Nontheist Friends

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Nontheistfriends.org presents the work of Friends (Quakers) who are more concerned with the natural than the supernatural. Some of us understand "God" as a symbol of human values and some of us avoid the concept while accepting it as significant to others. We differ greatly in our religious experience and in the meaning we give religious terms.

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Friends General Conference Gathering, June 28-July 5, 2008

Friends General Conference Gathering will take place at Johnstown, PA from June 28-July 5, with 63 week-long workshops, including one explicitly for nontheist Friends, and others that seek to bring nontheist and theist Friends together. Please let me know if there are workshops that meet this description beyond those I have linked to below. Nontheist Friends and [...]

What some folks at Wikipedia think a nontheist Friend is

Friends General Conference (FGC) 2008 Gathering of Friends

Friends General Conference (FGC) 2008 Gathering of Friends Johnstown, Pennsylvania June 28 - July 5, 2008

Report on the Nontheist Friends interest group at New England Yearly Meeting

There was a moment at one point where the "interested theist" Friend expressed some misgivings about his certainty of God's existence, but then said that he was in his nineties, and without much time to engage in speculation -- and he won't have to wait long to find out firsthand anyway. He ended by saying, "I wouldn't be surprised either way." "One way it's hard to be surprised," joked another, and we had a little laugh. ...

God Circle

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

What is the basis of Quaker membership?

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 [...]

Reflections on a Decade of Nontheism Workshops

In 1996, Bowen Alpern, Glenn Mallison and I designed and presented a workshop called “Nontheism Among Friends” at the Friends General Conference Gathering. Since then, various people have led the workshop and offshoots from it. I have led seven so far. This year, I was particularly aware of [...]