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Things I Think I Believe
I believe it would have taken me much longer to post this if it hadn't been for the peculiarly liberating Dreamwidth Effect.
I don't think I believe in God, singular, plural, or pantheistic. I used to think about it and I was never sure. Now I think it's not important whether I believe in gods or not. Much more important is what I do and how I do it, what I am and how I am it.
And so I try not to do more harm than I can help. I try not to help less than I am able. I try very hard not to walk on by, though I need to work on that - there was a recent incident in a crowded train where I ought to have spoken out and didn't, because I didn't want to wake the baby asleep on my lap.
I try to make the world a nicer place, both the parts of it which benefit me and my loved ones and larger, further-reaching parts of it, even parts which will benefit only strangers. Around me, my friends and community also try to make the world a better place, in small and large ways. If I sit down and think about the numbers of teachers, childcare workers, doctors, social workers, healthcare workers, police, community volunteer workers and so on I know, I get slightly surprised, every time.
I try to encourage communities to form, or grow, or keep going. This started as part of the "making sure my children have access to a social network" thing but seems to be an important part of me, and if I think back to it I can see that I have always had social groups of one kind or another (where "always" starts age 14 or so) and have often put in considerable effort to maintain them.
A lot of my beliefs can be summarised with varying degrees of triteness in Pratchett quotes. "Evil is treating people as things," for a start. "What has he done to me, that I should hurt him so?" for another.
I like the idea that not hastening the extinction of things - flowers, trees, animals, ecosystems - is worth working for. I like the idea that everyone is slightly responsible for everyone else. I want to live in a world where that's true.
So the closest I come to believing in gods is that part of everything which is precious. Life, and all the messiness that comes with it including death, is probably the closest I can come to my god.
But all this might be hormonal nonsense. I'll never know.
I don't think I believe in God, singular, plural, or pantheistic. I used to think about it and I was never sure. Now I think it's not important whether I believe in gods or not. Much more important is what I do and how I do it, what I am and how I am it.
And so I try not to do more harm than I can help. I try not to help less than I am able. I try very hard not to walk on by, though I need to work on that - there was a recent incident in a crowded train where I ought to have spoken out and didn't, because I didn't want to wake the baby asleep on my lap.
I try to make the world a nicer place, both the parts of it which benefit me and my loved ones and larger, further-reaching parts of it, even parts which will benefit only strangers. Around me, my friends and community also try to make the world a better place, in small and large ways. If I sit down and think about the numbers of teachers, childcare workers, doctors, social workers, healthcare workers, police, community volunteer workers and so on I know, I get slightly surprised, every time.
I try to encourage communities to form, or grow, or keep going. This started as part of the "making sure my children have access to a social network" thing but seems to be an important part of me, and if I think back to it I can see that I have always had social groups of one kind or another (where "always" starts age 14 or so) and have often put in considerable effort to maintain them.
A lot of my beliefs can be summarised with varying degrees of triteness in Pratchett quotes. "Evil is treating people as things," for a start. "What has he done to me, that I should hurt him so?" for another.
I like the idea that not hastening the extinction of things - flowers, trees, animals, ecosystems - is worth working for. I like the idea that everyone is slightly responsible for everyone else. I want to live in a world where that's true.
So the closest I come to believing in gods is that part of everything which is precious. Life, and all the messiness that comes with it including death, is probably the closest I can come to my god.
But all this might be hormonal nonsense. I'll never know.
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I posted an attempt at getting my beliefs down in writing a while ago, and will link to it here when I'm not posting from my phone (which is very fiddly).
I'm part of two real-life religious or semi-religious communities and one online one, and it felt important to me to verbalise how much this does or doesn't represent the reality of me.
Just to be nosey - you don't have to answer - are you still going to Quaker meetings?
Edit: here's my post: http://yoyoangel.livejournal.com/16860.html
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