Nontheist Friends

Unity during meeting for worship for attention to business is familiar to Quakers. It is a commitment to move forward together and, significantly, it does not mean we have to hold the same views. This method of doing business has long been characteristic of Quakers.

4 Comments »

…I don’t mean that everyone should engage in or care about this kind of intellectual wrestling, and I certainly don’t mean that our worship should become intellectual debate or performance–yuck. But the widespread fear of and distaste for intellect, as if the search for understanding could possibly be a bad thing, does not serve us well…

5 Comments »

I don’t recall the first time I woke up dead, having done so many times since. Each time feels like the first time, so maybe it’s an ongoing thing — waking up dead.
There are days when I wake up fully alive, and those are the cruelest of all. Those are the days when I feel [...]

3 Comments »

My friend Nat Case, from my own Twin Cities Friends Meeting, has a blog I hadn’t paid much attention to until a month or two ago. I don’t know how much of my inattention is because I hadn’t noticed how smartly provocative his writing is, and how much is because, as a cartographer, he’s been writing less for a mapmaking audience lately, and more for Quakers and other people who question the meaning of religion. People like me.

This post expands on a brief comment I made on his post Fragments of a Religion That Never Existed, where Nat writes in part:

“What I’m interested in here is the idea of scripture not defined by its innate qualities (e.g. dictated by God), but by its functional qualities. What does scripture do? I find scripture-as-community-glue interesting, but my sympathies lie with scriptures-taken-to-heart. I do have a series of books, passages from books, poems, some formal religious texts, ballads, and films that form what I believe is similar to the sort of scripture-taken-to-heart that orthodox folk might have. Except I do not have a community that draws from the same set of texts.”

13 Comments »

“If you think Richard Dawkins is too easy on religion, go down to that end of the room,” I said, indicating the steps up to the bookstore. “And if you…”

“Careful…” someone said.

And I was. There were several believers-in-God present – the exact number depending on your definition – and I didn’t want to make a joke that might be taken the wrong way.

“If you’re, uh… very theistic, go down to the other end,” I finished, indicating the fireplace. “And if you’re somewhere in between, go somewhere in between.”

20 Comments »

For three days I have been at the beautiful Powell House Quaker retreat center, up in Old Chatham, New York. I have been attending a workshop on “nontheist Quakers” led by Robin Alpern and Zach Alexander with about 16 other Quakers from around the northeast area.

1 Comment »

A Friend on the nontheist Friends e-mail discussion list at some point challenged us to seriously study early Quaker history, and not just dip into it, “to develop our knowledge of and insights into the origins and development of the tradition or movement we have committed to.” Good advice, no question. And yet I felt [...]

13 Comments »

At Friends General Conference earlier this month, in addition to Robin Alpern and David Boulton’s workshop on nontheist Friends and discernment (previously posted here), there were a number of one-off scheduled events at the “Nontheist Friends Center,” on topics like nontheistic spirituality and theological diversity.

And in addition to those, three or four more events were arranged on-site to meet what seemed like a demand for them. I might be forgetting any that happened earlier in the week before I arrived, but Wednesday afternoon there was a meeting for worship, followed by a screening of a film about Gerrard Winstanley, who according to some was the first Quaker nontheist.

And on Thursday, Chuck Fager arranged the following debate conversation between himself and David Boulton, complete with lurid posters billing it “The Theist-Nontheist Conversational Smackdown of 2008″ and promising “thrills, chills and (nonviolent) spills,” if memory serves.

The questions they discussed were “Are Quakers a chosen people?” and “Is David Boulton a closet theist?” Thanks perhaps to the posters, it took place before a packed-out room of about 110 people, with a number of (un-chosen?) people listening in the hall.

Click the green “play” arrow below to hear my recording of the event, or click here to download the mp3 file, and look under the cut for another photo and a thought.

(By the way, David’s opening joke refers to the poster, which described the participants as Chuck “Without Apology” Fager and David “The Trouble with God” Boulton.)

7 Comments »

1. Circle 1 = God
2. Circle 2 = the natural world
3. Circle 1 minus Circle 2 = the supernatural world

19 Comments »

A Friend on the nontheist Friends email list asked what the basis for membership might be, or more specifically, what a basis might be for turning someone down for membership. The question was not specifically about belief/disbelief in God, so I did not particularly address that. I suppose, by not addressing such belief/disbelief, I am [...]

8 Comments »