NONTHEIST FRIENDS INTERNET ARCHIVE - 11/7/03
Alpern, Robin. "Why Not Join the Unitarians?" at
http://www.universalistfriends.org/alpern.html, from Universalist
Friends, 1997, No. 28: 158-166.
Amoss Jr., George. "On Silent Worship" at
http://www.qis.net/~daruma/QUF/quf-gea.html, from Universalist Friends,
spring 1996.
Amoss Jr., George. “The Making of a Quaker Atheist” at
http://www.quaker.org/quest/issue1-4.html, from “Quaker Theology”,
Issue#1, Vol. 1, No. 1, autumn 1999. [For discussion of this article,
See James, Edward and George Amoss, Jr., below.]
Anonymous. "For some time now I have thought of God in more
Pantheistic terms..." at
http://worship.quaker.org/qfp/displaypassage.asp?passageid=224, from
#26.75 in “Quaker Faith and Practice” by Britain Yearly Meeting, 1995.
Boulton, David. "A Reasonable Faith: Introducing the Sea of Faith
Network” at http://www.sofn.org.uk/, hit "Home Page", then "First Time
Visitor", scroll down to and click on "A Reasonable Faith", from a
pamphlet of the same name published by Sea of Faith Network,
Loughborough, England, 1996.
Boulton, David. "Only Human” at http://www.sofn.org.uk/, hit
"Collection", scroll down to "Thesis mania", and hit "Boulton" [This
essay includes his "ten hypothetical propositions."]
Boulton, David. "What on earth is Mysticism?” at
http://www.sofn.org.uk/Bibliography/mystic.html, from Sea of Faith
Magazine, Spring 1998. [David Boulton’s review of Don Cupitt’s
“Mysticism after Modernity”]
Cresson, Osborn. "Goals and Problems and Minimal Structure and Function
of an Organization of Quaker Nontheists" at
http://www.topica.com/lists/nontheistfriends/read/message.html?mid=807694
073&sort=d&start=0, a message posted on October 31, 2003 on the
Nontheist
Friends List at http://www.topica.com/.
Cresson, Osborn. "Quaker in a Material World: A Materialist's
Perspective" at http://quest.quaker.org/issue-8-cresson-01.htm, from
Quaker Theology, Issue #8, Vol. 5, No. 1, spring-summer 2003.
Cresson, Osborn. "Universalism From Several Points of View" at
http://www.topica.com/lists/nontheistfriends/read/message.html?mid=807694
093&sort=d&start=25, a message posted on October 31, 2003 on the
Nontheist Friends List at http://www.topica.com/.
Cupitt, Don. "Friends, Faith, and Humanism" at
http://www.sofn.org.uk/Bibliography/quakhum.html, from Sea of Faith UK
Magazine, Summer. [Don Cupitt’s review of David Boulton’s “The Faith of
A Quaker Humanist”.]
"The Doubter: A Newsletter for Friends Interested in Nontheism" at
http://www.cs.wright.edu/~mcox/Doubter/, from Vol. 1, No. 2, spring
1997. [Editor of this issue was Michael T. Cox.]
James, Edward and George Amoss Jr.. “An Exchange: Quaker Theology
Without God?” at http://www.quaker.org/quest/issue2-6.html, from “Quaker
Theology”, Issue #2, Vol. 2, No. 1, spring 2000
Rush, David. "They too are Quakers: A Survey of 199 Nontheist Friends"
at
http://www.universalistfriends.org/NontheistFriends.pdf or see the html
version at
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:y8-osAs0wJQJ:www.universalistfriends
.org/NontheistFriends.pdf+the+woodbrooke+journal&hl=en&ie=UTF-8, from
The Woodbrooke Journal, No. 11, Winter 2002.
Sea of Faith Network. "Collection of articles, poetry, and more" at
http://www.sofn.org.uk/. [An internet site that lists nontheist
writings and where they can be purchased; some reviews are posted. It is not
clear which of these items are by or about Quakers.]
Sea of Faith Network. "Sea of Faith and the Quaker Tradition" at
http://www.sofn.org.uk/, hit "Home Page", then "First Time Visitor",
scroll down to and click on "Sea of Faith and the Quaker Tradition".
