Oh, I'd say "non religious but spiritual", but there's probably a better world. I think lots of people are in that category. I suppose the trick is finding a religion that seems to be heading the way you want the world to head.
I was thinking eclecticism, which "was first practiced by a group of ancient philosophers who attached themselves to no real system, but selected from existing philosophical beliefs those doctrines that seemed most reasonable to them."
It doesn't imply the "deity is too vast to say anything for sure" but I think almost all religions claim this already - they just make exceptions for their own particular bits of revelation.
Hmm, I did think of UU, but that's not quite it... I wondered more if there was a word for the state of believing in a god but not following any particular doctrine, as opposed to picking and choosing from among doctrines. Like, "I believe a god exists, but I'm not going to try and define it any further than that"... sort of agnosticism but with belief?
I hear "spiritual but not religious" a lot, too, but it is kind of vague, and perhaps overused in some circles. Wikipedia does have some information on modern Deist re-interpretations, but you've probably seen this (or the equivalent) already.
I like the idea of you subscribing to eclecticism, but I don't realistically think that people should take their religions from their LiveJournal usernames.
I hadn't, actually; I tend to mooch around religion on Wikipedia a lot, because it's a pet topic in a sort of abstractly curious way, but I do not think I have read that article in depth. Thanks. ^^
Also, I had a theoretical milk/nose interface (the kind where you're not actually drinking any milk) at your second paragraph. :D It's odd, because in a way what I've described isn't wholly accurate to what I feel/believe myself (that would be too complicated to throw at people), but it's what I'd want to emphasize to people if I had to sum up what I think in a sentence; it's the raw concept, the ring of truth that underpins every religion, you should be looking for, not the arbitrary trappings that people probably invented to distinguish themselves from other tribes/piss off the Romans/whatever and somehow got incorporated into these books as equal holy doctrine. I don't think you should get your religion from a book unless it's by Neil Gaiman: I think you should get your religion from going and looking for spirituality and seeing what
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True. XP And I did think of it before then; just something about the way it was said got me. :3
...it would be a hilarious religion to live by, but probably not very enlightening. XD Although, I don't know; if you were always smiling and happy and laughing so hard that milk could theoretically (or metaphysically) come out of your nose, that might itself open the doors to a higher state of being....
Probably not helping a great deal here, but you could always make up your own word for it. :) Of course then you'd have to launch into explanations every single time, which could get tiresome.
And I do hope you manage to get things sorted out with the gas company. Damn people knocking once or sometimes not knocking at all and not bothering to wait. Grr.
Yeah... I kind of want something existing that sums it up, even though I'd still have to explain that, because if I can't think of a word for it probably most people wouldn't know the word either. It's just niggling me that I feel like there must be one for it out there somewhere, I suppose. Neologisms are still nifty, though.
And hope so, yeah, thanks. ...not knocking at all? What, are they trying telepathy now? O_o
A couple of times, I've had the postman drop off a "you weren't home, please pick up your package" card when I've been home all day, and near enough to hear any knocks (my bedroom window overlooks the front door). I don't mind having to go get a package, really, but it's still very annoying when these people are being paid to deliver my package and they just don't bother.
Also, does anyone know if there's a word for someone who believes in a god, thinks all belief systems have a snippet of the truth in them, but thinks +90% of actual religion is a damaging concoction of falsehoods that just detract from actually finding the spiritual?
I don't know, other than perhaps calling yourself a mystic or "spiritual but not religious", but I do know that this word (whatever it might be) also largely applies to myself also.
Ooh, "mystic" sounds very much like... well, it makes me think of SaGa Frontier, for one. It sounds either like an RPG race or like... like a shaman, or someone who would have oracular fits and predict the future. It... well, it's more of a magic word than a traditionally religious word, isn't it?
...was eclective the person we'd previously been nudging to play Asellus' story in SaGa Frontier? Not that it particularly matters, because clearly he should play Asellus' story, whether or not he had been previously nudged.
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It doesn't imply the "deity is too vast to say anything for sure" but I think almost all religions claim this already - they just make exceptions for their own particular bits of revelation.
If you were in the US you could perhaps call yourself unitarian universalist...
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I like the idea of you subscribing to eclecticism, but I don't realistically think that people should take their religions from their LiveJournal usernames.
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Also, I had a theoretical milk/nose interface (the kind where you're not actually drinking any milk) at your second paragraph. :D It's odd, because in a way what I've described isn't wholly accurate to what I feel/believe myself (that would be too complicated to throw at people), but it's what I'd want to emphasize to people if I had to sum up what I think in a sentence; it's the raw concept, the ring of truth that underpins every religion, you should be looking for, not the arbitrary trappings that people probably invented to distinguish themselves from other tribes/piss off the Romans/whatever and somehow got incorporated into these books as equal holy doctrine. I don't think you should get your religion from a book unless it's by Neil Gaiman: I think you should get your religion from going and looking for spirituality and seeing what ( ... )
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Wait, that pun wasn't evident the minute eclecticism was suggested? ;)
What about "metaphysical-milk-from-nose-ism"?
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...it would be a hilarious religion to live by, but probably not very enlightening. XD Although, I don't know; if you were always smiling and happy and laughing so hard that milk could theoretically (or metaphysically) come out of your nose, that might itself open the doors to a higher state of being....
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And I do hope you manage to get things sorted out with the gas company. Damn people knocking once or sometimes not knocking at all and not bothering to wait. Grr.
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And hope so, yeah, thanks. ...not knocking at all? What, are they trying telepathy now? O_o
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I don't know, other than perhaps calling yourself a mystic or "spiritual but not religious", but I do know that this word (whatever it might be) also largely applies to myself also.
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