What does Unitarian Universalism teach about science and faith?

In our contemporary times there is a clash between religion and science. This comes up especially when considering the origin of the world in the discussion of evolution  and creationism. Does God magically create things in a mysterious way unknown to the human mind or can human beings decipher the workings of Nature and understand the world around them in which they live?

Unitarian Universalists are smart people. They are educated, sophisticated, and tend to support the scientific approach to the accumulation of knowledge about the workings of the world. Unitarian Univeralists certainly don't believe in magic, superstition, and Divine intervention in physical affairs of the Universe.

At what point does the use and appreciation of the scientific method turn into scientism?

Scientism is the belief that the scientific method is the only path to Truth. The belief in the scientific method becomes an ideology which precludes other ways of knowing. Scientism as an exclusive epistemology which does damage to aesthetic and spiritual understandings.

In the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching it is written, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see manifestations. The two spring from the same source, but differ in name: this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery."

What does science know of the eternal Tao? If the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, what about understanding the nature of the whole, the Oneness, the nondualistic nature of existence?

Science only gets us part way to the Truth, capital T. Science is made up of many truths, small ts. There is Truth which the scientific method cannot help us find and understand. The pursuit of Truth is the work of faith. The pursuit of truths is the work of science. They can be complimentary and work in harmony. They need not be antagonistic and in conflict. Perhaps God did create the world as described in Genesis and did it through the mechanism of evolution. A "day" in Genesis is actually millions of years.

Unitarian Univeralism unlike fundamental Christianity appreciates the metaphoric, the symbolic, the poetic as a path to the truth. The Unitarian Universalist faith is very compatible both with science and with the spiritual.

The fourth principle of Unitarian Univeralism proclaims that UUs covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search involves a harmonious inquiry using both science and aesthetics into the realm of Truth. Unitarian Univeralists, like all spiritual seekers, desire an experience of cosmic consciousness, of going home again to the whole of which we are but a part.

Will you join UU A Way of Life's ministry?

In December, 2018, UU A Way Of Life will have been in publication for 10 years.

It has had 175,456 views.

It has 29 signed up followers.

It averages, currently, about 100 views per day.

It is an important ministry in the sanctification of the world.

Will you join this ministry?

What kind of a religion is Unitarian Universalism?

For Unitarian Universalism, the big problem is God.

UUs have made an issue out of not believing in the Trinity of the other Christian denominations.

UUs have made a big issue out of God exuding unconditional love and not judgment and punishment.

UUs, many of them, won't even use the word "God" preferring frothy concepts like "Spirit of Life."

What is the God that UUs do or don't believe in?

UUs leave it up to the individual. UU won't take a stand and position. Essentially UUs say God is whatever you want it to be or even nothing at all.

What kind of religion is this that has nothing to say about God? Isn't defining God one of the elementary functions of religion?

About as close to a concept of God as UUs get is something they name "the interdependent web of all existence."

UUs believe in everything, and anything, and nothing. What a religion.

Unitarian Universalism is way ahead of its time. UU teaches that religion is an experience not a set of beliefs. It tells its members to think whatever they want, UU doesn't really care, but when it comes to experience, UUs want us to love one another and creation, and to enjoy ourselves here on earth as we will surely do in heaven.

Bottom line - Be kind to yourself and others. That's God = Kindness

What does Unitarian Univeralism have to offer the world?

Unitarian Universalists have so much to offer the world and yet it has sabotaged itself by getting into bed with the secularists and the atheists. The attempt by UU to co-opt the atheists has denied its own roots, its own history.

Atheism suppresses the idea of God, the Divine, the Transcendent. Atheism professes that Life is just mechanical stuff that can be explained and understood in secular terms. This idea of course is nonsense and disenchants the world in ways that are disorienting and alienating from our intuitive wisdom.

John Buehrens, a former UUA President supposedly said when people told him they were atheists, "What god is it that you don't believe in?"

Unitarian Universalism has deep roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. In more recent history, it found much inspiration from the transcendentalists. In accepting atheists and secular humanists into its organization, UU has lost its credibility and its sense of self. The identity of Unitarian Universalism has been so buffered that it has lost its luminous quality, its capacity to inspire and comfort, its ability to engender enthusiasm, joy, and hope.

Unitarian Universalism has haughtily proclaimed that it doesn't evangelize, or proselytize, almost as if it is too good to share its message, its good news. UU has acted on the position that people must come to them, they don't reach out to people. In other words, Unitarian Universalism has taken the position that people must come to the church, the church doesn't go to the people.

And yet, the people are suffering because they don't know of the Divine, the ground of our being, the respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which human beings are only a part and perhaps a small part in the end if we wind up killing ourselves through nuclear war or human- caused climate change.

