[Magdalen] Religion Without God?

[Jim Guthrie]

THIS Christmas our family will go to church. The service is held in a beautiful
old church in the charming town of Walpole, N.H., just over the border from
Vermont. The Lord’s Prayer hangs on the wall behind the sanctuary. A lectern
rises above the nave to let the pastor look down on his flock. The pews and the
side stalls have the stern, pure lineaments suited to the Colonial congregation
that once came to church to face God.

Except that this church is Unitarian. Unitarianism emerged in early modern
Europe from those who rejected a Trinitarian theology in preference for the
doctrine that God was one. By the 19th century, however, the Unitarian church
had become a place for intellectuals who were skeptical of belief claims but who
wanted to hang on to faith in some manner. Charles Darwin, for example, turned
to Unitarians as he struggled with his growing doubt. My mother is the daughter
of a Baptist pastor and the black sheep, theologically speaking, of her family.
She wants to go to church, but she is not quite sure whether she wants God. The
modern Unitarian Universalist Association’s statement of principles does not
mention God at all.

As it happens, this kind of God-neutral faith is growing rapidly, in many cases
with even less role for God than among Unitarians. Atheist services have sprung
up around the country, even in the Bible Belt.

Many of them are connected to Sunday Assembly, which was founded in Britain by
two comedians, Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans. They are avowed atheists. Yet
they have created a movement that draws thousands of people to events with
music, sermons, readings, reflections and (to judge by photos) even the waving
of upraised hands. There are nearly 200 Sunday Assembly gatherings worldwide. A
gathering in Los Angeles last year attracted hundreds of participants.

I strongly commend this article to the list:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/opinion/religion-without-god.html

Cheers,
Jim

"The enemy isn’t liberalism;
the enemy isn’t conservatism.
The enemy, is baloney." - Lars Erik Nelson