Non-Christian Mediums

[Recycled1]

Interesting, but do they believe in the Christian style of God or do they have their own version?

The first Spiritualist principle is belief in "The Fatherhood of God", which I agree sounds VERY Christian!
I expect,though,that thinking spiritualists have their own private interpretations of what "God" means.

I myself hold some vague notion of an impersonal power source, that can be tapped into for good or evil depending on the particular human's inclinations!
I no longer belive in "Mr God, the Magician" who could put everything right if he wished to, but chooses not to!
...........................................................................................................
Old Time Radio - I'm surprised you include Quakers in your list of denominations. I went to the Quaker meetings for a year or so after I'd come to the difficult decision to leave the mainstream Christian church.
As far as I am aware, there's no necessity for Quakers to "hold the doctrine of salvation". This is partly what drew me to them!
I find the idea of Jesus being a physical sacrifice for sins, totally disgusting and barbaric.I understand why it was the reasoning of the disciples, to account for the need for Jesus' death -this was the theology and practice of the times they were living in. But surely we in the twenty first century don't have to hang on to it!
As I've said in another thread, I didn't stick with the Quakers because I'm knocking on a bit in years, and I found it dreadfully hard to keep awake in a warm room on a Sunday morning!

I wish Decipheringscars would rejoin this thread -I tried to send him/her a pm, but was told he/she didn't exist!

 

[ramonmercado]

Interesting, but do they believe in the Christian style of God or do they have their own version?

The first Spiritualist principle is belief in "The Fatherhood of God", which I agree sounds VERY Christian!
I expect,though,that thinking spiritualists have their own private interpretations of what "God" means.

I myself hold some vague notion of an impersonal power source, that can be tapped into for good or evil depending on the particular human's inclinations!
I no longer belive in "Mr God, the Magician" who could put everything right if he wished to, but chooses not to!
...........................................................................................................
Old Time Radio - I'm surprised you include Quakers in your list of denominations. I went to the Quaker meetings for a year or so after I'd come to the difficult decision to leave the mainstream Christian church.
As far as I am aware, there's no necessity for Quakers to "hold the doctrine of salvation". This is partly what drew me to them!
I find the idea of Jesus being a physical sacrifice for sins, totally disgusting and barbaric.I understand why it was the reasoning of the disciples, to account for the need for Jesus' death -this was the theology and practice of the times they were living in. But surely we in the twenty first century don't have to hang on to it!
As I've said in another thread, I didn't stick with the Quakers because I'm knocking on a bit in years, and I found it dreadfully hard to keep awake in a warm room on a Sunday morning!

I wish Decipheringscars would rejoin this thread -I tried to send him/her a pm, but was told he/she didn't exist!

I remember from Christopher Isherwoods diaries around 1942-43 he was discussing with a Quaker theologian who admitted you didn't have to be Christian to be a Quaker.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

I remember from Christopher Isherwoods diaries around 1942-43 he was discussing with a Quaker theologian who admitted you didn't have to be Christian to be a Quaker.

But that's true of any Christian religion. You walk into a Christian house of worship, put money in the collection plate, and nobody's going to throw you out. If you do it often enough, they might even put you on the church rolls.

 

[ramonmercado]

I remember from Christopher Isherwoods diaries around 1942-43 he was discussing with a Quaker theologian who admitted you didn't have to be Christian to be a Quaker.

But that's true of any Christian religion. You walk into a Christian house of worship, put money in the collection plate, and nobody's going to throw you out. If you do it often enough, they might even put you on the church rolls.

I probably wasn't clear enough: Isherwood meant that the quaker said you didn't have to be a christian to formally join the quakers, ie ask to be admitted.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

I probably wasn't clear enough: Isherwood meant that the quaker said you didn't have to be a christian to formally join the quakers, ie ask to be admitted.

I probably wasn't clear enough either. The point I was attempting to make was that NO Christian church (of which I'm aware) requires a formal statement of Christian belief for church membership. Most churches would be delighted to add a donation-paying atheist to the church rolls.

The zillionaire banker Otto Kahn, who was Jewish, attended Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City for the last 40 years of his life, without ever "turning Christian." Not only was he added to the church rolls, he was eventually asked to become Treasurer of the Archdiocese of New York! (He finally confessed Christ on his deathbed.)

 

[Mythopoeika]

A work colleague of mine has been helping to do up a church, and has attended some of their social events.
He hasn't worked up the courage to tell them that he's an atheist.

 

[GNC]

A work colleague of mine has been helping to do up a church, and has attended some of their social events.
He hasn't worked up the courage to tell them that he's an atheist.

He should tell them he's a humanist, it might sound nicer.

 

[Kondoru]

Ive been helping clean a local churches stained glass; Im no believer, and see nothing odd about that.

Our village church is supported by the VILLAGE, attendees, chapel, muslim, buddist, unbeliever...

 

[Ghostisfort]

A work colleague of mine has been helping to do up a church, and has attended some of their social events.
He hasn't worked up the courage to tell them that he's an atheist.

He should tell them he's a humanist, it might sound nicer.

I'm curious about the word Humanist and wondering if anyone can explain what it is? I've looked on the web and still non-the-wiser. The word looks like a religion, but what I've read seems to be saying that its not.
Are there any Humanists on this forum who can explain?

 

[Recycled1]

I've felt drawn to Humanism, myself, particularly as my local Humanist Society holds qute interesting- sounding meetings on a Saturday afternoon!
I contacted them, and they sounded very welcoming!

As far as I can tell, Humanists are atheists with a strong social and ecological conscience!

In the end I decided not to attend any of their meetings, as I knew I could never join them because they don't believe in any sort of life after death.
I've had experiences with the ouija board in my youth, and later experiences at various Spiritualist churches that make me sure that SOMETHING of the human intelligence /personality survives physical death, at least for a while.

 

[Ghostisfort]

Thank you, that's a good one-line explanation of something that has puzzled me.

Exploration is a good thing, as it shows that you are thinking about the things we're discouraged from thinking about.
Most TV programs have a health warning about the things you describe - 'this program is for entertainment purposes only' and a resident rationalist who will attempt to reduce all that you have seen to the mundane. I make no apology for ignoring such advice. In fact I make a point of doing the things I'm not supposed to do at least every few days.