(July 21, 2018 at 4:06 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: As a child, I was a nominal Christian, participating in Sunday School and church service along with mother. As a teen I was something of an accidental atheist. I didn't believe, but not for any strong reason. At seventeen I converted to Taoism, and remained more or less involved with Taoism until perhaps the last decade. In my twenties, I went through 6-7 years in which I was apostatic, contemplating what I felt was a difficulty in Taoism. Starting in college, I became interested in the Hindu worship of the Goddess Kali. The more I reflected on it, the more I came to believe that Kali was a vital, living force in my life, and in my forties took to describing myself as Hindu, as well as Taoist. In the last couple of years, I came to the realization that if I wanted to take my Hindu beliefs seriously, I needed to learn more than I then knew about it. So I was faced with the task of examining the literature, but without any guide as to how to go about that. Some reflection led me to the conclusion that reason was the only logical choice for a guide. Given that, I didn't see any need to retain my Hindu belief and it's basis on intuition, and so self-consciously embraced atheism.
Just out of interest... since I've never heard anyone single Kali out before... what did you find appealing/inspirational about her? All I know about Kali was that she was worshipped, with human sacrifices, by the 'Thuggee', who were highwaymen who went around strangling their victims with handkerchiefs so as not to (for some ritual reason) spill blood. Then the idea of the Thuggee was exaggerated/sensationalised in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom... replacing stranglings with lowering into lava. Anyway, I'm just wondering then, what positive way there is/was of looking at Kali?
