tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780959994860337432.post1773516328727438474..comments2023-07-01T09:09:57.005-04:00Comments on So You Want to be a LESBIAN?: From Agnoticism to Atheism: Have I Made the Leap?Shannon1981http://www.blogger.com/profile/02551944959564453089noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780959994860337432.post-52481112737920570932011-06-17T19:32:07.170-04:002011-06-17T19:32:07.170-04:00I don't mean to imply that atheism is the only...I don't mean to imply that atheism is the only path away from Abrahamic Faiths. I think what you are describing is the very reason I spent so much time being agnostic rather than atheist. I wanted to believe that SOMETHING is out there. that what I am right here and right now, can't POSSIBLY be all there is. But, the thing is...for me, this IS all there is. Just took me awhile to embrace it, I think. I have been pointed in this direction for a very long time, and, like I said in the beginning of this post, I've no issue with the paths of others. I just...have no reason, nor feel a need to, believe anything beyond the here and now. That by no means is absolute, nor does it mean it will not change. Life, every aspect of it, is a journey, and spirituality(or lack thereof) is no exception.Shannon1981https://www.blogger.com/profile/02551944959564453089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780959994860337432.post-55616816957608351922011-06-17T18:30:19.407-04:002011-06-17T18:30:19.407-04:00Forgive me for being an agitator, but it's in ...Forgive me for being an agitator, but it's in my nature...<br /><br />I noticed some of the phraseology you used here... "organized religion"... "Judeo-Christian God". Like you, I abandoned both large bureaucratic religious organizations AND the Judeo-Christian concept of a harsh and judgemental God a LONG time ago (almost 30 years now). <br /><br />However, to assume that the only option to counter dogmatic legalistic religion is atheism is actually playing into the very "black and white" thinking that lays at the heart of "heaven or hell" mythologies. It's like saying that someone is either totally gay or totally straight... and we both know just how wrong THAT assumption is!<br /><br />Spirituality, and it's operative spin off, religion, are, at their hearts, intensely personal affairs. The fact that pop culture, consumeristic "religion" has become a tool of oppression is more a symptom of the intertwining of church and state than it is a commentary on the value of religion to the individual.<br /><br />My religion says that the Divine dwells in all of us, and we are all a reflection of Divinity AS WE ARE, not as some 2,000 year-old rule book says we should be. My religion also says that nobody HAS to believe as I do, and that they're still perfectly OK as people. Some may say that mine is the exception to the rule, but that makes it no less valid. There is an entire realm of spiritual/religious thought out there, especially within the Neo-Pagan/Earth-Spiritual realm, that has no issue with anyone's sexual orientation (or science, or reality, or whatnot). In fact, those within the realm of the LGBTQ spectrum are encouraged within those paths to embrace their "different-ness" from the mundane, and to celebrate it.<br /><br />I don't want anyone to think that I'm "recruiting" for my own path... there are many paths in the modern day, outside of Paganism, that value individual experience over institutionalized dogma. Neo-Paganism is but one spoke of a very large wheel...<br /><br />Saying that organized, legalistic religion has failed us will bring NO argument from me. To say that, because the religio-political structures (organized Judeo-Christian religion) that humankind has built have failed us, that there is no spiritual reality beyond this life or the five senses (which is what Atheism is)? THAT seems as short-sighted as the very dogma that you're escaping. Peace....Taliesin Govannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14362301405329511691noreply@blogger.com