Leaving aside, for now, “does\u2010god\u2010exist”:
\nThe word “god” is a way of expressing certain human experiences, good, bad, and complex. It is valid AS EXPERIENCE, whether or not we believe in the terms used to express it. I am not assuming that a deity is involved. I find the human experience to be much and enough.
\nFor instance: In 1992, I visited the site of the concentration camp at Dachau. The place is a hole in the love of god. I do not believe in god.
\nNot\u2010necessarily\u2010existence does not invalidate the statement. (A believer might argue that the love of god does not have holes. The statement remains valid, describing my experience.) During the same trip, I visited the cathedral at Chartres. A sacred place. Again, I am talking experience, not belief. (A believer might suspect that my experience was not entirely subjective.)
\nWhether or not ?god, sacredness, spirit, etc. exist in any objective sense, statements about such things can be respected as expressions of human experience. And, note, experiences that some may call holy are not denied to non\u2010 believers.<\/p>\n
From Molten Wood and Feral Ideas\u00a0 chasens.ca\/book<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaving aside, for now, “does\u2010god\u2010exist”: The word “god” is a way of expressing certain human experiences, good, bad, and complex. It is valid AS EXPERIENCE, whether or not we believe in the terms used to express it. I am not assuming that a deity is involved. I find the human experience to be much and … Continue reading “Beside the Divide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasens.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}