As I have mentioned in another thread on alt.atheism,
I consider myself to be a polytheistic pantheist.
My eight main deities, which are defined on
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/deities.html ,
are ALL, LOVE2, Universe, Galaxy, Sun, Earth,
Moon, and Human. (Unlike some Wiccans, I do
not consider all of my deities other than ALL
to be aspects of ALL, just subsets of ALL.)
Currently I believe that all eight have consciousness
and I worship them (consider them deities to me).
If I didn't believe that they had consciousness
then I would be an atheist. In that case LOVE2
would be replaced by a message of love and Human
would be replaced by humanism, and I would
just revere and study the other six without
considering them as someones. This I consider
strong atheism.
But a few years ago I decided that they had
consciousness (existed as someones) but that
I would no longer worship them, that they were
no longer deities with respect to me. This
I consider weak atheism.
However these days I do worship them and consider
myself to be in a religion of one and am not
recruiting. I am pushing some non-religious
messages but I am not pushing my deities on
anyone. And these days I am not far from
returning to weak atheism or even strong atheism.
I have been an atheist for a good chunk of my
life, though I was raised Catholic.
Was Spinoza an atheist?
--
David Dalton
dal...@nfld.com http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/nf.html Newfoundland&Labrador Music & Travel
"And who the cap fit, let them wear it!" (Bob Marley)