Thank you for sharing your "journey thus far". The journey of a
questor, dissatisfied with the black or white of easy answers
but seeking the diversities all around.*
I was lucky in that I never had a negative religious experience.
I'm sad for those that do. Agnostic at present.
Raised Methodist, only because it was the only not-Catholic
church in our tiny town. Loved it. Basic message: Do good and be
good because it's good. No Hell, Jesus was a nice guy and God
could easily substitute for Universe or anything else necessary.
Everything was metaphorical more or less, at least my take of
it.
Loved Joseph Campbell, Power of Myth as a teenager and read "I'm
ok/you're ok" and "Scripts people live" because they were on the
back of the toilet growing up and I read them while bored.
Travelled through bits of Bahai, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker,
Episcopal, a few others, very nearly becoming Roman Catholic
because of a data entry job I had at a catholic university (and
the priests in training seemed like cool people), ended up going
Eastern Orthodox for 5-6 years. Taught myself a little Russian,
got DEEP into theology, Desert Monks, stayed in a monastery for
a short time, loved the epicurean lifestyle and the singing.
Then 10 years of Science obsession along with learning business,
marketing, stuff.*
Now 43, searching still for meaning of life stuff, exploring
systems that are compatible with my way of thinking, which seems
to lean towards Systems thinking. Found compatible
philosophy/theory of mind (Embodied cognition family), and JUST
found compatible psychology yesterday (Method of Levels -
Perceptual Control Theory - just finished a book on it a few
minutes ago.. first book I've read cover-to-cover in years).
Quite agnostic in that "I don't know". I know I don't like
people trying to control other people. but I do like people
learning self-control and self-awareness.
I have no problem with reasonable, civil people. Most religions
have something really good at their core that's beneficial and
for that, I'm glad they exist. Secular systems have yet to
effectively replace the kinds of kinships and support that comes
easily with religious groups, although I'm sure there's some
successes that can prove me wrong and I hope their are.
I love the uniqueness and richness of life and the people in it
and the Universe we live in. Thank you for sharing your story
and for inspiring me to write a little bit of mine as well.
