How do Quakers who are atheist/agnostic interpret the meaning of "divine spark"?
Or do they just not embrace that aspect of Quaker beliefs? I can't see how to understand that concept outside of some belief in the supernatural.
I think the inclusiveness of Quaker meetings is deeply appealing (having come from a rigidly non-inclusive fundamentalist upbringing) and I'm just trying to make sense of it. I'm currently reading A Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert Lawrence Smith. Thanks
I'm a theist Quaker but this is how the nontheist Quakers I know think about it...so in Quakerism we talk about everyone having the Inner Light. To me, what the Inner Light is, defining it, that's less interesting than what it does, those effects. And the implications of treating yourself and others like they all have that potential.
Some people would say the Inner Light is God inside you. But if you don't believe in a god, you can still think of what the Inner Light does without imagining that it has a divine source: tapping into our innate sense of compassion, wisdom, and value. It's also the communal component of it, since you are learning from each person's unique take and how everyone in the community has it.
Personally, I find that variety of opinions about Inner Light and other ideas within Quakerism very beneficial. Because I think everyone has it regardless of what they believe, and I seek to learn from everyone.
the sociologist Durkheim talked a lot about the concept of “collective effervescence” and I think that’s another way non-theist friends can think about everyone having the inner light
I'm sort of...spiritually wobbly (not a theist, but not really atheist either and think about it too much to be agnostic) and I think of the Inner Light as being a little "piece" of the Universe that is embedded in me. If you imagine a network of lots of little points of light (each one being a sentient entity) connected by threads, you can think of each point of light as a separate thing, but they also can be thought of as a unified whole (like the difference between a star and a constellation).
For me personally, the Inner Light is representative of humanity. As other commenters have said, I view it as the fact that we are all, at an incredible base level, all united through being human. My faith and practices focus a lot around helping others and creating an equitable world - so the Inner Light for me is kind of an indicator that we all deserve happy and healthy lives!
As an agnostic Quaker (who knows??), I believe that the idea of the inner light is THE foundational belief of Quakerism and I don’t know anyone who rejects the idea, regardless of how you say it (I prefer “that of God in everyone” - I know, I know). It is why Quakers rejected slavery, sexism and misogyny, abusive penal systems etc etc. Because how can you - for example - enslave another child of God or treat them badly? This is the opposite of what I grew up with in mainstream Christianity; where I was taught that all humans are essentially sinful and saved only by the grace of God. It’s such a more hopeful and cheerful belief!
The best approximation I can offer of my thinking on the topic:
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.
I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love…
– Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (1892 version)
So I’m not a Friend or anything, but an atheist who learned a little about Quakerism and am very OMG I THINK I LOVE IT!
When thinking about the “divine spark” and “light” I sort of interpret it as “humanity”…and no matter how “evil” someone seems, or anything like that, that at all of our cores we are profoundly complex human beings with full inner lives and nobody is 100% anything (except That B*tch ;) ). And there is some inherent good intent in everyone, even if tiny kernels of good intent.
I guess I sort of interpret “divine spark” as radical compassion? Keeping close the idea that every single person is worthy and we are all sharing this common experience of life.
Maybe I’m completely off base, I have a very rudimentary knowledge of all of this. But that was the first thing I was trying to figure out as an atheist, and where I landed.
As a recovering catholic, I am trying to figure out how to come to terms with the Christian roots of Quakerism myself.
For me it's that sense of wonder you get when looking at sunlight shining through leaves, rainbows in spider webs, the aurora, or fractals or Fibonacci curves in nature, pictures from Hubble (and looking forward to James Webb!) and trying to understand what happens at CERN and LIGO, captivating music, beautiful works of art, that sort of thing.
