If a person rejects all organized religious beliefs involving the Judeo-Christian God and any other religions that worship a god, but still believes (without much doubt) that a higher power does exist. What religion or belief system would that be classified as? At first I thought agnostic, but this person doesn't really have any uncertainty about the existence of a "higher power". They believe that it does exist, but just not attached to any, what they refer to as, religious "mumbo-jumbo". Does anyone know?
What the hell is this, trying to help you find your career. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Peace be unto you Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I guess you could call yourself a Maverick Theist. I have been tagged with that description before. All Praise The Ancient Of Days
Just a Monotheist would be fine. If you want to expand in conversation that you reject all organised religion then so be it. Out of interest, this higher power you have personal belief in - does it come with any moral framework or promise of an afterlife, etc?
Unitarian Universalism is a religious community characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning".[1] Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the belief that an individual's theology is a result of that search and not obedience to an authoritative requirement. Unitarian Universalists draw on many different theological sources and have a wide range of beliefs and practices. Historically, both Unitarianism and Universalism had roots in the Christian faith. Contemporary Unitarian Universalists do not necessarily subscribe to the historic beliefs of Unitarianism and Universalism, espousing a rather hands-off approach to religion, whereby the followers can be atheist, theist, or any point in between. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism
The person I'm asking about isn't myself, it's my mother. She keeps asking if I know what religious term she would be classified as and I keep coming back empty handed. So I asked the question here. I think she believes in the afterlife, but I don't think she believes that it is connected to the "higher power" that she believes in. She doesn't claim to worship It or pray to It, she just believes that It is out there somewhere. Ever since my brother has begun his teenage crusade against all things involving God or Christ, religious discussion has become a hot topic in my parents' house. Thank you all for helping me narrow things down for her a bit.
It depends, I guess. (That's safe to say, since everything does.) If somebody imagines this 'higher power' (I'm assuming that there's just one, otherwise it would be 'higher powers' plural) in personal terms, as being some kind of cosmic person, then I'd call it a generic non-denominational sort of monotheism. If somebody identifies this 'higher power' with some kind of spiritual depth in themselves and in everything around them, and not far removed in some distant transcendental heaven, then I'd call it pantheism. If somebody imagines that this 'higher power' was the original source and/or creator of the universe, which has continued on mechanically since then according to the causal regularities discovered by science, then I'd call it deism. These alternatives needn't be exclusive. I supose that you could have a monotheistic pantheist for example, if he/she thinks of the universe itself as being conscious and personal. Of course, somebody with strong but vague religious feelings could just say that they have their own personal spirituality and leave it at that. There isn't any necessity or requirement that everything receive a label. That might be my own choice.
Anti-Religious Believer..? i started a thread around here somewhere, about some new definitions for theist and atheist..(too lazy to look through 10+ pages of subscribed threads)
This is as much a linguistic question as philosophical so I'll put in my two cents. It hinges on just what kind of a "higher power" she's talking about, so I would urge you to get more details about that. A bare consensus of definitions of the word "religion" requires belief in one or more gods; a god is a conscious, willful, supernatural creature who rules over some or all of the events in the natural universe. A supreme being as it were, with or without capitalization, depending on whether there's one or more than one. If your mother believes in one or more gods, then she is a theist. If her "higher power" is not conscious or not willful, or in some other way is not comfortably close to being a human-like creature with supernatural powers, then if it does have power over our lives and the events in the natural universe, it must still be a supernatural force or entity of some kind. This would disqualify her from being a theist, but she is still a supernaturalist. That's the best I can do. Various oriental traditions postulate supernatural forces but not, specifically, gods. The dao, for example. And Buddhism; it comes in many flavors but I think the majority of Buddhists do not believe in gods. In my opinion this disqualifies mainstream Buddhism from being called a religion. The name animism is applied to a couple of different belief systems, but one of them ascribes souls to what we consider inanimate--literally "soulless"--objects. That would make her an animist but I just don't think that's where you're heading with this. As I said at the beginning, you need to find out more about what your mother actually does believe in, rather than what she does not. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! An agnostic is uncertain about the existence of gods, specifically, although this word has been used in non-standard ways. Well she doesn't get to decide what is and is not religious; let the dictionary do that. As for "mumbo-jumbo," that's in the eye of the beholder, and some of us regard all assertions of the existence of supernatural forces as 100% pure first-pressed virgin mumbo-jumbo. You have to get her to tell you just what sort of "higher power" she's talking about. The natural laws of the universe can easily be regarded as the ultimate "higher power," and we have a name for the people who believe in them: "scientists." If it turns out that she truly cannot articulate what she believes in, she may be an apostate who turned her back on the religion of her childhood because of some really awful experience in the religious community; yet she retains the yearning for the comfort of that certainty without retaining the object of the certainty. In that case I don't know what I'd call her except "unfortunate."
I have to echo the above post, what is your notion of a higher power? To me God is simply the scientist that made the big bang, I do believe that our universe being created is just as valid of a scientific speculation as the multi-verse speculation. However I do not believe God goes around violating the laws of physics or performs supernatural deeds. I think anybody that would be smart enough to unify physics and come up with the resources to actually make a universe with other lifeforms in it would have tremendous power, but within the laws of nature. Is it possible that after death our conscious doesn't die? Well, I hope so who knows maybe our conscious and memory is never lost and can be retrieved from space somehow.. or maybe when we die we never remember or know anything.. not even the passing of time, maybe when we die we wake up like a blank slate trillions of years in the future as a new life form made from the same particles we consist of now. Maybe through our DNA we taste life again somehow, after all the stuff that makes up me and you never really dies it just changes. I know that's crazy talk but its also more plausible than what is written in the books of religions based on 2000 year old logic. What you read in the bible is simply what some guy just like you or me wrote 2000 years ago that made perfect sense to most people, even people of science. So your rejecting religion is typical of those being educated and beginning to shake off foolish beliefs that no longer agree with what you know to be good and right. Even though I believe in intelligent design, I also accept that I don't KNOW there is a creator. I think anyone who says they believe has doubt no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise, if they didn't they would never use the word believe or faith. Any religious person that tells you they know they are right and you are wrong will not treat your opinion with any amount of respect, they would feel justified in punishing you for your belief and think they are helping you and doing God's will. Now people like that do exist, but most religious people are simply ignorant of truth. The only way to understand what we cannot know, is to first realize what it is we do know. When you know that genocide is wrong, but you believe your God told somebody to commit genocide.. then you are chasing a ghost or the mystery of the unknown and never looking at whats right in front of your face and in plain sight. Friend you believing in some basic higher power is no more a religion than those of us who admit we see no direct evidence of a higher power and do not believe because of that. Or maybe I should say those of us that believe that what we can see and measure explains all we don't know yet. You don't have to belong to a religion, you can be your own person. Do you think any supreme intelligence would treat you badly because you base your beliefs on what you understand and not what someone 2000 years ago wrote down?
