One God at Most, or Two Gods at Least?
If I am to speak of God at all, even metaphorically, I find I must speak of two gods. This may be the reason I tend not to speak of God. Both gods speak to me as metaphors, but I have difficulty...
View ArticleWhat is a Nontheist?
Both within and outside the informal association of Friends who call themselves nontheists, there is little common understanding of what the word nontheist means. There is also little common...
View ArticleWhat is the basis of Quaker membership?
A Friend on the nontheist Friends email list asked what the basis for membership might be, or more specifically, what a basis might be for turning someone down for membership. The question was not...
View ArticleGod Circle
Circle 1 = God Circle 2 = the natural world Circle 1 minus Circle 2 = the supernatural world Circle 3 = mental life Circle 4 = consciousness Circle three minus circle 2 = the unconscious By...
View ArticleTwo cheers for Quaker history
A Friend on the nontheist Friends e-mail discussion list at some point challenged us to seriously study early Quaker history, and not just dip into it, “to develop our knowledge of and insights into...
View ArticleA Different Understanding of Scripture
My friend Nat Case, from my own Twin Cities Friends Meeting, has a blog I hadn’t paid much attention to until a month or two ago. I don’t know how much of my inattention is because I hadn’t noticed...
View ArticleIntellect and Spirituality
Rather than add my profoundly off-topic response to Cat’s comment on a post called “scriptures and universalism” on a web site labeled “Primitive Christianity Revived, Again: A Convergent Friends...
View ArticleOne nontheist’s understanding of “the light” of Quakerism
To seek to live in the light is essentially a value, a principle of living, rather than a belief. We need no theology, nor even a particular conception of “the light” as a distinct quality, in order to...
View ArticleConfessions of a Failed C.O.
(I presented this at an adult education session at Twin Cities Friends Meeting in November 2003. A Friend recently suggested it might spur some conversations around alternative ways of seeing and...
View ArticleRevealing Our True Selves
The following is a talk given by James Riemermann at the inaugural conference of the Nontheist Friends Network, Birmingham, UK, March 2012. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a recording of the...
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