Sea of faith

[jake-the-peg]

I saw an anglican priest on the history of Christianity program last night who was a member of this group

http://www.sofn.org.uk/sof/index.html

They see religious faith as a human creation.

Ideas, beliefs, faiths: we made them all up - not, of course, as isolated individuals or lone craftsmen, but as communities, groups, collectives, cultures

Now I'm confused - are these people just atheists who like to go to church?

Any thoughts?

[Tom Braider]

Interesting. Sounds a bit like Douglas Adams' ideas on the usefulness of an artificial god - see link; it's wonderful piece. I don't see the point of Sea of Faith, myself, but I can respect those who do - much more than those who think that the doctrine they "believe in" is made true and real just because of that belief.

http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/

[Octavius]

They don�t go to church, it�s a network. They have annual conferences and things like �Steering Committees� and �Local Groups�.

As you say, on the face of it, it does seem like a place our atheist AB classmates could go and discuss how it was "all made up" and discuss and explore these things with many like-minded people, or argue the toss with others.

[jake-the-peg]

But it's members include Catholic priests
http://www.sofn.org.uk/press/bullock.html and Anglican Priests like Anthony Freeman and the one in Oxford on the program last night.

Is this some sort of half-way-house for those losing their religion?

[Octavius]

Perhaps, or maybe it is a halfway house for atheists to meet up with these alternate religious people and share ideas about man-made religions. Although I think to some extent you have to be tolerant and accepting of other beliefs and ideas, so maybe not the place for your typical militant antitheist!

From a personal perspective, if I wanted to meet up with some people to discuss the world, its surroundings, its religions and ideas about God or no God, and generally put the world to rights before having a jolly good sing-song, then I�d rather do that on a Friday night in the pub over a few pints rather than at the conference centre by South Mimms on a Saturday afternoon.

[JockSporran]

I've checked out the site. It looks as if they are just atheists who want some kind of religious organisation and tradition. It seems to me that they believe that God is simply the 'human spirit', not the creator force of nature and the universe. At least, that's how it comes across to me.

[naomi24]

I saw that too, Jake. Sea of Faith mission statement - 'exploring and promoting religious faith as a human creation'. SoF rejects their (religion's) supernatural claims and regards religions as human creations but nevertheless thinks they embody valuable human wisdom.

These people seem confused. They say What we celebrate is nothing other than ourselves as whole beings, they appear to deny the existence of a supernatural, personal, God, but then go on to mention several religions and say that the 'great traditions of revelation..... are there to be valued, assessed and reviewed for all humanity and for all time.' Revelation? Where from?

I can see their point when they say 'Love your neighbour as yourself � Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you', but then confusion returns with ''This is the Law and the Prophets, all else is interpretation'. What prophets? And where do they think the 'Law' came from?

I think they are right when they say, Prayer is talking to ourselves". We are in fact taking "prayer" seriously if this is a mode whereby we can get in touch with those deeper parts of our psyche which are normally overlaid and hidden from us. The rest, I'm afraid, makes little sense. It seems they are people with serious doubts about religion, but somehow are unable to bring themselves to let go completely. Perhaps, subconsciously, they are trying to hedge their bets.