| rdfs:comment
| - Religious naturalism is an approach to spirituality that is devoid of supernaturalism. Religious naturalism, like most religions, is concerned about the meaning of life, but it is equally interested in living daily life in a rational, happy way. An alternative, more human-centric approach, is to look at it as answering the question: "What is the meaning of one's life and does it have a purpose?". Religious naturalism attempts to amalgamate the scientific examination of reality with the subjective sensory experiences of spirituality and aesthetics. As such, it is an objectivity with religious emotional feelings and the aesthetic insights supplied by art, music and literature.,
- Neo-theistic - those who maintain a god concept of some kind or they may simply use god language to express their feelings about what is. Many of these people have evolved out of traditional religious beliefs and may still be active in churches of various denominations. Many of them can be called religious liberals. Their god concept is a strictly a naturalistic one. That is, their concept of deity is not supernatural as most god concepts are. What ever they see as God, must be in or of the real world.
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| abstract
| - Religious naturalism is an approach to spirituality that is devoid of supernaturalism. Religious naturalism, like most religions, is concerned about the meaning of life, but it is equally interested in living daily life in a rational, happy way. An alternative, more human-centric approach, is to look at it as answering the question: "What is the meaning of one's life and does it have a purpose?". Religious naturalism attempts to amalgamate the scientific examination of reality with the subjective sensory experiences of spirituality and aesthetics. As such, it is an objectivity with religious emotional feelings and the aesthetic insights supplied by art, music and literature.,
- Neo-theistic - those who maintain a god concept of some kind or they may simply use god language to express their feelings about what is. Many of these people have evolved out of traditional religious beliefs and may still be active in churches of various denominations. Many of them can be called religious liberals. Their god concept is a strictly a naturalistic one. That is, their concept of deity is not supernatural as most god concepts are. What ever they see as God, must be in or of the real world. Non-theistic - middle ground sector that approaches the concept of God as an unanswerable question. No universally accepted truth, one way or the other, has materialized over several thousand years on the question about the existence of god, so there is no need to waste more time on it. A person can live their life without answering this arguable question. There is an uncertainty in doing this, but objectively, life is an uncertainty. Masking this uncertainty with a god concept comforts some people. Some however find this an undesirable self-deception and accept the unknowing as one of the attributes of a vast, mysterious Universe. It becomes part of the spirituality they see in it. This acceptance of uncertainty may in time become the key distinct attribute of Religious Naturalism. Most religions try to eliminate not knowing. People generally desire dogmatic certainty, unchanging doctrine. They seek a frozen truth rather than see it as being relative, evolving and emergent. Uncertainty on the other hand for many is exhilarating, sparking their curiosity, making the future more interesting. Mystery is something that is acceptable and is to be embraced. Current authors and website writers who can probably be considered non-theistic are Ursula Goodenough, Donald Crosby, Willem Drees, Jerome Stone, V.V. Ramon, Chet Raymo, Loyal Rue and Jerald Robertson. Not-theistic - those in this sector of Religious Naturalism are atheistic (a soft atheism - not combative). They deny a concept of God in any form or by any definition. Never the less, they admit to a strong personal spirituality and religious orientation. There are aspects of the world that they consider sacred worth of reverence and respect. They have a religious feeling for morality and love for the environment. They perceive the same awe, wonder and mystery in the natural world that other Religious Naturalists do. Some of these may have a foundation based on Buddhism and Taoism, neither of which are theistic, but also have rich spiritualities. Other viewpoints - the three sectors above are categorized by their position on the God question. There are others ways to differentiate them. Author Jerome Stone (Religious Naturalism Today) classifies them by groups of people using their position on God but by a somewhat different criteria than above. Other ways are by what they consider sacred, by communities or by culture. In recent years some church or synagogue congregations have adopted a Religious Naturalist approach. Reconstructionist Jews and some local Unitarian Universalists churches are examples. To these perhaps may be added the Fellowship of Religious Humanists and some individual Quakers. Some of the tenets of Progressive Christianity are very similar to those of Religious Naturalism.
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