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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Holy Moley

The latest ponderment at the Thinking Parents Wiki was to pick a religion, any religion, that you could conceivably follow, excluding any that may have been part of your past. No fair picking None of the Above either.

Lately I’ve been studying the teachings and trying to follow the practice of Buddhism, especially the mindfulness trainings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, but since that’s not a religion in the sense of belief in or worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal god or gods, maybe that shouldn’t count.

Instead, I will offer for your consideration a new religion, new only in the sense that it is not a recognized tax-exempt charitable organization. Yet. I am a Golden Ruler. My god is the god of the unknown and the unknowable, the vastness of the universe from beyond the Milky Way to the universe within, the spark behind the Big Bang. Not yours? No problem! Your own personal god, gods, or lack thereof is welcome. There is no worship involved, only wonder and awe and thankfulness, at least for me. You are free to incorporate any or none of it as you see fit. There are no rigid rituals to follow, though members may create their own. The one immutable doctrine is the ethic of reciprocity: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You.

Be a Golden Ruler! Join today! Please send your not quite tax deductible contributions to me (surely you wouldn’t mind someone doing that unto you.) Amen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Odd -- or maybe not -- that this keeps coming up in things I hear and read lately. I'm next in line for the library's "With or Without God: Why The Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe" by Gretta Vosper, who is a United Church minister. All I can say is (and I don't find myself saying this often)...amen.

Anonymous said...

Oh no!
We'll say a rosary for your soul - all that good Catholic school education going to waste...
;)

Anonymous said...

I really like this post but I have one problem...

HOW in the world am I suppose to make a non-tax deductible donation when you don't include your paypal addy?! LOL. j/k