CX

For all the evidence to the contrary the Deist god IS the invisible dragon in someone's garage.

njhartsh

Whoa--let's not go that far. Please realize that Unitarian Universalism is a very theologically (and atheologically) diverse group.

It's true that some Unitarian Universalists in the United States consider themselves Christians (though it's worth noting that what those people mean by "Christian" is vastly different from what Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, etc., take the word to mean. We're not talking the Nicene Creed here). Theirs, I think, is usually a pretty friendly strain of Christianity.

But considerably more UUs consider themselves members of one of two other loose theological groupings. First, there is the relative newcomer on the UU theological block, the Neo-Pagan/Wiccan/Earth Spirituality path, perhaps best represented by the Covenant of UU Pagans organization. Second (and constituting possibly a majority of American UUs!) are we humanists and atheists. Anyway, neither pagan UUs nor humanist/atheist UUs see ourselves as being anywhere on a "Christianity spectrum"! (And then you get practicing Jews, Buddhists, and probably every possible mixture of the above--the picture is complicated, to say the least.)

There currently is somewhat of an internal struggle afoot within UUism between those who want to see religious language ("God," "faith," "prayer," etc.) take a more prominent place in the denomination's description of what it stands for and those (like me--in fact, nearly everyone on this side of the disagreement seems to be among the aforementioned atheists and humanists) who would be deeply alienated by the acceptance of such terminology as Required UU Terms.

The denomination's General Assembly is meeting in Boston this weekend (June 26-29); stay tuned.

- Nathan, atheist UU

TiredJim

I'd be interested in watching her put all the ingredients of a human together.

elanah

Sounds like just giving that label to what she can't explain. I have a friend like that. For all practical purposes, she's an atheist, but she explains that all she thinks "god" is is whatever force started the Big Bang, and then things took shape according to science from then on. I can't say I completely agree with that label, but oh well.