[Magdalen] Religion Without God?

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

UUs vary. You'll find assemblies that are not so hard-nosed. But whatever
your view, they will probably welcome you, which is more than a few other
gatherings can say. Luhrman might do well to meet some UUs instead of
writing what she thinks she knows about them.

In many instances, the rejection is not of god, but of the god who is the
punitive tyrant who gets mad at us, judges us by stone age standards, and
sends people to hell. Much of the time, when I hear from a questioning
person, the question is not of God so much as this absurd Osama look alike
who seems to be god in many churches.
I usually say, "If I thought God was like that, I would not have any
respect for it either, wouldn't worship it, and might not even believe in
it."

As for the literalist dittoheads, Question them, and they do not address
the question:
"Uh, it's in the Bible, so you have to believe it.  We all have to believe
it. We will just have to ask when we get to the other side why it's like
this."
Me: "Hmmm.  Maybe your Bible is at least partially wrong?"
They: <stops talking to the infidel>

The writer has, I would have to suggest, a somewhat shallow view of the
whole matter. Consider: "How do we understand this impulse to hold a
“church” service despite a hesitant or even nonexistent faith?"  Oh, fooey!
We've all had periods of "hesitant" faith.  Luhrman seems to think that if
you do not have the same faith as she is accustomed to, then she discounts
your faith.  Often the faith she wants to call "non-existent" is --
different; many of these folks believe that they know what "faith" must be:
belief in a punitive, angry, childishly spiteful entity who throws its
hapless creations into the Lake of Fire -- instead of the loving, merciful
and just God revealed in a close reading of scripture.

This isn't a new problem; it's been going on for decades: people with more
or less sane faith allowed people with insane faith to take and hold the
public relations high ground, and now everybody thinks their twisted and
sick view of God is what we all think.  I hear it practically every day
now, and when I try to give another point of view, I'm often accused of
lying, denying what I know is really true.  Extreme? Sure, but it shows how
badly the fundies have screwed things up.




James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

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
>