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Good to see you @Hermann. How have you been?
Good to see you too, paradox3, and Pinga, and everyone else.

I am doing well, considering that I am almost 80 years old. My wife and I are now living in the basement suite of our granddaughter's house, enjoying our retirement and babysitting our great-grandchildren. I am trying to establish a garden on my granddaughter's lot.

I should, perhaps, elaborate a bit more on what I believe.

I consider myself a spiritual person, but my spirituality is largely experiential. Although I do have some thoughts about my spiritual experiences, I do not harbour any fixed beliefs about them. What I think about my spirituality is, at all times, speculative.

I've had a staunch Lutheran upbringing, and have been a member of the UCCAN for over 20 years, but came into my present spirituality on the path of Zen. Thus, I could say that I am a Christian Zen Buddhist.

I also have been an ardent admirer of Jesus since I was a child, love our Christian faith story, and consider myself a follower of Jesus.

My preferred spiritual explanations are those closest to scientific philosophy. To me, the physical universe is supernal. No supernatural explanations necessary.

My spiritual philosophy is humanism, my theology pantheism, leaning toward panentheism. It could also be described as unitheism, because I think we are a unified, self-creative universe, with the creative power being a or The cosmic force, an integral part of the universe. Because I don't believe in a supernatural deity or deities, my theological stance stance could also be described as atheism or agnosticism.

But, as I said, my spirituality is largely experiential. My best words to describe my spiritual experience is that it is unitive or unitarian: I experience everything as one unified whole, and my individual self as an inseparable part of IT.
 
Is panentheism like satirical in nature?

That would cover up for the natural part in the Nar at I've ...
 
I am a Born Again Holy Spirit filled Christian who only relies on God and His Word ---I don't believe in any Man made Religions --I am a follower of the Way-- The Truth and The Life -----


Image result for Jesus is the way --the truth and the life
 
I don't like to fit into any boxes. I have Celtic roots and that framework speaks to me. I am a spiritual person and feed my spirit in nature and in some church pews. I also feed it with music and knitting. I lean towards atheism some days when I'm cynical. I'm finding myself thinking more about the meaning of god/godde/creator/etc with this breast cancer diagnosis. I am evolving.

Welcome back @Hermann and @Witch. It's great to see you back.
 
I agree with Socrates - I have always feared death, and now in my Autumn/Winter? years I'm devoting more time contemplating my death.........

When the two people you love the most in this life die prematurely, it can't help but affect you.
I can readily see that I have to hold on to a "shy hope" in a God. I need someone/some concept, to stay the course with me and support me when my time comes.
I have no wish to go raging into that good night, my hope is that there is a God who will show me the way to leave this life in peace and calm acceptance.
 
I agree with Socrates - I have always feared death, and now in my Autumn/Winter? years I'm devoting more time contemplating my death.........

When the two people you love the most in this life die prematurely, it can't help but affect you.
I can readily see that I have to hold on to a "shy hope" in a God. I need someone/some concept, to stay the course with me and support me when my time comes.
I have no wish to go raging into that good night, my hope is that there is a God who will show me the way to leave this life in peace and calm acceptance.

But you can't say that out loud ... death is taboo to those that believe they own the monopoly of life and thus can dish it out according to privately based protocol!

Thus regress as Muses did in the face of it ... thus the metaphor ... sometimes an enigma! There's more to it than meets the eye ... as soon as you speak of unknowns ... people get edgy!
 
"Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night."

-Dylan Thomas

Socrates' words presumably had forked lightning, so that he did not rage against the dying of the light. So, if our own thoughts or words have forked lighting, then, presumably, we too may go gentle into that good night. But forking lightning with our thoughts is not easy, and only a lucky few achieve it.

Buddhism teaches to go beyond attachment, but it is attachment to the things or people we love that makes life sweet. Without attachment, life is stale. And to suddenly go beyond attachment near the end of life is difficult. But whatever we have become attached to in life we must lose in death, either in the death of those we love or in our own. The only consolation might be that we must eventually lose everything we possess. The bitter loss necessitates the sweet possession; the sweet possession brings about the bitter loss. Such is the bitter sweetness of life.

In the great Australian movie, The Thornbirds, Father Ralph says to Maggie: "At the moment of death, Christ will appear and take you in." Although I am not a conventional believer, I believe in the metaphorical truth of that statement. I believe that something like that will happen at the moment of death. So, do go gentle into that good night!
 
"Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night."

-Dylan Thomas

Socrates' words presumably had forked lightning, so that he did not rage against the dying of the light. So, if our own thoughts or words have forked lighting, then, presumably, we too may go gentle into that good night. But forking lightning with our thoughts is not easy, and only a lucky few achieve it.

Buddhism teaches to go beyond attachment, but it is attachment to the things or people we love that makes life sweet. Without attachment, life is stale. And to suddenly go beyond attachment near the end of life is difficult. But whatever we have become attached to in life we must lose in death, either in the death of those we love or in our own. The only consolation might be that we must eventually lose everything we possess. The bitter loss necessitates the sweet possession; the sweet possession brings about the bitter loss. Such is the bitter sweetness of life.

In the great Australian movie, The Thornbirds, Father Ralph says to Maggie: "At the moment of death, Christ will appear and take you in." Although I am not a conventional believer, I believe in the metaphorical truth of that statement. I believe that something like that will happen at the moment of death. So, do go gentle into that good night!

And there it all was in a Flash ...
 
Good to read so many nice statements. @PilgrimsProgress 's resonates the most for me, even though I'm not so sure about Process Theology.
I'm a Christian, a current member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and a former member of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil, with a classical Lutheran+Reformed theology inherited from a Pietist family background. My faith has been changing, though, since I was a teenager, with several ruptures and continuities.
Right now, I'm not very certain of how God operates, but I do believe in Him and His abundant Grace. For everyone.
 
One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back-to-back they faced one another,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
One was blind and the other couldn't see,
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play,
A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came and shot the two dead boys.
A paralysed donkey walking by,
Kicked the copper in the eye,
Sent him through a nine inch wall,
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.
If you don't believe this lie is true,
Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!
 
One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back-to-back they faced one another,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
One was blind and the other couldn't see,
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play,
A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came and shot the two dead boys.
A paralysed donkey walking by,
Kicked the copper in the eye,
Sent him through a nine inch wall,
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.
If you don't believe this lie is true,
Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!

Not clear on how this fits with the topic, but it's hilarious.
 
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