Unitarian Universalism's living tradition is based on a search for a Higher Power which is coded in the fourth principle as "truth and meaning". This search gives our lives meaning and purpose, and the search has been beneficial in amazing and miraculous ways. UUs are especially attuned to looking into the cracks where the light comes in, and not only recognizing and acknowledging the light in those cracks, but expressing gratitude and joy at its discovery.

Unitarian Universalism, if it is to grow into its purpose and mission, must clarify its knowledge and wisdom and share it joyously in a beleaguered world.

Suppressing or denying the knowledge of a Higher Power is psychologically and spiritually dangerous. Human beings are organic creations meant for continuous growth and development, the actualization of potential, the awareness of the whole of creation of which they are a part. The faith in this Oneness of creation is the foundation of a growing spiritual awakening which Unitarian Univeralism should facilitate. The future health of humanity and the world requires what we have to offer.

Is the first principle of UU biblical?

When you consider that both Unitarianism and Universalism were conceived in Christianity, you might wonder whatever happened to the Bible in Unitarian Universalism?

Christianity and the bible along with it, unfortunately, has become marginalized and in some UU congregations, disappeared. It's a shame and a mistake. Western Civilization, like it or not, believe it or not, is based on biblical understandings and teachings.

The bible has been sorely abused and misused by some so called Christian denominations and churches and it has been beautifully used and uplifted in others. Bible teachings are a part of our secular life in Western Civilization and have been used to advantage in human justice improvements such as by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the campaign for civil rights for African Americans.

Uses of the Christian bible in UU sermons often add an element of inspiration, uplift, and recognition in the congregation.

Would not bible study be an invigorating activity in UU churches?

What does the bible teach that is foundational to UU principles?

The bible teaches us in Genesis 1:26:

"God created humankind in God's image. In the image of God did God create human beings: male and female God created them.

and in Genesis 30 it is written "And God looked over everything that God had made, and it was good, so very good!"

The first principle of Unitarian Universalism is that we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Where do UUs think that inherent worth and dignity comes from?

Human worth and dignity comes from its origin, from its source. UUs say it is "inherent." It just is. It is based on creation itself.

Unfortunately, our egos have separated us from creation. Some UUs think they are the authors of their own existence, but this is just silly. On the path of the spirit we come to realize that we are held lovingly in the hands of creation. It says so in the bible.

Why is the "Living Tradition" of UU dying?

Unitarian Universalism has it backwards, the "it" being its relationship with the world.

Does UU attempt to sanctify the world or allow the world to contaminate the "Living Tradition?"

The obvious answer to the question is the later, Unitarian Universalism allows the world to contaminate its "Living Tradition."

Unitarian Universalism is passive when its faith is attacked. The old saying is that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. UUs covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles and most UUs don't even know what the seven principles are that they covenant together to affirm and promote, and even if they did, they have no guidance from the church on how to stand up to the assault on them from the world.

In the era of Trumpism, the principles of the UU Living Tradition are trashed on a daily basis with 80% of Republicans supporting this trashing. Does UU accommodate this assault on its principles or does it cry foul and impose penalties? Unfortunately, it does the former rather than the later because of its poor organizational cohesiveness. The "Living Tradition" is left for the individual congregations to promote and affirm even though there is an attempt at coherence at the periodic general assemblies.

The failure of Unitarian Universalism to achieve more cohesiveness contributes to its failure to thrive as a "Living Tradition" as a church. Its stagnant and somewhat dwindling membership demonstrates not only its inability to survive as a voice to sanctify the world, but also demonstrates that it has sold its soul to a secular philosophy of relativism and accomodation.

The ineffectiveness of Unitarian Univeralism to sanctify the world is a shame because it has much to offer but it doesn't know what it is and how to share its faith with the world in a coherent way.

How many cat sermons can you listen to?

One of the interesting observations about people who attend Unitarian Universalist congregations is that they know very little about their faith.

It is hard, if not impossible, to share one's faith with others if one knows nothing about the faith oneself. If you asked most people at a UU church what the seven principles are that they covenant together to affirm and promote, 90% can't tell you. Could they even name two of the seven?

Try it. Go to a UU church next Sunday, any Sunday, and ask the people in the congregations if they can name two of the seven principles they supposedly covenant together to affirm and promote.

The ministers don't help either because they rarely preach on the foundations of the faith. It's a shame really. This coming Sunday in a local church , the sermon is entitled, "My thirteen years with Mary Beth." The description states that "Mary Beth" is the preachers cat and the sermon will be about what we can learn from our relationships with our pets.

Really?

I could get this on YouTube and it probably would be more enjoyable.

I wonder if the preacher will be sharing pictures as one preacher did at a sermon I walked out of when she started passing around pictures from the National Geographic.

Something is wrong with the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism when it focuses on pop psychology and pop culture. Are we that desperate to fill the pews on Sunday mornings? A community not well grounded in the basic understanding of their faith is a dying community.  It is written in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Unitarian Univeralism is perishing because the people have lost touch with the vision of the faith.