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poliphiloMy sister-in-law's brother died yesterday. I didn't know him well, but I liked him. He was eccentric and counter-cultural and lived by his own rules. He was 51.
I have reached the age at which it is no longer startling when a contemporary drops dead.
Brandon wasn't religious. I don't know what the family will finally decide, but my sister in law is mildly uneasy at the prospect of having a clergy-person officiate. I did a Google search and discovered something I didn't know before, that it is possible to book a non-religious celebrant through the Registry Office. Excellent. I've let Ailz know that when I get called to the choir invisible I want a Registry Office Person to wave me off.
It's not that I'm Godless. I believe in God right enough. Though Goddess suits me better. No, it's dogma I want to steer clear of. I don't think anyone knows with certainty what happens to a person after death, and I don't fancy having some sectarian breathing his/her personal opinions or party dogma over my sainted remains.
Call me Agnostic. I think of Agnosticism as a positive thing. What's so shameful about admitting you don't have the answers? None of us can actually prove our beliefs. Faith divides; acknowledgement of ignorance unites. I know nuthin and you know nuthin- we all know nuthin together.
I have reached the age at which it is no longer startling when a contemporary drops dead.
Brandon wasn't religious. I don't know what the family will finally decide, but my sister in law is mildly uneasy at the prospect of having a clergy-person officiate. I did a Google search and discovered something I didn't know before, that it is possible to book a non-religious celebrant through the Registry Office. Excellent. I've let Ailz know that when I get called to the choir invisible I want a Registry Office Person to wave me off.
It's not that I'm Godless. I believe in God right enough. Though Goddess suits me better. No, it's dogma I want to steer clear of. I don't think anyone knows with certainty what happens to a person after death, and I don't fancy having some sectarian breathing his/her personal opinions or party dogma over my sainted remains.
Call me Agnostic. I think of Agnosticism as a positive thing. What's so shameful about admitting you don't have the answers? None of us can actually prove our beliefs. Faith divides; acknowledgement of ignorance unites. I know nuthin and you know nuthin- we all know nuthin together.
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Date: 2005-05-12 10:29 am (UTC)I think of this as being a very Anglican attitude. *g* Anglican theology is at its best when a) it admits what it doesn't know and b) it expresses itself as poetry (and music). For me it's epitomized in the famous variously attributed verse:
He was the Word that spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what that Word did make it,
I do believe and take it.
It's verse and it's agnostic and it's faithful--and that's what I understand as Anglicanism.
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Date: 2005-05-12 12:48 pm (UTC)