[Magdalen] Religion Without God?

[Jim Guthrie]

> YMMV. However, Sunday Assembly seems to have *really* managed this. Ugh. I
> find that silly and pretentious.

For that matter, I suspect most people think High Church Episcopalians silly and 
pretentious. That was certainly my grandparent's opinion. Both my grandmother 
and mother would add the "Ugh" too.

>My big question for the Sunday Assembly people and for Universal Unitarians is 
>to ask what they believe in.  From what little I understand of Unitarianism is 
>that their faith is based on what I can best describe as shifting sands - 
>basically no real foundation at all apart from being good to each other.

UUs are considerably different than the Sunday Assembly people. I have no 
experience with the latter but I've  known lots of Unitarians, and even gave a 
talk (Gays and God back in the late 1970s when such was still considered quite 
exotic <g>) at a UU Sunday Morning service.

>Atheists proclaim their faith in a negative which can never be proved.

Most Atheists don’t proclaim anything. Sure there are some who aspire to be the 
Atheist Billy Graham, but most simply don’t make an issue of it.

>on from a God of the gaps to a God who is beyond our power to comprehend, whose 
>existence cannot be proved by scientific means because

Western Liberal church members may believe this, but it is a tiny minority of 
God-believers worldwide.

> least have tradition and, in most cases, belief. Non-observant (cultural
> only) Jews would be another matter entirely.

Indeed. And it should be noted that Reform Judaism in the U.S. is very close to 
Liberal Christianity -- almost identical in most of their outlook.

Hasidic Jews OTOH are definitely NOT in the same general area of thinking of 
liberal Christians, Reform Jews or UUs, for that matter. They are more akin to 
fundamentalists -- whether Muslim or some brands of American Fundamentalism. 
They have been fearsome opponents of anything related to gay rights, for 
example -- more adamant than the RCs, in fact.

In short, UUs, Liberal "mainline" Christians and Reform Judaism have more in 
common than differences, and still represent a tiny minority of religionists 
world wide.

And, of course, one has to throw in the disinterest in organized religion 
amongst the majority of Americans, and I understand British and Western 
Europeans for that matter.

I also think it interesting that the thread here veered off into the "known" 
(UUs) than confront the reality of the Sunday assembly people. I find a great 
deal of overlap between "Social" Episcopalians (and other Social Christians) and 
the Sunday Assembly people -- looking for community and socializing, but 
peppering it with ritual in the case of Episcopalians and other mainliners. Is 
that rush to "Coffee Hour"  any different than the Sunday Assembly?

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie