Unitarian Universalism at a Glance

BCrafty07

01/17/2012 06:02:04 PM

A friend encouraged me to look into UU just 3 months ago. I had written and mentioned how I desired a community church to attend yet didn't feel I fit into any one singular church. I'm still finding me way day by day. I enjoy what the Buddha taught but can't even grasp the Dharma (or sit still and meditate!). I also love nature and have a connection with it since childhood. A part of me wants to fit in somewhere and I think UU might be it for me. I like knowing I'm not "wrong" for what I believe in and that I feel welcome at UU churches.

tepeters

06/08/2011 09:36:44 AM

I identify myself as an athiest because I do not believe in a supreme being that intervenes into the state of becoming being that is the universe. However, I do give meaning to the term spiritual that I define as inspirational rather than supernatural. What I believe can be summarized in this adaptation of an ancient Egyptian saying that reads ' Men need symbols to inspire them, when they lack them they invent the gods, so choose symbols that represent truth (the real).' I believe the concept of god is a human invention to describe those things about reality we do not or cannot know and/or over which we have no control. There is something greater in the universe than human existence and that is reality as a singular whole without definition to which all existence is subject. All that can be said about it is that it is infinitely creative by being creativity itself. To use the term god then in a hortatory, metaphoric or poetic sense is fine because the notion of god is part of human history and there is inspiration in symbolic and metaphoric ideas. But the meaning of life is to be found in this life and not in some future life and so it is imperative to be moral, compassionate, and inspired in the here and now and not wait upon a heaven.

joyfulle1981

01/28/2011 10:50:12 AM

I personally cannot define God, anymore than I could put God in a box. For me, it is a connection with a Divine energy that permeates everything, but it is also personal and relational...so many things that seem to contradict in human thinking. As far as the Bible having contradictions...chuckle......picture hundreds of humans having an experience of God and THEN trying to put that mystical experience into mere words. Now, add on top of that, eons of translation, and re-translation, interpretation and re-interpretation. Contradictions will be the norm. The main thing for me is to come back to my OWN experience of the Divine and measure what I read by that.....an experience which for me is deeply embedded in love.

gent258

05/05/2010 09:08:35 AM

Can you define God?

vbabcock0189

07/05/2009 12:58:10 AM

I recently took the quiz of what faith I am, and from my answers I came up with being 100% Unitarian Universalism. I believe in God but I thank it has a lot to do with the brain washing I was brought up with. I pray to God but don't truly feel as if he is really there and I am just going through the motions. If there is a God and I would like to believe that there is, then why do I find the Bible contradicting, and hard to believe? I believe we should always help others in need even if it we are selves don't have much to share. The true is we all have some thing to give to others even if it's just a friendly ear to listen with over a cup of coffee. I believe in reincarnation and soul mates, I believe we have angles that look over us as does our loved ones that have passed on. As a young girl in Sunday school while we were learning about how we all became to be here through the stories of the bible I had asked my Sunday school teacher if that is true then why does my school say it took millions of years for us to evolve? I can't recall his answer or if he really even gave me one, I know the question left him speechless and fumbling over his words, I feel the bible was writen for guidelines for good decent people to live by, by someone who wanted to make a difference for all of us and then others have added to it until we have what we refer to as our bible. As I have grown older and hopefully wiser, I also become more confused with faith and religion that is fallowed by doubt and questions. Nothing I have ever don't with religion has ever made a difference one way or another. I know that is why I am here to find myself and a faith I can trust and believe in.

inclusivescl

12/30/2007 02:29:53 PM

I believe there is a fundamental connection between the peoples of the earth and rather than building barriers between people and beliefs, we need to be increasingly tolerant and build bridges that allow us to value what others believe even if it doesn't agree with our personal belief system. If there is a God, it is a background force that unifies all things and not a omnipotent, omnipresent being that judges people based on rigid religious sectarian rules. Anyway, that's what I believe...