Walden Cabin: Observations typed on an old Underwood

Sunday, April 14, 2002

Reason to dance
Coming to grips with the idea that "God is dead" is tough for us Bible-thumped Maritimers. But I'm able to say it now. I no longer believe in the theistic God.

So big deal. Most people reading this will shrug. It's not rocket science to the more urban, or urbane, but the theistic view of the God/Father is really toast. And it's kinda embarrassing to say it out loud because when it's put into words it just sounds so obvious. I feel like a teenager who has just been told the truth about Santa, or a latter-day Republican at the Queen Mother's funeral. I still want to believe, but I can't anymore.

Yet I've known this for a while. I spent three months wandering in the deserts of the Middle East, struggling with this -- in a real journal, on paper. Back then I couldn't get my head around the whole notion of "one way to God". There had to be a more universal answer, a way to engage minds and hearts in a search for the divine that transcends cultural tradition. Put more simply, the nice Muslim people who were welcoming me into their homes, sharing their meagre possessions with a rich Western stranger, were not to be condemned. Not by me or my God.

Yet I still believe in God -- not the same one, but something fatter yet less human, less parental and more universal. I swear that I've experienced "it" in the strangest places: on my clearcut in PEI, in the neonatal intensive care ward, between clean cotton sheets. It's clear to me now that my childhood God was a being constructed to give hope to those unwilling to confront essential truth: mortality, consciousness, responsibility. I have seen the religious dance spun stiffly before me enough times to recognize the tune even with my hands over my ears. Living fully and truly means realizing that there is no supernatural parent, just lots of wonderful uncertainty, and only love to hold things all together.

I like to think of myself not as an atheist, but a post-theist. But this is a work in progress. The last time I wrote like this here I received e-mail saying my "soul was in peril". So be it. I'm dancing to a new and better tune.

>> Buy A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying, and How a New Faith is Being Born, by John Spong.

posted by Stuart Hickox | 9:01 PM

Walden Quote du Jour

"My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know His lurking places, to attend all the oratories, the operas, in nature. To watch for, describe, all the divine features which I detect in Nature."

- Henry Thoreau

Take a nature tour of Walden Hill in PEI. 47 photos, taken in June 2001, species identified (when possible) with the help of Gary Schneider of the MacPhail Woods Project in PEI.

posted by Stuart Hickox | 7:31 PM



	Sunday, April 14, 2002 Reason to dance Coming to grips with the idea that "God is dead" is tough for us Bible-thumped Maritimers. But I'm able to say it now. I no longer believe in the theistic God. So big deal. Most people reading this will shrug. It's not rocket science to the more urban, or urbane, but the theistic view of the God/Father is really toast. And it's kinda embarrassing to say it out loud because when it's put into words it just sounds so obvious. I feel like a teenager who has just been told the truth about Santa, or a latter-day Republican at the Queen Mother's funeral. I still want to believe, but I can't anymore. Yet I've known this for a while. I spent three months wandering in the deserts of the Middle East, struggling with this -- in a real journal, on paper. Back then I couldn't get my head around the whole notion of "one way to God". There had to be a more universal answer, a way to engage minds and hearts in a search for the divine that transcends cultural tradition. Put more simply, the nice Muslim people who were welcoming me into their homes, sharing their meagre possessions with a rich Western stranger, were not to be condemned. Not by me or my God. Yet I still believe in God -- not the same one, but something fatter yet less human, less parental and more universal. I swear that I've experienced "it" in the strangest places: on my clearcut in PEI, in the neonatal intensive care ward, between clean cotton sheets. It's clear to me now that my childhood God was a being constructed to give hope to those unwilling to confront essential truth: mortality, consciousness, responsibility. I have seen the religious dance spun stiffly before me enough times to recognize the tune even with my hands over my ears. Living fully and truly means realizing that there is no supernatural parent, just lots of wonderful uncertainty, and only love to hold things all together. I like to think of myself not as an atheist, but a post-theist. But this is a work in progress. The last time I wrote like this here I received e-mail saying my "soul was in peril". So be it. I'm dancing to a new and better tune. >> Buy A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying, and How a New Faith is Being Born, by John Spong. posted by Stuart Hickox \| 9:01 PM Walden Quote du Jour "My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know His lurking places, to attend all the oratories, the operas, in nature. To watch for, describe, all the divine features which I detect in Nature." - Henry Thoreau Take a nature tour of Walden Hill in PEI. 47 photos, taken in June 2001, species identified (when possible) with the help of Gary Schneider of the MacPhail Woods Project in PEI. posted by Stuart Hickox \| 7:31 PM				(04.09.2002) I'd ask again today, hon. Someone found this old link on-line. I didn't know it was still live. Great memories of an exciting day. See photos of Engagement Day 1998. See she said Yes. Find out more about renting Walden Cabin. (02.26.2002) Mohamad Mohamad: Ready for winter. >> See the photos from our Mid-East dinner party. >> Read the article. >> Have a Middle East dinner party: Recipes here. Turning 20 was a gas. In 1987, Canada mingled in Nice, to mixed effect. >> See the Revealing full photo. >> Read the article. >> See the cover photo archive. (01.15.2002) Digging in. Walden tree day 1995 Chestnuts and crazy volunteers at the top of the hill. >> Read the article. See the Walden Tree Day Photo Album. (01.07.2002) Jasper: Don't label me. None required, son. Critical observations of early '02. (11.19.2001) Walden Cabin 1996 See the photos. Updated - September 12, 2001 Head for the Hills of Prince Edward Island Walden Cabin >> "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front the essential facts of life and to see if I could learn what they had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden; Or Life in the Woods (08.21) Walden Cabin is a publishing creation of Accolade Intermedia, an Ottawa-based communications company that specializes in content-rich Web products. www.accolade.ca >>
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