![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In “Spirituality Without Structure,” Nimue Brown, Druid author, writes “Atheist humanism shows us that we do in our lives ought to make sense in compassionate, human terms, ideally. It’s like the only measuring tool we have and should replace any ideas about what Gods allegedly want us to do.”
John Michael Greer, occult writer, in “A World Full of Gods,” discusses why people think of religion in this manner. “To the classical monotheist (Note 1), divinity is infinite, humanity is finite, and the only possible relationship between them is the absolute submission of the worshipper to the god.”
Greer responds to that thinking by describing Polytheisms. “While the greatest of Pagan gods and goddesses are superlative in their might and majesty, they and their worshippers exist in the common world and share a common measure. What the gods ask of humanity, in turn, is not object submission but respect, love and cooperation.” He continues that the Polytheistic faiths “affirm that humans to flourish in relationship with the gods and in harmony with their purposes, and that this can and will be pursued in every aspect of human life, but they also recognize that human existence as such has it own value, its own place in the broader pattern of the cosmos.” (Note 2)
Like many others, Brown regard revealed religions as the standard for religion. Revealed religions have an historical founder and incorporate teachings revealed by that founder. Examples are Buddhism and Christianity. In discussing the differences between spirituality and religion, many Neo-Pagans default to Christianity as “religion.”
Meanwhile natural religions such as Shinto are more confusing to many people. These religions are often regarded as spiritual but not religious. However, natural religions are formed by the response to something beyond humans, usually Gods or other Sacred Beings. They are orthopraxic with proper practices, but do not have orthodox beliefs.
Polytheism is a natural religion. However, people who are “spiritual but not religious (SBNR)” (including Neo-Pagans) focus on the doctrine of the Gods as they perceive it. This causes problems since there is no doctrine concerning the Gods. What replaces doctrine are rules on how to relate to what is holy. This becomes confused in the thinking of SBNR people that Polytheism is the same as Christianity. Therefore, its practices seem to be doctrine to SBNR people.
To change this thinking, Polytheism must challenge the central claims of atheism and classical monotheism. The most natural way for humans to live is to experience multiple Gods, according to Edward Butler, Polytheistic philosopher. These experiences could be considered “spiritual and religious.” Then the practices of Polytheism becomes a way of experiencing these Gods.
To explain religion as a function of the human brain as Atheism does is reductionistic. It denies both the reality of the Gods and human experience. As someone with a brain injury, I question the theory of Gods as rooted in the human brain. Think of music. A person can measure the hearing of the notes, but they cannot explain why the personal response to Brahms differs from Mozart. As for me, I experience the Gods outside of myself.
Meanwhile, Monotheism has bankrupted religious thinking in the West. That is one reason why people are “spiritual, not religious.” They have despaired of the barren, polluted world of rationality where everything is explained as the Will of God. They want a religion that encompasses all of life. Polytheism offers that.
Notes:
Note 1. Defined by John Michael Greer in “A World Full of Gods.” Classical Monotheism is “The belief in one and only one god, who is the unique eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni benevolent creator of the universe.” Classical monotheism emphasizes that this god is the depenser of morality.
Note 2. Greer defines cosmos as “The vision of the universe as a beautifully ordered whole, in which anything that affects one part affects all parts, in which everything has a place and nothing every goes ‘away.’”
Further Reading:
Alain de Botton, “Religion for Atheists.”
Nimue Brown, “Spirituality Without Structure.”
Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods”
John Michael Greer, “A World Full of Gods.”
Dr. Linda Mercadante, “Belief Without Borders.”
