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Deities and Daoists

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.metaphysics.alchemy,alt.philosophy.taoism,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage
From: i@no.self (!)
Subject: (DnD) Deities and Daoists
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:16:12 GMT

Mark:
|# Is it possible to be a Taoist and an atheist?

"Jim Fish" :
| Different types of Taoism exist.

what is the primary role of deities in Taoism as diversely-practiced?
 are they social or administrative? socially-supporting and helpful?
 or do they have more mysterious functions? and how do Immortals differ?

| Belief, or lack thereof, in gods is inconsequential IMO.

so believing in gods won't induce a faux experience of them?
 
| Tao gives rise to the 10k. Gods (if they exist) are a part 
| of the 10k.

is Tao sufficiently like a God that an atheist would dispute 
 its reality or challenge an assertion as to its existence?
 there are books comparing "God" and "Tao", for example

| ...[belief] that gods don't exist... has ...no bearing on
| reality or any gods or Tao (IMO). 

disbelief in fictional phantoms sometimes eliminates them
 from one's thought-processes and subjective experience.
 one's attitude toward illusions can determine their level
 of reality. if disbelief in them opposes the creation of
 even fantasy versions of them which one might identify
 with some subset renegade consciousness, and that's all
 that they ever were, then they are subject to our whims
 as mere figments

| If you had the faith that gods exist, it would have no 
| bearing on reality, gods, or Tao.

inasmuch as I am part of reality, it has bearing. 
 inasmuch as the gods or Tao is part of me or is
 That by which I proceed, so indeed it has bearing.
 it might, in fact, inform my composure favourably to 
 become attuned to or at least acquainted with them

this may form the basis of alchemy and mysticism generally

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