(NB: A revised version of my last post)
AN AT-ONE-MENT APPROACH TO SPIRITUALITY, RELIGION AND THE LIKE
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Philosophically and theologically speaking, the AOM approach is what I call unitheistic--similar to panentheism. I prefer to use 'unitheism' because it avoids any confusion with pantheism (God is the sum of all things).

As a unitheist, I try to make it clear that, for me, GOD is not a personal, human-like, fatherly and masculine being to whom anyone can point and say: There He is. For me, this would making an idol with the mind (psyche)--a tool of the ego.

MY PERCEPTION OF GOD
I perceive of GOD as the sum of all things--physical, mental and spiritual, which is in the process of becoming. This is the essence of process theology as spoken of by Charles Hartshorne and Alfred North Whitehead.

Unitheism is totally inclusive. While it encourages people to gather in creative community groups, small or large, it does so, not with the idea of imposing controls, but so that the community can better serve the common good of all people. Loners are free to be loners, if they so choose. If unitheism has one rule, it is the Love-based Golden Rule: Do to and for others what you would like others to do to and for you.

Unitheism makes no pretense that it has the one and only absolute truth; or that it is the only way to truth. This is why it welcomes all the questions of the philosophies, all the probing of the sciences and encourages the moral and ethical us of all the creative arts. Yes, the sciences and the arts can used to do good, or evil.

About INSPIRATION, INSIGHT, IMAGINATION, INTUITION--all come from GOD, source, the infinite and eternal Presence, the Source of all that is. There is no need for anyone to ask reluctant gods, or a God, for these wonderful gifts.

All we need do is to surrender. That is, open ourselves, be without any kind of resistance, equivocation, or reservation to the fact that in all things, GOD works with us, for good.

GOD AND EVIL
This leads us, within the eternal now, to have a sighted faith, a lively hope and a will that sees only the potential good in all circumstances and experiences, including that which, on the surface, appears to be evil--illusions created by what Eckart Tolle calls, "the egoic mind" (psyche). I agree with ET that, "all evils are "the effect of unconsciousness".

Anyone notice that EVIL is LIVE backwards?
Evil cannot Live in the light of consciousness. Therefore, be conscious of the NOW and shine a light all evil--that cause of so much pain and suffering.

Interestingly the last petition in the so-called "Lord's Prayer" has to do with evil: "Our Father, who art in heaven..." Some versions, including the Douay Version (1609) (approved by Roman Catholicism) ends with the plea, "but deliver us from evil."

It is said that Protestants, who gave us the King James version (1611), added the doxology: "For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever." (Matt. 6:13) It is not found in most modern versions.

Be that as it may, Christians offer this petition millions of times every day. And I am sure that all others religions make the same kind of petition in their own way.

This poses questions such as: Does it do any real good?
How come so much people-made evil still goes on?
How come in many accidents some are saved and others are not?
And what about the millions who dies in what insurance companies call "acts of God"? BTW, I could write a novel about the many evils--in the form of suffering, pain and deaths, which I witnessed close up, especially from childhood to the end of WW 2.

If petitioning a "reluctant god" does not work, at least consistently, what does work?

WHAT WORKS FOR ME
I agree with those--like for example, Eckhart Tolle, Einstein and all process thinkers, who call us to a Cosmic, inclusive and integrative kind of Religion:

I repeat what AE said: "I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research."

Last edited by Revlgking; 08/30/08 07:44 PM.
G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org