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" Seek the truth and run from

those who claim to have found it "

after André Gide

What I Believe

March 3rd, 2014

HicksvilleFrontCover-120pxWe met a delightful guy, Dylan Horrocks, at a recent gathering of OBOD members and friends on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. He is one of the country’s foremost cartoonists and he gave Stephanie and I a copy of his comic novel Hicksville. I’d never read a comic novel before – this was fantastic!

Dylan started a blog called ‘Year of Belief’ in which he states his beliefs and then invites you and I to contribute ours (we can do this anonymously or with a pen-name if we prefer). It makes fascinating reading. Dylan is an atheist – but with yearnings! He writes:

“I like Animism and Paganism. Those traditions seem much more meaningful to me than monotheist religions – perhaps partly because it’s easier for me to enter into dialogue with them without feeling obliged to embrace a whole lot of baggage. In fact, the baggage they do carry these days (New Age Hippie associations) appeal to me, as someone who grew up in the 1970s. Hippie mysticism has always had a stronger pull on my imagination than any monotheist religions.

I would like to believe that the universe is, in some sense, alive and aware. I would like to believe in magic: in some kind of super-natural reality beyond the one I currently believe is the only reality.

I would like to believe in all kinds of things, actually. And at various times, I’ve tried. But as I said before, I never get very far. In fact, I sometimes describe myself as a “reluctant atheist,” because I think it would be lovely to see the universe as a magical, caring spiritual presence – or at least to be able to enjoy a rich spiritual life. But I don’t see how I can.” Read more

And read the latest contributor’s post:

“I believe in a lot of things, none of them absolutely. It might be easier to start with what I don’t believe in. I have no faith or trust in certainty, in purity, in ultimate ends (teleology), or in the value of coercive power.

I am a skeptic, but the deepest and most powerful part of my skepticism is auto-skepticism: I am skeptical of my own skepticism and try never to let it get in the way of investing things with meaning.

I am a practicing occultist, but do not ascribe to any particular school of occult philosophy. Any model can be used to create meaning – but no model is “true.” What matters is what a model, theory, or principle can be used for, what assumptions, implications, and general baggage it brings with it, and how it interconnects with other things one values.”  Great stuff – read more here!

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