[Magdalen] Religion Without God?

[Christopher Hart]

Interesting read.

On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> 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
>



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Christopher Hart

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