Pessimistic Politics: Religious Education

An honest-to-god message from the not-too-bright sister of yours truly::
I ask how you can be an athiest and a Unitarian Universalist at the same time...?

I realize it's politically incorrect, especially for us liberals, to say that my way of seeing things is the only correct way. However, if you break this down to the basics, it's hard to argue with:

Theist: (from the Latin root Theo = God) One who believes in God.

Polytheist: One who believes in multiple gods.

Atheist: One who does not believe in God.

Agnostic: One who isn't sure if there is a God or not.

Humanist: One who doesn't think it matters whether there is a God or not.

These are the outlooks I run into most often, though probably someone has discovered a different category somewhere. However, because the Theist's are the largest group, and because they more than any other group seem to enjoy arguing on the particulars, they have formed various subsets.

Christian: One who believes in the divinity of Christ.

Jewish: One who believes in the correctness of religious traditions prior to the birth of Christ.

Muslim: One who believes in the divinity of Mohammed.

Pagan (by which we mean a follower of Paganism): One who does not believe in the divinity of any person. Subsets include New Age spirituality and Wicca.

None of these are compatible. E.G., you can not claim to be a follower of one religion and at the same time relate to another (Jews and Christians have the same root, Judeo-Christianity, but have since become different).

Unitarian Universalism, the religion to which I subscribe, has its roots in Judeo-Christianity, but has since evolved into something completely different, I would even say better. Unitarian Universalism commits me to affirm and promote seven basic principles (this is the wording off www.uua.org):

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

None of which require me to believe in God, the devil, or indeed anything at all. That's one of the appeals of Unitarian Universalism, because we don't discriminate against any other person's religious beliefs (unlike many other traditions I could name).

For more about the historical roots of Unitarian Universalism, ask me another question.

Honest-to-god response from the sister of yours truly and ridiculously foolish:
first of all, New Age and Wicca are two totally different things, though some stupid people may not be aware of the differences.

If you know about the trinity, it's sort of the same thing. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. each one has a different role to play, but ultimately, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are submissive to the Father, but all three are the same...

I know it's confusing. I don't think I did a good job explaining it...

I also object to your definition of Christianity. If you ask any Christian, they'll tell you that Christianity is a relationship (with Jesus) and not a religion. But whatever.

AND, agnostic is more questioning if there's a God, not necessarily not sure if there is or not. You don't stay agnoscit forever. By nature, it's an active process one goes through to determine an answer... resulting in athiesm or some other belief.

I also make distinctions between religion and sirituality. Spirituality is basically the beliif in something bigger than you out there, and religion is more the 'rituals' one would go through to worship that supreme being (or beings)...

So, basically, Unitarian Universalism isn't a religion... it sounds more humanist. But if there's divinity anywhere in it's belief, then it's a religion that worships that divinity... so to me, it sounds like y'all UU's worship humans...

Maybe you'd better explain the historical roots of Unitarian Universalim... :-)

My sister is incorrect.

Agnosticism is not by its nature a temporary process. Any number of people have informed me it pertains equally to the act of questioning as well as to the philosophical belief it is impossible to prove whether there is a God or not.

In this sense, perhaps my own beliefs are closer to agnosticism. My feeling is that it is impossible to prove the existence of God in much the same way it is impossible to prove the existence of the old gray witch hiding under my bed or that there is a flying spaghetti monster in orbit around Jupiter. In fact, there are literally an endless number of things we cannot prove, and as time goes by, we generally learn to dismiss them.

Defining Christianity as a relationship with Jesus is well and good, though. In my experience, any person who thinks Jesus had magic powers also sees themselves as having some sort of bond with him. And anyone with a bond thinks Jesus is somehow deserving of that bond. I think my definition is simpler, but you can call it whatever you want.

Also, Princeton WordNet defines pagan as "any of various religions other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. It's probably one of those words you can debate on, but I don't think I implied New Age spirituality was the same thing as Wicca, only that they are similar in this respect.

The history of Unitarian Universalism can best be explained by following the origins of the two words that make up it's title:

Unitarian: Centuries ago in Eastern Europe, someone had the foresight to comb through the Bible and found absolutely no reference to the holy trinity. The father, son and holy spirit you are familiar with is probably a creation of the Catholic Church, and has no basis in scripture. A religion is born.

Universalist: Around the time our nation was founded, up in New England, some Puritans got together and decided it really didn't make sense for God to sentence people to eternity in Hell for a merely mortal sin. Perhaps 1,000 years was enough. Later they decided, since God is loving, and since he can pretty much do whatever he wants, maybe 100 years would be enough. They soon came to the conclusion it really doesn't make sense for there to be a Hell at all, and thus they became known by the rather derogatory term "no-Hell-ites".

As you can well imagine, both denominations were considered way out of the mainstream, at least as far as those fun-loving Christian conservatives are concerned. Around the time of the first World War, the two decided to combine to form the Unitarian Universalist church. The flaming chalice that is our international symbol was more or less a PR move to make ourselves look official, but it has its roots in various other religious symbols if you're really interested.

We are headquartered in Boston, the unofficial Unitarian "Mecca," since the church is very popular and well known across Massachusetts. As it spread west, the denomination became much less formal, a problem affecting many denominations and once referred to as the "mid-western problem".

In more recent years, the Unitarian Universalist ministry has championed many noble causes, including fair and equal treatment of homosexuals, women, senior citizens, the handicapped and minorities. But you already knew that.