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Teetotalers for God take the pledge
Q: What do you think of the American Humanist Association's new "Godless Holiday" campaign? The ads will say: "No God? . . . No Problem! Be good for goodness' sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.
The trouble with renunciation is that it is so absolute. Throwing God out of Christmas can't be a completely good idea or completely bad one. Consider the temperance movement. A hundred years ago the teetotalers equated drink with the Devil, and "taking the pledge" in writing displayed a willingness to be saved. The culmination of the movement took place with Prohibition, when a whole nation was forced to take the pledge, whether they liked it or not.
In reality, alcohol can be put to good and bad uses. The bad may far outweigh the good, and perhaps "good" needs to be in quotation marks. But I doubt that anyone has ever been lost or saved by accepting God or renouncing Him (or Her). God is a projection of human aspirations; God is also a projection of human guilt and a sense of sin. The two aspects have never been unraveled. To me, the unraveling must be done, but organized religion often blocks the way. Millions of people learn that they are sinners as children and carry the same crippling conviction for decades, to their deathbeds.
Humanism isn't the same as atheism. To that extent, the American Humanist Association has co-opted a word and distorted it for their own purposes. Even so-called secular humanism, a distortion by the religious right, doesn't preclude a deep desire to be a spiritual seeker. Indeed, the more humanist you are, the more you care about the human condition, and that proves to be fertile ground for spiritual aspirations. I'd rather follow a troubled agnostic who wants to raise his consciousness than a smug religionist who knows all the answers because he memorized them from the pulpit (or mosque, synagogue, and temple).
Humanists travel under an 18th-century banner, held aloft by Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers, that reads "The proper study of mankind is man." If we include women and understand that human nature extends to the depths of the soul, there's nothing incompatible between humanism and religion. I sympathize with anyone who has suffered from religious intolerance and close-mindedness. There's ample reason to be repelled by organized religion. Yet nothing is absolute, and throwing God out of the holidays isn't right. God stands for all our spiritual aspirations, and we forget them far too often the rest of the year.
By
Deepak Chopra
|
November 23, 2009; 8:31 PM ET
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Posted by: artistkvip1 | November 30, 2009 11:10 PM
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Also, hi, Daniel! Blessings on your holiday, too. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | November 30, 2009 5:33 PM
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""But I doubt that anyone has ever been lost or saved by accepting God or renouncing Him (or Her). God is a projection of human aspirations; God is also a projection of human guilt and a sense of sin. The two aspects have never been unraveled.""
Actually, Dr. Chopra, they have. Many, many times. Making it about *marketing,* well, *that's apparently problematic.
The 'unravelling' you seek puts you right in Pagan territory, though. (This too is in the language we inherit) We are the weavers, we are the woven ones, never mind Who spin the threads.
Or even if we are.
'God' (Or Goddess) is not this 'projection of aspiration and sin' some say S/he is.
In my faith, as in some you may know better, She is said to say, 'I am that which is attained at the *end of desire.*
People are given to read a lot into even so simple a statement... But.
We do make a mess of negotiating the details, don't we, Doctor?
Maybe, 'She' ain't just the same old same old in a dress.
Maybe, 'we' aren't something like that, either.
Maybe we learn. Maybe we feel. Maybe, no one can take that away.
Ever.
Blessings on your turning of the Wheel, Doctor. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | November 30, 2009 5:30 PM
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Very good. This is so sensible. How people don't "get it?"
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | November 28, 2009 3:27 PM
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to say a human being can be good with out God ...is like saying the sky is blue.. why would any competent sane human being wish to debate the truth of the statement.. ummm maybe one with an ulterior motive to try and prove the unprovable which if one were both logical and spirital would seem to be incorrect to waste your time on meaningless exercises when one could perhaps do some small thing in real life that would actually have the consequences of helping bring "goodness" to a world. i find many Christians to be shockingly naive and blind to thier own actual actions and inactions maybe .. taking time to verbalize things and publicly posture (i remember something about the pharisees in Jesus's contempt in Mathew perhaps and then the mention of a closet) which mean little while stepping around and over actual human beings that need help of the ..real not theoretical or string bearing kind.. I think th ethe I remember from a book i refer to from time to time says... we were judging ourselves by our intentions ..while the world was judging us by our actions.. good thoughts with out good acts are fantasy (my added words) there sems to be a large "fantisy island" for a lot of christians and religious rather than true spiritual people worldwide possibly.. I am feeling a litle better physically, if any one has been praying for my physical problems thank you , i still am not able to get quality healthcare i would trust in tallhassee fl for numerous reasons but the largely enlarged lymph nodes under my right arms knee and elbow ( the side the fela cat bit me repeated on)tell me my immune system is chewing up something pretty large. I have god but I would suspect he wanted the actual humans to respond to. i could be wrong..