Sermons

INTRODUCTION: When Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859 – for which we will celebrate its sesquicentennial next year – it was a body blow to traditional religious faith. For if one accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution as an explanation of our species’ origin, then, what did that say about belief in a supernatural, creator God? So did God exist, or not?

Ten years after that paradigm shift in planetary human understanding, Sir Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s principal proponent, was at a party. Because of his close relationship with Darwin, the conversation at the party shifted to the difficulties of being a believer, given the momentous impact of the theory of evolution. Huxley gave a novel suggestion. He said that in response to all that he had learned about the origin of species, from now on, he was an “agnostic.”

No one had ever heard that word before, so he explained what he meant by it. In the Greek language, the word, gnosis, means “to know.” In fact, it’s the root of our English word for “knowing.” But in Greek, when one puts an alpha or an “a” before such a word, it reverses its meaning. For example, when that happens with theist – one who believes in God – put an “a” before it, and it becomes atheist.

So gnosis, which means “to know,” when preceded by an alpha or an “a” means “not to know.” An “agnostic” is one who doesn’t know whether God does or does not exist.

But we need to note something very important: The god of whom they were speaking was the supernatural god described in the Torah and the pseudo-historical books of Hebrew scripture. It was the god made politically correct by Alexander the Great, when the Greeks conquered and occupied Israel, 300+ years before Jesus. The Greeks applied their philosophy and love of beauty to the sometimes crude and cruel Yahweh god of the tribes of Israel.

By the time Jesus came along, the Jewish god was quite civilized. He no longer drowned mothers, children and the aged in floods because he didn’t like the way they lived, as in Noah and the Flood. He didn’t punish people with death for merely eating forbidden fruit, as with Adam and Eve. Nor did he approve of banging the heads of the children of the enemy against a wall during war, as the Psalms report on Yahweh. Instead, God was benevolent, ruling from his throne up in the heavens, and even so loving and caring that he sent his only son down to Earth to save its residents from the fiery pits of hell.

I’m sure that for most of us here this morning, that supernatural, monarchical, anthropomorphic, divine intervener god, is as dead as the dodo bird. So if the issue is, do we believe in a supernatural god, who from his throne in heaven helps some and harms others…answers 25% of our prayers and declines on 75%...lets Americans overeat to levels of obesity, while half the world starves…lets dictators kill, murder, rape and destroy…while others live in the lap of luxury and freedom…and then demands obeisance, love and blind faith? The answer is quite simple: no, a thousand times no. We all should be atheists, if that is what is mean by God.

It is no longer possible to be on the fence about that notion of a supernatural God, or that there is any possibility of that kind of God ruling and dominating existence. It’s an ancient holdover from a primitive past which should long ago have been excised from our belief systems. It’s hard to believe that there are people running for president of this nation who still profess to believe it. Although I must admit, there’s a nascent cynicism in me that believes some of them will say whatever it takes to get elected.

Rejection of that practice is a part of our American history. Many of the leading Founding Fathers were known religiously as “Deists.” They were for the most part members of Christian churches, but their belief system was Deism. That meant they believed that God created the heavens and the earth, as the Bible states, then he wound everything up like a giant clock to run on its own, and went off to do whatever it is gods do after finishing such a phenomenal task as creating a world.

Now note what that meant: Deism in effect moved God out of the picture. Deism is proto-humanism. Judaism birthed Christianity, Christianity birthed Deism, and Deism birthed humanism.

Every movement is a transition from something before it. Nothing comes from nothing; rather, something can only come from something before it. And in the Western world, the roots of humanism are Deism.

To explicate that a little further: In Deism, God is relegated to the past; the future is in the hands of humankind; we – you and I – are now responsible. The clock of the Universe is still ticking as God dictated. God’s still somewhere, but he’s on permanent leave from this Universe, and he left no forwarding address nor telephone number in case of emergency.

Consequently, it was only a matter of time intellectually to move from God’s being absent from the world – Deism – to wondering whether there really was or is a God: absent or not. Hence, the birth of humanism.

Many of our members are strong humanists. One is Dr. Jo Ann Boydston, who lives in Naples, and was the editor of the 40 volume edition of John Dewey’s works, and was the founding director of the John Dewey Center at Southern Illinois University. She was also invited to sign the second Humanist Manifesto.

She’s one of our strongest supporters, and reads everything we send her. But since we left Shire Lane, she has only been to church services one time, and that was when we were at the Alliance for the Arts in August 2002. In fact when I went to lunch with her week before last, I invited her to come to service today. She said, “Oh, no. I don’t do religion!”

