I describe as agnostic. Philosophically, that means that the existence of divine beings or other metaphysical ideas are not provable by reason or observation and are a matter of personal faith. In practical terms, it means I keep an open mind but am not certain of the existence or non-existence of deities, an afterlife, etc.
Gretta as a goddess, eh? I think I would take you over her but how could you be a deity when you don’t believe in one? Wouldn’t that mean you don’t believe in yourself?
I’m not sure exactly how I’d describe myself. I do know I hate the “god is good” stuff when good things happen to people. There are so many things wrong with that spirituality.
So far, the United Church, and certain congregations within it, fits my world view the best. I suspect I’d fit in with the Unitarian world too.
I don’t get the God is good stuff either. Patently bad stuff happens to people through no fault of their own. But I can sort of metaphorically go along with a Godde is Existence concept, a panentheistic/pantheistic view.
"Man it’s frustrating to see people put “god is good” when they have good scans. What about those whose scans show progression or whose cancer kills them??
It just seems selfish to me.
I’m very thankful for this group and the ability to see how others are doing. It’s nice to know we’re all in this boat together, even if the “boat” (cancer) is a jerk. :)"
In spite of the fact that the comments and discussion were good and respectful, the commenting was turned off. The post seems to have been deleted.
Apparently criticizing certain forms of “faith” in am American FB group is not okay.
Here’s the thing though - these people clung to their faith through the diagnosis and in many cases terrible procedures and “treatments”. They’re still here. It’s understandable that they have survivorship bias.
The number of faith symbols on baby cribs in the Cardiac Critical Care Unit at Sick Kids was impressive. I said nothing about faith while I was there, because these people are clinging to it like a life raft on an ocean. I may think it’s not really a raft, but that wasn’t the time. Even I know that.
But my point is that they survived and now they credit God, so any thought that God didn’t save them is a huge threat to not just their faith, but their future. They may even feel that cracks in their faith may lead to new growth.
I’ll never forget the mom who offered me a vial of holy water from the Sea of Galilea or something. We were both grasping for anything we could think of. For another mom it was hyperbaric oxygen treatments. For me it was stem cell treatments. For her it was holy water. In retrospect they were probably all mirages, but you try anything you can think of.
As it turns out, the admins thought I should have expressed my views directly to them. Oh well. They gave me an answer. Someone posted a meme about Jesus healing them etc. That was removed. The admin I interacted with shared a list I hadn’t seen. They’re okay with people expressing their faith views, even if they aren’t typically Christian. They aren’t okay with anything that is a prayer meeting. I’m good with that.