peter oram

At the Sunshine Coast Stoicism meet-up that I facilitate, the topic of supernatural belief comes up reasonably often.

I have had interesting developments in my thinking about this over the past few years since I’ve been trying to follow Stoicism, and in particular since reading and re-reading Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. As some of you know I was a Catholic when I was young, including growing up in a very strongly Catholic family, and spending three years at a seminary training to be a priest. From soon after my seminary days until at least 10 years ago I would have called myself an atheist, or perhaps an agnostic. But I’ve noticed in the last five years or so that I’ve become less reactive to religion and religious terminology, and in particular, terminology about a divine being. I still would not say anything like “I believe that God exists”, but I’m much more comfortable with the idea of a supernatural part of our universe, perhaps analogous to the Logos λόγος or perhaps even the psyche ψυχή.

I find (or I have found) the vocabulary of religion somewhat difficult. I will only speak for myself, although I suspect many former believers have similar ideas to the following. The word religion, broadly, is negative for me, and has connotations of the negative effects brought by religion in the world, e.g. clerical paedophilia, terrorism, subjugation, and sectarian fighting. I would contrast faith with religion, and for me faith has connotations of a positive relationship with a divine being and with a community of people who believe similar things. Five years ago, I might have made fun of people who believe in an imaginary friend (although not to their faces). But now I’m more tolerant of people who believe in a divine being, even though the existence of such an entity doesn’t square with my own skepticism.

One of the things I like the most about Stoicism is the absence or almost complete absence of dogma. Of course there are central tenets without which you could not really call yourself a follower of Stoicism, e.g. the dichotomy of control, but it’s a broad church, so to speak.

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