I.  Introduction:  Two questions I want to consider: 
        A.  Why go to any church for Sunday services and other meetings? 
        B.  What is special about this church?  Why come here rather than go elsewhere? 

 II.  Why participate in any church? 
        A.  What do I get out of it?  Not the same for everyone or for the same person at different times. 
           1.  Religious education for the children--and also for ourselves 
           2.  Be part of a community of like-minded person--friends, social activities 
               a.  This sized community goes back to our earliest tribal days 
               b.  Now this kind of community is especially important because of lack of extended family, lack of stable
                    local community, and open mobile life-style 
           3.  Sunday services provide opportunity to think about bigger issues and take stock of where we are in our lives. 
           4.  When difficulties seem to be overwhelming us, we want to feel more secure and comfortable.  On the other
                 hand, when all seems to be going well, we may need something to make us feel uncomfortable, something
                 which challenges us to consider whether we are living as we should, whether we are doing as much as we 
                should for others and the larger community 
       B.  What should I give or contribute to a church?  Not the same for everyone or for the same person at different 
             times. 
           1.  Money for what I get and also for what the church contributes to the community. 
           2.  Time and effort to help the church do its work for its members & the community. 

III.  Why come to this church rather than another church? 
        A.  Because this church is part of something much bigger than this congregation and more important than what 
              happens during our life-time. 
           1.  This church is part of the Unitarian-Universalist Association whose purposes & principles we read near the 
                beginning of the service and which are spelled out on the back of this morning's program. 
                These are revolutionary purposes & principles compared to other churches and religious organizations. 
        B.  But even the UUA is part of something bigger and more important.  It representsthe development of completely 
              new type of religion in human history. 
           1.  One can distinguish between typical religion on the one hand and philosophy and science on the other on 
                 grounds that religion is founded on some kind of  authority (a person or group of persons or a collection of
                writings) which will do your thinking for you, which will tell you what to believe is true and how you should live 
                your life while philosophy and science encourage you to think for yourself, to decide for yourself what is
                true and what is good. 
           2.  Unitarian-Universalism is not a typical religion; it is philosophy institutionalized.  It involves a commitment to 
                believe what is true and to do what is good, but the decision about what is true and what is good is up to each 
                individual. 

IV.  A look at the old pre-scientific concept of what religion is and should be. 
        A. In primitive times mysterious supernatural forces (spirits and gods and goddesses) were considered responsible 
             for all that happens which cannot be understood. (This includes poverty & sickness & apparent accidents & 
            childlessness & being a woman instead of a man & bad weather & victory or defeat in battle.) 

        B.  That ultimately means that if you are rich & powerful & healthy & good-looking & productive of offspring the
             gods must be with you while if you are poor & weak & sick & ugly & barren (& a woman) the gods are
             obviously against you. 
        C.  With the coming of agriculture and civilized society and writing about 10,000 yrs. ago, a special group within the
              society took on the role of the spokesmen for God.  These religious leaders along with the political leaders 
              (maybe 2-4% of the total population) were usually the only ones in the society who could read and write.
            1.  All of the existing classical world religions were developed during this agrarian period of human society.  They 
                 reflect notions of the gods which reflect the society of that period as well as their ignorance of nature. 
            2.  The gods are viewed as supernatural kings or lords or authoritarian rulers. They are to be obeyed, and they 
                 cause all kinds of helpful or harmful events which are not explicable.  They can condemn you to misery or
                 grant you great blessings.  The greatest sin is disobedience, as with Adam & Eve. 
           3.  During this agrarian, civilized period of human existence a small group of the elite controlled the political and 
                religious power, including deciding who in the next generation would learn to read and write. 
           4.  Religious ceremonies were focused on agricultural events such as fertility rites in the spring and rites connected 
                with the harvest in the fall & concern about the possible loss of the sun and warm weather as the winter 
               solstice approached. 
           5.  Consider the Jewish & Christian traditions and the role of natural disasters (floods, droughts, locusts), and the 
                importance of kings and priests, and the events of the agricultural year, and the importance of obeying the lord 
               or suffer the consquences. 
           6.  Eventually even the regular order of events came to be viewed as due to the power of the gods. 

