What is Natural Religion?
"The greatest gold glimmering through the trees" by sagesolar is marked with CC BY 2.0.
My first post to this blog was about my religious awakening as an eleven-year-old atheist. Based on that, a reader might think that this is an atheist-only blog. I know that I sustained a spiritual wounding when I lost my belief in God. That wounding is at the heart of my quest for a natural religion. In the way of wounds, I may even poke at it at times, just to see if it still hurts. Be warned that I am going to write about spirituality without God very often. However, I pledge there will be no rants against God-centered religion here.
I never want to be disrespectful of those who believe. And I am not writing this in that bad-apology way (“I am sorry if I offended anyone” which just means, “I am sorry that you are so incredibly sensitive that you found that offensive”), but because I respect belief in God. I, myself, believe in the sacred with all my heart. Hopefully, this blog is God-adjacent enough to interest some believers in these pages. Please hold me to account if I descend into rant territory on this or any other topic.
What is natural religion? Over the years, I have developed a passion for a certain kind of spirituality. I am always on the lookout for it. In later posts, I will describe some places where I have found it (trees, science, and yes, God-centered religions, among others). I need to give you a definition of natural religion, though, don’t I? Here is what I have come up with.
The Five Elements of Natural Religion
Human-Centered Without Being Ego-centered. Natural religion is a religion that takes our human life seriously. Our lives are sacred, and they intrinsically matter. We can change ourselves and increase our wisdom. There are spiritual practices that help us do that. However, the quest for understanding and wholeness is tricky and subject to detours. The ego is always waiting to take over and turn this quest into something else!
Healing, Holistic, and Coherent with Nature and the Body. We often split ourselves, our societies, or the world into parts and prefer one part over another. However, we are part of a sacred whole. Because splitting into parts is so easy for us humans, healing those splits is sacred work.
Grounded in Compassion and Morality. No philosophy, religion, or way of life is worth celebrating without compassion at its heart. A moral code is a human tool that holds us to account. We know from experience that we humans need to be held accountable for our actions.
Accommodates the Gamut of Belief: from No-God to God. Natural religion is about living in a sacred world and creating a life of purpose and wholeness. God can be a part of natural religion but doesn’t need to be. God can also be defined in more than one way.
Mild in Hierarchy and Light on Doctrine. The uses and abuses of power are a part of any human enterprise. A mild and relational hierarchy with flexibility around doctrine allows a spiritual group or enterprise to spread the power out (without becoming completely ineffectual) and practice the virtues of kindness and open-mindedness.
So there you have it. Please let me know what you think of this list. What else would you have included? Is there anything you would have left out? I am curious. My spiritual wounding points me in specific directions. That means, of course, that I may be blind to something essential and over-emphasize what is not.
I left some things out that I almost included. For example, I almost put a no supernatural clause as an element – which would mean a natural religion would have no heaven, no fairy world, no life after death. On reflection, such a requirement seemed too rational and somewhat rigid. I love the clean mental lines of no supernatural – I am also a little suspicious of my attraction to those clean lines!
Science didn’t even get a shoutout in my elements list – and yet, science was one of the topics that inspired me to start this blog. Go figure! Be warned I will be writing about science often. That historical split that science forced on us (I am referring to, you know, Darwin and Galileo and the whole enlightenment era thing) is beginning to heal. Science is digging around in who we are, trying to get at our essential nature. It is discovering the practices that make us happy and give our lives meaning. And yet, science – being science – will continue to debunk cherished spiritual beliefs. Science’s truths are still sometimes uncomfortable, but they shape natural religion. They just don’t quite fit in the definition.
I hope this post sets you up with a better idea of what I mean by natural religion. Anything spiritual is fair game for discussion. Sometimes, like now, I will be taking a very linear, high-level approach. I hope that keeps you oriented. At other times, I will be writing about my own and others' natural religion and how we practice it.
I invite you to comment and participate!
Header picture is "The greatest gold glimmering through the trees" by sagesolar is marked with CC BY 2.0.