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I perceive them as human created. I'm like you in that I'm an atheist. However, I do believe in a certain fabric of the universe that ties everyone together. When I perform a ritual or a magickal act, it is easier for me to concentrate on an aspect of the universe which I normally address as the Lord or Lady or a more specific aspect of those two. When you start addressing infinity, it's just too big...

So, I guess I'm a pantheist.

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Originally Posted By: Ali - Atheist Editor
This question is very interesting to me. As a skeptic and an atheist with deist leanings, I try to refrain from attributing human emotions to the universe, but I certainly understand the practicality of trying to relate to the universe on your own terms. Therefore, I have no problem with creating a human image or "god" to represent the creative force of the universe, as long as one does not take it too seriously.

As concerns pagans, I guess my quesition is therefore always this: Do you believe that that avatars/deities that you pray to are actual entities, or do you perceive them as human-created images/icons that help you concentrate on and contemplate the create force of the universe, which they represent?

In other words, are you a true polytheist (one who believes in many gods), or a pantheist (one who believes that the universe is infused with "godliness")?


Is this for me?
I know thatthe avatars/deities that I used to pray are actual and not human.

Let me tell you what I know myself. I am not talking of belief but knowledge. God is unknown quanitity. Nobody knows him/her except the enlightened ones who have become one with him/her. God created all these deities for a particular work. All are assigned work. God is in all of us. Universe is God. If you care to read Vedanta, you will understand how this was logically arrived at thousands of year ago.

They took everything- say, sun, and asked is this God? The answer was no. They took everything one by one and all the answers were no. In Sanscrit we say- Neti, Neti- No, No.

Then what is God? If no single object is God, then all objects are God. pl. read Vedanta for further analysiis. I can not explain this at all on this forum.



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That sounds like pantheism to me, combined with a touch of agnosticism:

"God is everywhere. God is in everything. But we do not and cannot know his true nature."

This makes a bit of sense even to me, an atheist. After all, an atheist is someone who denies the existence of defined gods, not of the unknowable creative force of the universe.

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I'd have to say I tend towards the pantheism answer.

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Wolf
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Originally Posted By: Ali - Atheist Editor
That sounds like pantheism to me, combined with a touch of agnosticism:

"God is everywhere. God is in everything. But we do not and cannot know his true nature."

This makes a bit of sense even to me, an atheist. After all, an atheist is someone who denies the existence of defined gods, not of the unknowable creative force of the universe.


according to Hinduism, to know thetrue nature of God is the object of human birth. I do not understand the meanings of the words- pantheism etc. Could you pl. explain?

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pantheism = godliness is everywhere, in all things
polytheism = there are multiple gods; godliness does not exist but through them

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Then I belive in pantheism.

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So do I. I find this a believable concept. I have always felt closer to the 'Divine Source' (to try putting it into language!) when surrounded by the beauty and majesty of Nature than in any church. What greater cathedral is there than the canopy of a rain forest, or the mountains reaching up to the sky?

I see divinity in a flower, a leaf, and even a blade of grass. Divinity shines for me through the eyes of a child, an animal, and in the rays of the sun or the gentle light of the moon. It twinkles in the stars, and the waters of rivers and oceans bathe my body with what I feel is love.

Sorry! I didn't mean to get all poetic! It just strikes me that way sometimes! (smiles)

Ann.

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i agree Ann


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Originally Posted By: anndidetal
So do I. I find this a believable concept. I have always felt closer to the 'Divine Source' (to try putting it into language!) when surrounded by the beauty and majesty of Nature than in any church. What greater cathedral is there than the canopy of a rain forest, or the mountains reaching up to the sky?

I see divinity in a flower, a leaf, and even a blade of grass. Divinity shines for me through the eyes of a child, an animal, and in the rays of the sun or the gentle light of the moon. It twinkles in the stars, and the waters of rivers and oceans bathe my body with what I feel is love.

Sorry! I didn't mean to get all poetic! It just strikes me that way sometimes! (smiles)

Ann.


Ann, do you write poetry?


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