Swimming the Sacred River

Thus far, we’ve developed a spiritual scaffolding that includes religious naturalism, allegoricalism, and progressivism. This results in a movement blueprint that denies supernatural explanations of reality and instead recognizes a sacredness in the natural world as it is, including humankind’s place within it. At the same time, there is value in wonder and reverence, and these can be realized through religious objects, such as texts, ceremonies, and icons, even while knowing that these objects are merely symbols. Finally, there is the optimism in the possibility of a better future, both for individuals and society, resulting in the impetus to improve, grow, and mature.

Religious beliefs are a strange thing and cause people to act in strange ways. Otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people can have their minds turned inside out when their faith is questioned, either by a skeptic or by a scientist. A key problem with non-allegorical (i.e fundamentalist or supernatural) religious beliefs is that they generally have a static view of the world. Because the world can be seen in only one way, when seen through the religious lens, such beliefs revert the mind to an immature state where things are black and white and fixed. When the world provides evidence that goes counter to those beliefs (as it always will), instead of incorporating those new understandings, adherents instead will either twist reality to conform with their bias or they will ignore it altogether. It is, in short, a kind of insanity.

So far, we have briefly examined two of three pillars of a developing spiritual orientation—Religious Naturalism and Allegoricalism. The final pillar is Progressivism.

In a very general sense, progressivism is a worldview that recognizes the worth of human life and seeks to maximize freedom, opportunity, and fairness in society. Further, it aspires towards improving the well-being of all—via education, the arts, technology, social justice, health care, economic opportunity, et cetera—while also balancing human interests with those of the natural world. A progressive vision, therefore, seeks to enhance the liberty and fulfillment of both individuals and groups while simultaneously cultivating social responsibility and environmental stewardship. Progressives seek to manifest this vision through the promotion of diversity, empathy, pragmatism, critical thinking and debate, innovation, and cultural participation.

I have three statues of Ganesha in my home, despite not believing in his objective existence. Although I take delight in their artistic beauty, that is not why I have them (or not the only reason I have them, anyway). They act as a kind of cognitive/emotional shorthand, or more precisely, a symbol of things that I consider sacred. The statues themselves are not sacred—they are lovely configurations of common metal—but the concepts that Ganesha represent are. And they are sacred for one simple reason: I choose for them to be, and having their physical analogs in my living space connects me with them in a meaningful way.