Lotus berthelotii: Love the Doonesbury cartoon in your G+ Profile picture, Ed, Re translations of the words both "grace" and "soul" ... "inner light" is reconstru-able for me in non-theistically Friendly/Quaker ways anew ... without the theistic connotations ... but how to get to these experiences far-reachingly in terms of brain / bodymind chemistry isn't at all obvious since sitting in Meeting - even with its harmonizing of this chemistry re meditation and a de facto relaxation response doesn't necessarily or regularly open the way to such neural cascades of pleasure, Releasing "loving bliss neurophysiology" - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_(eliciting_this_neurophysiology) ...

It seems even on this list we each have our own landscape of non theism (and Friendly-wise here) ... and glad to read this knowledge-oriented and sociological approach to non-theism - and thus as possibly nonthestically Quaker - in this Pew report you shared -

"My impression is that Atheism continues to be a very tiny part of the religious landscape in American. I thought this comparison of 2007 and 2014 PEW polls was interesting: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/. In 2014, it found 70.6% of the U.S. population identified as Christian and 22.8% identified as Unaffiliated. Of the unaffiliated, only 3.1% identified as Atheist.  While this poll doesn’t help break down the large majority of Unaffiliated who do not identify as Atheist, other sources point to a growing “Spiritual but not religious”...."

I appreciate the possibility for our little NtF email subcutture/community to create in ongoing ways new understandings of atheism within the context of Quakerism. 

Re both "grace" and "soul" translations, "inner light" is reconstru-able for me in non-theistically Friendly ways anew ... without the theistic connotations ... but how to get to these experiences of these far-reachingly in terms of brain / bodymind chemistry isn't at all obvious since sitting in Meeting - even with its harmonizing of this chemistry re meditation and a de facto relaxation response - does not always deeply center down "grace" or "soul" as "inner light" or release "loving bliss neurophysiology" - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_(eliciting_this_neurophysiology) - in my experience. 

Scott

*

...