V.  Starting about 1400 the rediscovery of philosophy and the use of scientific knowledge in the Renaissance and then 
     the Enlightenment begins to undermine the typical traditional agrarian-based religion. 
        A.  A crucial development is the publication of the sun-centered view of the solar system by Copernicus in 1453. 
             Can the old authorities (Aristotle, Ptolemy, the Church, and the Bible) still be trusted? 
        B.  An infallible authority cannot afford to be wrong about even one thing. 
        C.  The 18th century Enlightenment (assisted greatly by the breaking of the power of the Church by the 
             Reformation in the 16th century) is when the intellectual revolution  expands from a few philosophers and
             scientists to the society as a whole. 
        D.  The Enlightenment involves using this scientific knowledge to understand past history and our place in the 
              universe.  The earth is not the center of the universe. 
           1.  Newton's physics/astronomy gives rise to deism, which greatly undermines any belief in divine intervention and
                miracles. 
           2.  In the 19th century Darwin's evolutionary theory in biology shows that we are ascended from other primates 
               and animals., which again challenges the notion that the Bible is infallible as well as greatly undermining the 
               likelihood of personal life-after death for humans. 
           3.  Along with Darwin's views comes the general use of an evolutionary understanding of living things and mental
                phenomena, which is even being applied in this talk to the development of human society in general and of
                religion in particular. 

VI.  It is no accident that Unitarianism came into existence in the 18th century because the basic ideals of the 
        enlightenment are also the central ideas of Unitarianism. 
     A.  Rely on reason and science rather than tradition and authority. 
     B.  The rejection of authority means the openness to alternative viewpoints. 
     C.  The rejection of particular authorities (like the Church and the Bible in the area of religion and the King and 
           Aristocrats in the area of politics) means openness to more universalistic outlooks and sentiments. 
     D.  Political authorities are to be replaced by more democratic governance. 
     E.  A shift of focus occurs from looking backward to the past (as the Renaissance did) to looking forward to the
          future with the notion that progress is possible. 
     F.  Look how our UUA purposes & principles reflect these shifts in outlook from that of traditional religions. 

VII.  It is not only Unitarianism that comes into existence in the 18th century but also our own country with its ideals of 
       democracy and the separation of church and state as well as the industrial revolution and capitalism. 
        A.  "The New World Order" means the end of authoritarian government and state-controlled religion. 
        B.  A. Powell Davies in America's Real Religion argues that our nation's real religious commitment is to democracy 
            & freedom of inquiry, not traditional Christianity. 
        C.  Along with this reliance on science & the individual instead of the government & the Church comes also the 
              industrial revolution and capitalism.  The scientific knowledge about how nature works also has allowed us to 
             develop machines by which we get the forces of nature to do our work for us. 

VIII  This "new" thinking and New World Order is now spreading to the whole world, but  the traditional religions of the
        world, still based on their agrarian & authoritarian  past, are fighting this progressive trend. 
        A.  This is especially true of the Fundamentalists, whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Confucian. 
              There is a backlash from those who fear change--the religious conservatives.  There is a "culture war" not only
              in the U.S. but in many different places in the world as these entrenched hierarchies fight back against the 
              inevitable change.  The unbelievable thing is how tenacious & recalcitrant the old religions have been even as
              their foundations are being washed away. 
        B.  But even the more main-line religious groups are still trying to hold on to their old scriptures and traditions, and
             that is why this church is different. 
        C.  Even the Baha'is with their otherwise more universalistic & progressive message are still focused on the 
              authoritative statements of their prophet Baha'ullah.  The message is universalistic and progressive, but the
              method is still authoritarian. 
        D.  We Unitarian-Universalists are in the process of creating a new kind of non-authoritarian, democratic religion
              which is better attuned to the intellectual changes  of the past 500 years.  We are truly blessed to be able to
              be a part of this development of a new kind of religion in human history.  That is why everyone should come to
             this church. 
                1.  As Thomas Jefferson wrote to Unitarian minister Joseph Priestly, apparently referring to religious activities
                     as well as political ones, "It is impossible not to be sensible that we are acting for all humankind." 

IX.  Conclusion.  We UUs must be more ready to speak up for the new kind of religion we represent.  We have what
       the world needs both today and in the future!  We must let our light shine so that those who are looking for us
       can find us.