Universal Unitarians

[quiet52]

from RebeccaJ:

Originally Posted by cheese_sdc
I would not characterize their worship as “self worship”. Rather, in my experience, they understand that only place to know the Divine is in that Still Small Voice within oneself. The Divine does not exist “out there”, rather It exists inside the individual.

In the contect of secular humanism, everything comes from the individual. When individuals work as a community, that is where social change can be made.

This sounds Catholic, but it is only partway there. There is no God in secular humanism. The individual and community are reliant only on themselves. They believe change can only be effected by what they do. Which is driven by what they believe, as an individual first, and a community second.

So yes, this is a form of self worship as God is left out of the process entirely. Individuals may believe in God, or god(s), but for the community, this doesn’t matter. God is just a sidebar to that individual. It is part of their self-identity which has nothing to do with anyone else or the community as a whole.

If/when UUs discuss God, they do so in a way that is very academic. Like a religion course at a university.

On the whole, the idea is to not let your individual beliefs be an inconvenience to the community as a whole. When there are differences, the community works them out, and there are always hurt feelings. There is more drama in UUs than a jr. high cafeteria. That was my experience.

Secular Humanism: a non-theistically based philosophy which promotes humanity as the measure of all things.

from: Secular Humanism and Catholicism
manaco.powweb.com/secular.html

“…a way of looking at reality that denies the impact of God on human affairs.” It doesn’t necessarily deny His existence, just whether He makes any difference in our here and now concerns. In putting God on the margins “it denies the existence of an absolute and knowable objective truth.” Such a denial would make each individual’s ideas or feelings the norm for action. A universal moral law would be ruled out of court…"

from: Defending the Faith Against Secularism and Humanism
ad2000.com.au/articles/2000/feb2000p8_18.html

"…Secular humanists have instilled moral lukewarmness, and indifference, into the hearts of many, and have been successful in influencing lawmakers to reflect their goals. The secular humanist is implacably opposed to religious and moral beliefs, and attributes progress to man’s own efforts. Their advice is: “Do whatever you wish, behave anyway you want as long as you don’t hurt anybody else…”

from the horse’s mouth - Council for Secular Humanism:
secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=cherry1_18_1&back=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.secularhumanism.org%2Flib%2Flist.php%3Fpublication%3Dfi%26vol%3D18

 

[Catholic_Dude]

snorts

I wonder if Catholic Dude is qualified to make a judgment about who is disturbed and who is not.

I was not saying that to be mean, but the fact is that religion is founded upon the “no rules, everyone is right” principle that has our society (from the family to the education system to law) in shambles. You cant “come together” in “worship” when everyone has their own diverging opinions.

 

[cheese_sdc]

To be fair, what I have seen in the local Unitarian church would not be considered “worship” by most Catholics or Christians. It is more of a lecture on a spiritual topic.

Again, I’ve only experienced one Unitarian Church, so I can’t comment on all of them.

 

[love4mary]

Its ok to believe in God…

Its ok to believe in A god…

Its ok to believe in no God…

How very confusing this “faith” is. But I think I am beginning to understand.

God is secondary to social/political issues when HIS laws counter those of society. Same sex marriage comes to mind on this one.

They want to feel good about themselves for all the hard work they do on social issues (its actually wonderful that they take Some of the social issues seriously like feeding the poor and conserving the earths resources), fine and dandy,thats what they make PEP-RALLIES for. But by failing to give all the credit and honor and glory and worship to God is playing loose and easy with their souls.

The greatest trick that Satan uses is to make people think he does not exist or to convince people that there are many gods. Either way, eternity is a long time to reflect on how wrong Satan was and how gullible you were in buying into the lie.