Quaker's

Subject: Quaker's

Today the debate was about the intriguing concept of believing in the "form of the essence" of god without "believing in God". 

The complexity of the biblical story, set in a period so remote from our own current thinking, makes the telling of this unlikely and complex story,  including concepts  such as the "virgin birth" the "resurrection" and the concept of "heaven", difficult, if not unfathomable. 

There are of course many religions. Some of them thrive on sticking firmly to their individual  text,  every word precious , others, try to manage their belief in "something" with a nagging doubt about the stories or their absolute veracity.

The Quakers, who were members of the debating audience, are currently undergoing a re-evaluation of their teaching. They apply a pragmatic sense of trying to put greater  emphasis on the 'human experience' on earth than with the god described in the Testament. 

Their personal striving for understanding through human love and human reconciliation, is reflected in their congregation called "the society of friends". Their philosophy is that there is something of god in everyone, each human being is unique and therefore a belief in god is tempered by their belief in their fellow man. 

This emphasis on 'humanities role' in the practicality of founding a better place on Earth, rather than the carrot of proclaiming "life beyond death", is, in some ways more atheistic than purely a faith bound religion, although perhaps the Quaker would balk at the comparison. They belong to a pantheon of faiths which strive to understand the basis of humanity, its needs and never ending conclusions  without mixing the image of God with their own image, other than the belief that God lies within all of us.