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September 26, 2006
All the Goodness of Church, without the Jesus Aftertaste
This past Sunday, I attended my first Unitarian church service. My main goal in checking this all out is the future religious education of young Lilybug. While I indentify as atheist, I still recognize that religion is an important element of our social stew, and think that she will at least need to understand what this whole God thing is about if she is to make her own, informed decisions as a young adult someday. The Unitarian church is all about tolerance, multiculturalism, and the demonic idea that people should just plain be nice to each other. I like the thought that she can go to one church and learn about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Paganism, and Zen.
Everyone was very friendly, and it was the expected mix of aging hippies, geeks, and assorted intellectuals. I really liked the minister a lot. What was strange was that the service followed the format of your standard church service, but to me it seemed like church in bizarro world, since there was no mention of Jesus and the dying for our sins and all, and very little God. There is a great blank space behind the pulpit, which I found a bit eerie, but here's the thing-- it's a blank slate. Congregants are asked to do a little more work in bringing their own concept of spirituality to the table and actually THINKING about what all the talk means. No easy answers. I like that. Apparently there is also a lively discussion of religion and spirituality that takes place over coffee prior to the service. I'm interested to check that out. The idea of discussing the meaning of God and religion with the intent of questioning and seeking is very appealing to me, rather than having someone who has all the answers tell me why I am wrong. Because, despite my lack of faith in a sentient Superhero God in the Sky, I do think about the Universal questions, and why we have religion, and what the intent is, and what the meaning of life is, etc.
On a related note, Newsweek recently ran an article about atheist scholarchip (The New Naysayers, September 11, 2006) and what really struck me is how misrepresented and misunderstood the whole concept of atheism is. It seems that most of the American public thinks that atheists are miserable, amoral people who'd just as soon murder you as look at you. I just go back to the idea that atheists are also obligated to be nice to their fellow citizens, not because of the fear of God or punishment in this life or the afterlife, but because if this world is all there is, you'd better make the most of it. Other people are all we have, and it's pretty obvious how interconnected we all are.
End of sermon.
Posted by mwashburn at September 26, 2006 01:26 PMPosted to Culture & Politics