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Theism and beyond... |
| Do people ever ask you, pertaining to
your spiritual proclivities, "So what are you?" Myself
and many of our readers sometimes have difficulty answering that question,
as the world is fond of putting people into tidy
boxes and many of us don't fit the boxes available.
(This could lend a whole new meaning to the term "outside the
box.") It motivated me to conduct an informal
survey of members, readers, friends and cyberpals,
(see survey after article) regarding the limitations of our symbol systems
when dealing with matters of spirit. It led to a search for
a word that referred to someone neither theist in
the traditional sense, nor anything resembling atheist. Well, it was
an interesting and fruitful exploration. I'll attempt to summarize the
journey for you, and ultimately, offer a new word
the journey birthed.
Now some of our members have found their "theistic niche" and are quite comfortable labeling themselves as Christians or Buddhist or what have you, but others are not. The gist of what many of our members claim is that they have a direct knowing (internal subjective experience) of some class of energy which is often interpreted as a personal god. It seems beyond ordinary understanding. But they believe the symbols and myths we've generated to make sense of this energy has led to great suffering on the planet. One quoted George Carlan - "There's no guy in the sky who cares where we put our hands." So you see, many don't consider themselves theists in the usual sense (though an atheist might consider them one), nor atheists, (though religious fundamentalists might consider them one.) Our search for a new word began with some dictionary definitions: AGNOSTIC: Believer that does not deny the existence of God but asserts that the human mind cannot know whether there is a God or an ultimate cause, or anything beyond material phenomena. DEIST: Believer in the doctrine that God created the world and its natural laws and set it in motion, but takes no further part in its functioning. THEIST: A believer in a god or gods (mono or poly), especially a personal God who is creator and ruler of the universe and known by revelation. ATHEIST: A person who believes there is no God. PANTHEIST: A person who believes that God is not a personality, but that all laws, forces, manifestations, etc. of the self existing universe are God. BANKHEIST: A hold-up at a bank. (Just seeing if you're paying attention!)* SKEPTIC: One who is yet undecided as to what is true; one who is looking or inquiring for what is true; an inquirer after facts or reasons. Kathleen Eggen's comment on these definitions was: "Notice, not one of these definitions mentions Goddess!!! Yeah, these definitions suck... we definitely need a new word." *Kathleen also contributed the Bankheist quip above. Among the many suggestions were words like non-theist (too negating) sanstheist (sanstranslates to without, so that wouldn't do.) Then Mark Thompson ( A "consulting knowledge analyst") leapt into our word game with an inspiration! Transtheist! Here's his definition. TRANSTHEIST: a person or group capable of moving between, creating, manifesting or using reality models that contain any variety, class, combination or distribution of deity, divinity, natural processes, magic, symbolism, metaphor or god/goddess-constructs (including their absence or negation) on a solipsistic*-personal, consensus-social or universal-cosmic scale. (I want Mark on my team next time we play dictionary!) A more casual definition might be someone who can both participate in and transcend any and all symbol systems, or reality models pertaining to the existence (or non existence) of that which we call divine. It implies a willingness to multidimensionalize one's experience. Enjoying but not clinging to any given viewpoint. Paul V. Johnson's (late founder of S.A.C.) favorite Korzybski quote was "The map is not the territory." Transtheists recognize that all symbol systems we have ever used to represent our experience of the divine are maps, but not the territory. Just as exploring a territory with a street map or a topographical map will yield a different experience of the same territory - belief maps, if you will, yield varied experiences of existence. A transtheist may move within and without a variety of belief maps all the while remembering that what he is experiencing transcends all maps. Some transtheists might also be likened to America's early explorers of our western territories. For the first of them ventured into the wilderness without any maps to guide them. They traveled carefully, with their senses wide open, and a willingness to experience whatever they might encounter. What's the use of a new word, you may ask? Some claim "in the beginning was the word..." There are whole branches of magic based on the power of words. A more modern psychological maxim is "if you name it you can claim it." I personally am generally in favor of less definition rather than more, but as long as we find ourselves trafficking in labels, I say, the more spacious the label the better. At any rate, most of us can generally agree that words are universal tools of culture. As is true with all tools, they can be used to build walls, or bridges. I'm hoping "transtheist" may be useful for the latter. We have plenty of labels that separate, we need more labels that join. So, as they say, "You heard it here first folks!" Let's find out what it takes to birth a word into a language. Let us know if you relate to this word or if you find it useful. Feel free to adopt it, adapt it, use it, apply it, deny it, spread it, transcend it. Sincerely wishing you a delightful experience of skipping through the mystery! David J. Beede A reader survey.(Gee, just like Cosmo!) Based on the definitions in the previous article take a moment to respond below.
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