This is our world. For good or bad, it’s been our species’ home for 250,000 years or more. Since Darwin, we know better than to attribute it to some super duper deity up there, wherever “up” is, in a Universe like ours. But we know something else:

One thing life on this planet teaches us is that there’s a depth to life and living that is more than intellectual functioning. This world and the life of which we’re a part, does not necessarily yield to reason and logic. Nor is it an already predestined and determined world. We’re more than automatons.

Of all the species, we have what is identified as “consciousness.” In other words, we can look at ourselves as though we’re looking from outside ourselves. We can “think about thinking.” We can also think about our lives in the past, and the options and possibilities that we may have in the future.

It seems evident that among the ever dwindling millions of species on our planet, homo sapiens alone seems to have this capacity for consciousness. That means that we can reflect upon how we’re living and how we may wish to change or reinforce a particular practice. We can choose not to practice destructive habits, and we can make alternative choices for the better. We know that we know!

We’ve long known that children, even those reared in nonreligious homes, believe in God. It’s a part of the imagination they use to make up for not having information on how the world works. It enables them to cope in a world which they can only grow into.

But we’ve also discovered that adult human beings also have a religious bent. It’s expressed in a deep desire we carry for some kind of ultimate transformation. Each of the great religious traditions offers itself as the means for just such a transformation.

There is a religious impulse, a native inclination towards spirituality in most, if not all, human beings. We seek for ways to access the unknown. We yearn for validation of our uniqueness, our specialness, in a world and Universe so awesomely diverse.

The many wisdom religions of the ages are expressions of that same urge. They too looked at the heavens. They too saw the Earth. They too believed or realized that there had to be more to life that we could see. Their response was a Moses or Muhammad, Jesus or the Buddha. They sought to incorporate practices and principles that would be transformative. We could become more than we are…live on a higher plane of existence…and tap in to that which was the best of the best. So knowing that, how do we live?

I’m sure most of you can recall flying on an airplane, and hearing this message from one of the flight attendants:[2]

“Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the mask over your mouth and nose before assisting children or any adults sitting next to you.”[3]

Have you ever wondered why they would tell you to take care of yourself before helping anyone else? Even before your own children?

I mean, isn’t that selfish and self-centered? Doesn’t that violate all the ethical codes passed down for generations? Isn’t it just another example of this “me” generation, who put themselves before every one else, even when others are seriously in need?

No, the point is that you can’t help someone else if you yourself are incapacitated. You can’t help someone else put on their masks to receive oxygen, if you yourself are fighting for oxygen. The point is clear: We can’t help others if we don’t take care of ourselves.

One day this past week, I visited with Niravi Payne, who is going through a difficult period of convalescence. Her religious tradition is Jewish, and she’s been a part of All Faiths from the beginning. Her life and career has been about enabling women who are infertile to become fertile. Much of her work has been over the telephone with people in all parts of the world. She evidently has this marvelous intuitiveness that enables her to touch a thread, a cord in women, so that they can overcome whatever it is that’s holding back their getting pregnant.

And for more than 19 years she’s also fought off advancing breast cancer. Recently, she reluctantly gave in and agreed to radiation. She went in one day for treatment, but felt so compromised that she walked out before receiving it. She went back the next day, however, and had one dose. The next day she had a heart attack and had to have a pacemaker installed. In the process, she fell, damaging her arm and leg and is now in a wheelchair.

She’s so impatient with what’s happened. So much in her life was about the future. She’s fighting to regain her strength, to continue her profession, and her relationship with Oren.

As I was preparing to leave after visiting with her at the rehab center she’s in, I asked if she would like me to pray. This tough, but beautiful spirit, who believes in so much that is good, and who has helped so many people tap into their best selves said, “Absolutely. I’m taking everything I can get.”

So let’s take a moment now to pray. If you want, think of Niravi. Or maybe Pete Forcey, who is in surgical intensive care at Health Park after being flown in from Mexico Wednesday.

What our praying means is we’re going to seek to connect to this enormous Universe of which we are a tiny, almost infinitesimal part. We will seek to bring our minds and bodies and spirits into harmony. And in so doing, to connect to the power which is at the Source of all that is. Let us pray:

O God of many names and faces and places. We pray even though we don’t exactly know what the word or the practice means. We pray because we know that there have been times in our lives when we tapped into something very special. It may have been a flow of creativity, a unique sense of being more than we had ever been before. It may have been a sense of inner strength and resolve.

Whatever, now in this moment, we’re going to stop…to listen…to synchronize with the elements…with our spirit, our mind, and our body…so as to be whole. We listen to the sound of the silence. <Silence.>

Let’s do it one more time, but responsively. Remember, it’s not a description of life, but an affirmation of faith.

[1] A sermon presented on January 27, 2008, fourth in a series of sermons at the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.

[2] Shared by Amanda Evans from a Social Work Conference she attended.

[3] Provided by former American Airlines flight attendant Bonnie Haney.