Swayne, Kingdon. "Humanist Philosophy as a Religious Resource" at
http://www.universalistfriends.org/quf1990c.html, from "Varieties of
Religious Experience: An Adventure In Listening" QUF Pamphlet #7, Nov.
1990. Landenberg PA: Quaker Universalist Fellowship.
Swayne, Kingdon. "Universalism and Me" at
http://www.qis.net/~daruma/QUF/quf-ks.html, from Universalist Friends,
1994, No. 23: 9-10.
Dick Bellin, “While this reference is not Quaker, and not strictly non-theist, I think it is worth including in the list. Much to consider here.” http://www.jesuspuzzle.org/
I do not want to be called an atheist because of the “fundamentism” of many atheists. I reject their dogmatic position in the same manner as I reject organized religion. It seems to me that what is called god or gods is a projection of our own being. Carl Jung provides, for me, the best understanding of the nature of god:
“Experiences of the self possess a numinosity characteristic of religious revelations. Hence Jung believed there was no essential difference between the self as an experiential, psychological reality and the traditional concept of a supreme deity.
To the best of my knowledge you never called me an atheist. The point that I want to make is, that many people who lose their faith, or never had it in the first place feel they must, by default, be atheist or agnostic. I wish merely to point out that there is a lesser known alternative. And your definition of nontheist does indeed need to be, as you acknowledge later, considered in light of the term “believe.” That is the troubling term. My somewhat simple analogy is unicorns. Do unicorns exist(that other troubling term)? In one sense they do. I can Google the term unicorn and find 17,700,000 links. I can find books about unicorns, I find pictures of unicorns. The issue for me is not whether I “beieve” in unicorns, but, rather, can I find a correlation in the physical world. And, the same is true for god.
Kind regards,
JF
So I try and look for the church that could understand and accept the way I feel.
I’ve been theoretically Presbyterian for the last twenty years. Practically too, because there’re so few Protestants in France that attending a Presbyterian service is the best available way to live according to the kind of “faith” I’ve described.
I’ve been meeting French Unitarians too, from time to time. You’ve got the Christian ones and the non-Christian ones. The first ones don’t understand me because I don’t want to be considered a Christian anymore, neither do the latter because I’m not fond of neo-paganism (to put it euphemistically!). I don’t like walking around naked by equinoctial night in a deep forest with a flaming torch in my hand!
So, in the last time, I’ve been contemplating getting to the Friends’ Meeting in Paris, France. I’ve gotten in contact with them. I just wonder whether they will accept me as I am. But I’m glad to hear about American Quakers who are in the same mood as me.
“Faith-fully” yours.
Fabrice
Most likely, they will in my experience — especially so if they are programmed Friends. I have also know programmed Friends who are equally accepting.
I am an atheist Friend who was seriously questioning the integrity of continuing my formal association with Friends when I stumbled across a book entitled, Godless for God’s Sake – Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism by David Boulton.
My best regards to you,
Bob
Oceanically yours
Fabrice
nor fundamentailitic concept like “god”
some biology goes to wheather one belives or
dosn’t belive (a study in minnisotta showed this)
so the opposite genes of reality and no -god are
also exist.
One must not get tied up in knotts about the
religisoty people
those that are against materialism and facts
find freedom in albert ellis book
the case against religiosity and this relates that
the sane kind of person dosn’t practice religion.
but there are subtitutes about there
for closer reality the nature poems
of japanese hiqu
then for ethics the 14 teachable virtues
and for examples such as no slavery and other ethics
aseops fables.
and aristotle
nomoekan ethics.
you have ayn rand virtue of selfishness.
and [ kung fucius –anelects…who is into
harmony of nature no mention of god]
john locke -essay concerning
human understanding..
with this possilbly a virtual reality
of what an atheist government would be
in its ethics
unlike the usa constitution
but a capitalist -atheist one …
where persons would be co-operative
that is openly able to be trusting
and continueing on in the free market
unlike the market shut down we seem to be heading to.
no more domestic disputes
better psychology
no chistain polution
more learning and no-put down indoctrination
forced into class rooms.
a lot closer to utopia.
thanks kindly,
RicH-w
This will be the main problem concerning atheists (materialists, humanists, all non theists generally speaking) and their relation with the rest of humanity in the future centuries.
Waldorf schools and such humanistic scholar approach are already acting in some countries (nearly a housand waldorf schools around the world); but the challenge is to convey our reason in state funded school establishments.