.I'd have to fact check, I believe Shinto is mostly empty rituals in terms of gods coupled with ancestor worship. Rituals are important. The RCC mass is theater, nothing wrong with that in general. It is glie for a comminity.

My point with the OP is that outiside of Abramic traditions there is a widespread array of active traditions. The inference is that ritual and a belief system satisfy some basic human need, othersise religion would not be.To me it is not what you believe, but how you believe it.If it is online Joseph Cambel's series Power Of Myth is very good. He goes far back showing how all traditions essentialy represent the same human elements in differnt cultural metaphors. Rambo is a Homeric saga, in the end Rambo finds his way home. Johm Wayne persona lines up with mythology.

If you do not see useful truths in your beliefs otHer than a fancy cosmology and creation story, you are missing the benefit. it is entertainment. If you are Pantheist, I'd ask how it trAnslates into dailty life. I know Christians will generally have specific answers.

 

[bilby]

There's a seeker born every minute.
- Firesign Theater

Actually, there was one (of the classic lineup: Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger, and Bruce Woodley) born per year between 1940 and 1943, and a total of eleven members to date, all born between 1940 and 1964. That's a much lower rate than one per minute.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZipKdI1sY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Juma]

All humans. A sense of the divine as it is sometimes put.

Sagan and his 'billions and billions of stars'. Religiousnexperince, scientifiv wonder, experiance the wide open spaces are all the same thing.

Its the other way around:we can all feel a sense of awe, be fascinated. That has really nothibg to do with religion.

 

[steve_bank]

All humans. A sense of the divine as it is sometimes put.

Sagan and his 'billions and billions of stars'. Religiousnexperince, scientifiv wonder, experiance the wide open spaces are all the same thing.

Its the other way around:we can all feel a sense of awe, be fascinated. That has really nothibg to do with religion.

Unless our brains are wired differently it is all the same experince, different people attribute it to differnt things. BTW, Sagan admitted to life long use of pot for inspiration.

 

[Juma]

All humans. A sense of the divine as it is sometimes put.

Sagan and his 'billions and billions of stars'. Religiousnexperince, scientifiv wonder, experiance the wide open spaces are all the same thing.

Its the other way around:we can all feel a sense of awe, be fascinated. That has really nothibg to do with religion.

Unless our brains are wired differently it is all the same experince, different people attribute it to differnt things. BTW, Sagan admitted to life long use of pot for inspiration.

We hsve all hands and even if they are used by religious people to do religious things, they have nothing to do with religion.
Religion is not about feeling awe, religion is unfounded belief.

 

[steve_bank]

Unless our brains are wired differently it is all the same experince, different people attribute it to differnt things. BTW, Sagan admitted to life long use of pot for inspiration.

We hsve all hands and even if they are used by religious people to do religious things, they have nothing to do with religion.
Religion is not about feeling awe, religion is unfounded belief.

Depends on the religion, which is my point.

The Varieties Of Religious Experince by William James early 20th century. Read it in the 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience

- - - Updated - - -

Unless our brains are wired differently it is all the same experince, different people attribute it to differnt things. BTW, Sagan admitted to life long use of pot for inspiration.

We hsve all hands and even if they are used by religious people to do religious things, they have nothing to do with religion.
Religion is not about feeling awe, religion is unfounded belief.

Depends on the religion, which is my point.

The Varieties Of Religious Experince by William James early 20th century. Read it in the 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience

 

[lpetrich]

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had lived a very interesting life, but she embellished it with further details to make it even more interesting. She was always rather loose with truth, something that was evident even in her childhood.

She was a spiritualist medium for a while, but after channeling the ghosts of ordinary people, she started channeling such Ascended Tibetan Masters as Koot Hoomi and Morya. However, the revelations that she received, like a putative lost book of Dzyan, were heavily plagiarized from Eastern religious texts and various other sources.

But given how much one can get away with in religion, she succeeded.

 

[DBT]

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had lived a very interesting life, but she embellished it with further details to make it even more interesting. She was always rather loose with truth, something that was evident even in her childhood.

She was a spiritualist medium for a while, but after channeling the ghosts of ordinary people, she started channeling such Ascended Tibetan Masters as Koot Hoomi and Morya. However, the revelations that she received, like a putative lost book of Dzyan, were heavily plagiarized from Eastern religious texts and various other sources.

But given how much one can get away with in religion, she succeeded.

Especially during her time. A time when many people may not have had easy access to Eastern religious texts, consequently did not have the means to cross reference her claims.

She probably would not have done so well in this day and age.

