People are frequently fundamentally classified by their beliefs about "God": 1) Those who believe in "God" are classified as Theists. We refer to this as the common God-based philosophical classification system. Unfortunately, the term "God" has at least two extremely different meanings: 1) Generally, (traditional) Theists define "God" as: An entity external to the universe that created and rules the universe 2) Non-literal Theists reject this definition and, instead, generally accept this one: The personal name given to the infinite and eternal universe (MORE INFO HERE) As radical as the difference between these two definitions of "God" is, the common God-based philosophical classification system makes no distinction whatsoever! WHY IS THIS SUCH A SERIOUS PROBLEM?When making personal judgements, Non-literal Theists are almost always stuffed into the "Theism Box" by Atheists and the "Atheism Box" by traditional Theists. Due to the inherent limitations of the common God-based philosophical classification system, this is understandable (and even a bit humorous); but it is not very rational or useful!
Furthermore, when collecting statistics, Non-literal Theists are almost always classified as Theists (which seriously exaggerates* the number of people who supposedly believe in a literal "God") because the surveyors simply ask, "Do you believe in God?", which naturally elicits a "yes" response from many (not all) Non-literal Theists. In fact, it is very likely that there are more Non-literal Theists than there are traditional Theists; yet they are virtually unrecognized!
BUT THE REAL PROBLEM, is that although Non-literal Theists are very often people who have consciously chosen to dedicate the remainder of their life to the cause of helping to create a better world, they have virtually no collective presence or voice in the world. Because of this significant invisibility, not only are the noble efforts of Non-literal Theists generally less effective; but they inadvertantly sustain the false "God" of traditional Theism as well as the destructive divisions between literal religions. *For example, on February 16, 2004, on ABC News' PrimeTime (a nationally broadcast television program in the USA), Diane Sawyer reported that 82% of all Americans claim to be Christians (Were other supposed Theists really excluded from this number? Common sense suggests that this is very unlikely.). This particular episode featured an interview with Mel Gibson about his film, The Passion of the Christ. YES, IT'S TIME FOR NON-LITERAL THEISTS (YOU) TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED! [ CONTINUE TO SOLUTION ] What is the cost of INVISIBILITY?MEET OTHER NON-LITERAL THEISTSJOIN THE ALLIANCE FOR A BETTER WORLD[NON-LITERAL THEISM]
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