Faith Beyond Belief
Spiritual truth is all-powerful until we try to organize it; for often — perhaps inevitably — the organization becomes more important than the truth it is founded upon. Read more
Spiritual truth is all-powerful until we try to organize it; for often — perhaps inevitably — the organization becomes more important than the truth it is founded upon. Read more
The movie ends with the sung words “To love another person is to see the face of God.” Now, I am no fan of the bearded “sky God” of most traditional religions, but those words inspire me to welcome a far more appealing - and less literal - connotation of what the word God might mean. Read more
Where I am spiritually now is that I feel we are all connected in every way possible, and that the only belief I need is love and respect for all of humanity and the earth. Read more
Contrary to what some religious leaders would have us belief, willingness to face doubt is a sign of personal courage. It is necessary to growth and a crucial step in forming a creative, mature personal faith. Read more
At Reich’s fourth level a person can explain how two competing concepts are related to each other. A person may be willing to allow that while science and logic are necessary, they may not supply all the answers, that there may be Truths in all religions, that all humans are all separate individuals and yet somehow all connected, that god in whatever form could be both a separate entity and yet still a part of every being at the same time. Read more
If spiritual practices don’t foster a universal compassion – an all-inclusive compassion - they cannot lead to spiritual maturity. Realizing the benefits of a heart hatched out of its shell, and the compassion that ensues from it are what lead us to the most authentic and fulfilling life. Read more
Many atheists are at the post-conventional level and derive their sense of morality from being able to trust their own instincts and powers of reasoning more reliably than they can trust a bunch of black and white rules set out by a church. Read more
Faith Beyond Belief: Stories of Good People Who Left Their Church Behind challenges both religious believers and nonbelievers to a more sophisticated understanding than the typical religious or atheistic endpoints. Read more
...unitive spiritual maturity can be the key to rising above the divisiveness and intolerance by which many forms of popular religion embarrass themselves in our society today. Read more
One of the defining characteristics of spiritual maturation is the ability to see God as a metaphor and the willingness to interpret Biblical teachings as parables for life lessons rather than literal nonfictional accounts. Read more
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