Sermon for 9 June 2013, 1st Unitarian Church of Alton, Illinois

 

"UUism as a Different Kind of Religion."

Ronald J. Glossop

 

I.  Introduction

    A.  UUism is a religion, but how is it different from other traditional religions, and how is that fact hopeful for the future?

    B.  A question often asked of each of us is, "What is a Unitarian-Universalist?"

    C.  That question is usually followed by another:  "What do Unitarian-Universalists believe?"  The questioner asking this usually has in mind questions such as, "What do UUs believe about God, about Jesus, about miracles and answered prayers, and about life-after-death", questions whose answers are typically used to differentiate one religion or philosophical view from another.

    D.  Our answer to this question about what UUs believe usually makes reference to our commitment to freedom of belief and to the fact that different UUs may have very different answers to these questions.  We don't have a creed. In fact, one of our primary commitments is to not have any creeds.

    E.  To this the questioner is likely to respond with another question, "Then what holds you together?"

    F.  At this point we are likely to refer to the seven purposes & principles adopted by the UUA and which we print on the back of our Sunday bulletins.  These seven purposes and principles are to affirm and promote:

        1.  the inherent worth and dignity of every person;

        2.  justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;

        3. acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

        4.  a free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

        5. the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

        6.  the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; and

        7.  respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

    G.  I think that at this point many of us have heard the comment, "That doesn't sound like what I mean by religion."

    H.  This response should make us realize that our UU religion is something quite new and different in the history of humanity.  We are on the cutting edge of a very significant new development in human society, one that is a very necessary part of the centuries-long shift from a pre-scientific age to a scientific age.  Ours is a new kind of religion for the post-Enlightenment age of human history, one that focuses on values to be pursued rather than creeds about supernatualistic beliefs to which one must continue to be commited regardless of scientific evidence and logical arguments to the contrary.  

 

II.  The traditional pre-scientific religions from the past are still very popular and thus their fundamental nature needs to be understood.

    A.  The main religions of our society--including the Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--have been passed on to us as revered truth by pre-scientific agricultural societies.  They are based on scriptures written mostly between 800 BCE and 800 CE by a small group of individuals who knew how to read and write.

    B.  At that time people thought that the Earth was the center of the universe.

    C.  Because the real natural causes were unknown, most people living at that time believed that things like disease and draught were the result of supernatural causes.

     D.  It was widely believed that after death people (and maybe animals too) would somehow continue to exist either somewhere up there in heaven (a word which is synonymous with "sky" in most languages) or somewhere down there in hell.

 

III.  A gigantic shift has occurred in humanity’s knowledge about the world, from folk knowledge passed on by word of mouth to classical knowledge written down by the more influential persons in the society and consequently viewed as truth not to be questioned and finally to scientific knowledge based on careful observation and experimentation in order to critically determine which ideas are really true and which are false no matter what the influential leaders of the society say.

    A.  As scientific knowledge has developed in various areas such as astronomy, phyics, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, psychology, and the medical sciences, it has become more and more difficult to accept as true much of what was written long ago in the sacred ancient scriptures of these religions.

    B. Nevertheless the socially very influential religious institutions with their religious traditions based on these revered pre-scientific scriptures have tried to preserve their power and their traditions, often by persuading young people that it was irreligious and a sin for which they would be punished if they did not believe whatever their parents and grand-parents believed about these religious matters.

    C.  The Enlightenment of the 18^th century was an effort to overthrow these pre-scientific religious institutions and religious traditions.  It became evident for all to see in the American and French Revolutions.  Unfortunately that progressive movement has been vigorously restrained by religious institutions which still control much wealth and influence.

    D. The most extreme way of reacting to the challenge of this new knowledge has been "fundamentalism," the notion that the scriptures of one's own religion are literally true and that one must continue to believe them on faith, even when the scientic evidence of their falsity is overwhelming.  Such fundamentalist reactions are found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as most other religions.

    E.  A less extreme reaction, and one that has been going on for a long time, is to reinterpret the words handed down from antiquity so that they are not contradicted by new knowledge from science.  Nevertheless this becomes more and more difficult to do as modern knowledge develops.  For example, modifying the time required for the creation of the world from seven days to 7,000 years to seven million years still isn't enough.  Furthermore, one cannot eliminate from the scriptures basic false ideas such as that the Earth was created before the sun, that the sun goes round the Earth, and that diseases and natural disasters are the result of supernatual powers.

    F.  Especially significant psychologically is the perceived change of place of we  humans in the universe as a whole.  As scriptures are undermined by new scientific knowledge, we see a major change in viewpoint.  The perceived place of humans in the universe has gone from being divinely created beings on planet Earth (which was also viewed as the center of the whole universe) to being evolved beings not all that different from bonobos and chimpanzees (as demonstrated not only from paleontology but results of DNA reseach) living on one planet going around an insignificant star in an expanding universe which has existed for about 13 billion years.  That tremendous change of our perceived position is a real blow to the human ego, both individually and collectively.  The traditional religions are trying hard to protect us from that change by suppressing acknowledgement of its reality.  Even the non-fundamentalists go on holding worship services addressed to "God the Almighty King" and conducting funerals where the attendees are assured that death is not really the end of this person's existence.

    G.  But, it is argued by these traditional religionists, If we break away from the scriptures and their supernaturalistic metaphysical views and the ethical teachings found in them, where will we be?  Won't we all be lost in a world without foundations?  Don't we need traditional religion as a basis for hope in dire circumstances and to support morality in society?  Is there any other way?

    H.  Well, that is what our new kind of religion is all about.  There is another way, and we UUs are in the forefront of the movement to develop it and spread it.

 

IV.  In a post-Enlightenment society a sensible religion must involve a commitment to something other than beliefs about what is true.  Beliefs about what is true should be based on evidence, and new evidence is being discovered all the time.  Therefore our new UU religion is and must be a commitment to promoting particular values rather than to any beliefs about what is true.

 

 V.  We need to recognize also, that although religion can be an individual thing, it is usually also a collective thing.  Religion is not only committing one's life to promoting what is good.  It also means belonging to a community that is similarly committed.  We are part of a church committed to making the world better.  Our UUA Purposes and Principles indicate our present views about how to do that, but we realize that we are not limited to these, that these may change and new ones may be added for us both as individuals and as a group, and that not everyone in our religious community has to be committed to every one of them or any of them.  They are principles, not a creed.

    A.  We are hopeful about the future of our UU religion because of this commitment to promoting values rather than being a religion based on a commitment to preserving particular ideas about what is true.  Scientific inquiry will continue to discover new evidence about what is true, so any religion based on a commitment to continuing to believe particular ideas about what is true, even newer ideas about what is true, will be undermined by the ongoing discovery of new knowledge.

    B.  Even if the number of people now belonging to UU religious communities is small and rather limited geographically, we hope and anticipate that that will change as more and more people throughout the world become better educated.       

 

VI.  What is the essence of our UU religion?  It is being part of a community which is committed to goodness (which includes a continuing commitment to try to believe what is true even as new evidence is acquired).  UUs are a new kind of religious community, a community committed to assisting one another in promoting what is good while allowing a diversity of opinion both about what is good and what is true.  We believe that a commitment to promoting what we believe is good is fundamental and that we need to be so committed whether or not there is a force working for good helping us and whether or not there is any guarantee that good as we conceive it will prevail in the end.  We intend to be a force for good even if there is no other force working for good in the universe or outside of the universe.  This commitment to furthering what is good is the essence of our present UU religion and also of the religion of the future.