Scientific or political beliefs and various forms of skepticism make it hard for many people to fully partake of the benefits of spiritual community and self-transformational practices. Every religious community and cult, every spiritual or therapeutic practice, offers a unique path for its members or practitioners to develop qualities and values like respect for human dignity, compassion, contentment, peace, love, creativity, harmony, and fulfillment. My dream is that every cynic, curmudgeon and misanthrope in the world—because they are my tribe—will find a place in the ancient currents of human wisdom.
http://tailoredbeliefs.com/]
I’m looking to connect with others interested in the possibilities for spiritual community and practice for atheists, agnostics, skeptics and outsiders. For people in the DC area, I’m leading a free workshop next Saturday at the Cleveland Park Public Library: http://tailoredbeliefs.com/first-public-meeting/] and I’m also beginning an experimental (and also free for now) effort to provide a kind of spiritual counseling to skeptics of any stripe who might be looking for an acceptable version of some of the positive things religions and spiritual practices and communities have to offer.
You got a good web site.
Your message reminds me of John Lennon’s song Imagine (all the People).
I think you can find a lot of stuff you can use on this forum.
Welcome and the best of luck to you.
Mike
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There were three main groups in the early church, the Gentiles, the Christian Jews, and the Gnostics. Contrary to the beliefs of many historians the Gnostics were not a product of the early church, rather they were the ancient priesthood–those who sought gnosis or a personal experience of God.
http://gnostic.org/writings/oracle/sacrament.htm
The so-called apocryphal gospels, discovered by a farmer in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, in the context of late second-century Church history. Gnostic (gnosis, Gk: knowledge) Christians did not believe that human intermediaries (priests, etc.) were necessary for an individual to find God. For the gnostics, enlightenment was an entirely inward and self-determined process. Gnostic Christians believed that Jesus was not divine but an ordinary man with an extraordinary message.