What 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 understanding of related words such as atheist, agnostic, humanist, and materialist, but believers and unbelievers alike have at least a sense of what they mean by … Read more

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 calling them by the same name. It is not the world that my … Read more

Quaker Culture vs. Quaker Faith

I’ve gotten into an interesting exchange HERE on Chris M’s mysteriously titled blog “Tables, Chairs and Oaken Chests.” I’ll have to look closer to see how he came to that title. Anyway, Chris’s article holds up Samuel Caldwell’s well-known 1998 address at Pendle Hill, and I take a couple of jabs at it. Below is … Read more

Meeting for Worship: an Opportunity for Being

Note: New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) invited the author to write an essay from a nontheist perspective, for a special issue of the NYYM newsletter on Meeting for Worship. Meeting for worship is a potent crucible for breaking the spell of time, the ego, the identity, our daily drama, the alluring vale of tears that … Read more

Belief or Commitment

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I know who you are. I have read the innermost secrets of your heart.

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What is “God” anyway…

I was reading a post here, a lovely and painful description of convincement and felt called to write a few lines. It seems to be it all comes down to the Quaker practice of openness. God is only a word. We live in a universe that is following some sort of order, balance, cooperative motion, … Read more

Godless for God’s Sake: Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism

Order from Quakerbooks.org (US) (listed under “Universalism”) Order from Amazon.co.uk (in the UK) Order from Amazon.com (in the US) In this book edited by British Friend and author David Boulton, 27 Quakers from 4 countries and 13 yearly meetings tell how they combine active and committed membership in the Religious Society of Friends with rejection … Read more

Welcome!

Nontheistfriends.org presents the work of Friends (Quakers) who are more concerned with the natural than the supernatural. Some of us understand “God” as a symbol of human values and some of us avoid the concept while accepting it as significant to others. We differ greatly in our religious experience and in the meaning we give religious terms.

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Why Not Join the Unitarians?

Why Not Join the Unitarians? That is one of the questions most frequently asked when I tell people about being a nontheist Friend. The answer that comes to mind first has nothing to do with being of a nontheist bent. I grew up in the Religious Society of Friends, literally and figuratively. My parents joined … Read more

A liberal Quaker rant against conservative-leaning liberal Quakerism

I’ve been bouncing around the world of Quaker blogs, as I sometimes do, and once again, I find that world filled with Friends who are disappointed with the liberalism of liberal Quakerism, who want it to become more conservative, which is mostly to say more narrowly defined and exclusive. Of course, they don’t want it … Read more

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