 

[lpetrich]

I've found  Rosicrucianism (the 17th cy. movement) and a present-day organization: The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC

Theosophy still exists, even if it is not as big as it once was. In the late 19th cy., it got a rather curious sort of convert: feminist and secularist activist Annie Besant. She was once assigned to interview Madame Blavatsky, and she ended up converting to it and becoming very into it.

Pantheism has a long history, extending back to the Stoics of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity and being a part of some Eastern religious traditions. In the West, it was driven into eclipse by Christian theologians declaring it a heresy, and it only gradually returned. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, and Spinoza was vilified as an atheist.


But there is a present-day religious movement that includes parts of these: the New Age. It is a rather large and formless one with numerous variations, and it is more like some shared interests rather than some well-defined creed or practice.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Thanks for the explanations. I thought Pantheists were people who worship pancakes. This is a lot less fun.

 

[steve_bank]

There is also an industry that has evolbed meeting the needs of the New Agers.

For me New Age lumps together all the modern occult and mysticism and wisdom. There is EST, Scientology and others set up as for profit revelation of the wisdom of the ancients so to speak.

 

[lpetrich]

New Age Spirituality Part 1
New Age Spirituality Part 2
 New Age
What New Agers Believe - Beliefnet

New Ageism is a rather formless movement, so the most that one can say about New Agers' beliefs is what many New Agers tend to believe.

Pantheism: "All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods. They do not seek God as revealed in a sacred text or as exists in a remote heaven; they seek God within the self and throughout the entire universe." (RelTol) "God is the impersonal life force, consciousness, ultimate truth and reality, the incorporeal, formless cosmic order personified within all people and matter. God is all and all are God." (Beliefnet)

Reincarnation is another common belief.

Mystical experiences are a part of many New Agers' beliefs:

Personal Transformation A profoundly intense mystical experience will lead to the acceptance and use of New Age beliefs and practices. Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, and (sometimes) the use of hallucinogenic drugs are useful to bring about and enhance this transformation. Believers hope to develop new potentials within themselves: the ability to heal oneself and others, psychic powers, a new understanding of the workings of the universe, etc. Later, when sufficient numbers of people have achieved these powers, they expect that a major spiritual, physical, psychological and cultural planet-wide transformation will happen.

Mystical experiences are far from new. Many people have had them over the millennia in different parts of the world.

Many New Agers also believe in at least some of channeling, auras, the power of crystals, Tarot-card divination, astrology, and the like. Channeling is contacting the souls of the dead, and it was known as necromancy in antiquity and spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


Neopaganism overlaps with New Ageism, though some people on each side find fault with the other side.

 

[lpetrich]

A common New Age belief is that we are entering the Age of Aquarius, an era of peace and happiness and well-being for all.

This is derived from Western astrology and its Zodiac signs. The Earth's equatorial bulge is pulled on by the Moon and the Sun, and that makes its spin axis go in a circle with a period of about 25,800 years. Each sign is 1/12 of the Zodiac or 30d, and that makes the equinox points spend about 2,150 years in each sign.

The northern vernal equinox is currently in Pisces, so this is currently the Age of Pisces. It started about 2000 years ago, and the most obvious fish-associated event was the origin of Christianity. The Greek word for fish, ichthus, is the acronym of Iêsous Christos Theou Huios Sôtêr, Greek for Jesus Christ God's Son Savior.

If the Age of Pisces started around when Jesus Christ was born, then, the Age of Aquarius should start a few centuries from now. But that has not kept some New Agers from getting impatient.

Before that was the Age of Aries, and it started around 2200 BCE. The most plausible sheep-related event is Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac and instead sacrificing a sheep.

Before that was the Age of Taurus, and it started around 4300 BCE. I can't think of any bull-related event from back then. But there was a horse-related event from back then, the domestication of horses in what's now eastern Ukraine, south European Russia, and Kazakhstan. As far as we can tell, the horse domesticators spoke an ancestral Indo-European dialect, so we have an idea of what they called these animals: ek'wos . That word's descendants include Greek hippos and Latin equus.

The Age of Gemini started around 6400 BCE, but I can't think of any plausible twin-related events. Likewise for the Age of Cancer in 8600 BCE and crabs or arthropods more generally, the Age of Leo in 10,800 BCE and lions or other big predators, the Age of Virgo in 12,900 BCE and young ladies or fertility, the Age of Libra in 15,000 BCE and measurement, the Age of Scorpio in 17,200 BCE and scorpions or venomous animals more generally, the Age of Sagittarius in 19,400 BCE and arrows or spears, the Age of Capricorn in 21,500 BCE and goats, or the previous Age of Aquarius in 23,600 BCE.