What Do We Believe?[1]

 INTRODUCTION: Three to four centuries ago, something profound happened in the Western World. Before that time, the best and the brightest had thought the Earth to be the center of the Universe. That turned out to be bogus.

            This profound change was due, incredibly, to one thing: reason. Men like Galileo confirmed in part the work of Copernicus; Kepler and Newton created a whole new way of thinking about the Universe and how the world works. In effect, they initiated and contributed to what we now call the “scientific revolution.”

            As has always been the case, when science proposes a new insight, eventually that may well become a philosophical principal, and even a religious belief. For example:

THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN.

One of the most provocative theological conclusions drawn from Newton was what is called the “argument from design.” This argument “professed to demonstrate the existence, power, wisdom, and benevolence of the Deity from the appearance of planned order in nature.”[2] In other words, the beauty and symmetry at the heart of things is so amazing that there had to be a Designer somewhere.

            This meshed with Newton’s classical physics in which the world was a perfect, majestic place, where the natural laws of the Universe were at work. And for many Christian apologists, the god presumed was implicitly assumed to be the all-loving, all-caring, all-knowing Christian God.

            But as David Hume best demonstrated, there were many faults with that argument, the most salient being dread diseases, famine, and carnivorous beasts. How could any such great and mighty god let that happen?

WHEN FAITH’S CLAIMS WERE SAID TO BE BASED UPON REASON, THEN ATHEISM BECAME A POSSIBILITY.

My point is much different, however, and it is this: When the existence of God was reduced to the realm of reason, that same appeal to reason opened the door to the possibility of not believing in the existence of God.

Let me put that another way: If we were to say God can be proved to exist by the use of our minds, that also means by using our mind, we may come to a different conclusion. And in so doing, atheism was born.

In fact, I’ve been reading in this remarkable book I’ve owned for several years without ever having read it: Without God, Without Creed, by James Turner, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts. One of the provocative points he makes is that before the period of the Enlightenment…before the Age of Reason…go back more than a thousand years, there is no substantive example of atheists. It’s his contention that atheists were birthed when humankind presumed that belief in God was supported by reason. Atheism used reason to decide otherwise.

FAITH BECAME KNOWLEDGE ABOVE REASON: REVELATION.

Now my point is not to dwell on atheism, rather, I want to move to what happened when scientifically sensitive men of faith read Newton. They concluded that Newton and faith were incompatible; but not because Newton was wrong. Rather, because faith was about another dimension of existence. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord and Father of Jesus Christ, was not of this world. As a consequence, a whole new way of describing what “faith” meant appeared. There was a special kind of knowledge called revelation. God and Christ were not subject to the natural laws of Newton, or to any of the ins and outs of human reason. Rather, the divine resided above and beyond creation…in what we call the “supernatural.”

Faith’s place was beyond reason. Faith believes despite the lack of evidence to support that belief.

When Will James asked a 10-year-old what was faith, he answered, “Oh that’s easy. Faith’s believing what you know ain’t so.”
            So the repeating of creeds was not an exercise in lack of reason; rather, it was the belief in truths that were beyond reason. That they had no basis in logic or reason was okay. They were not meant to have. Further, to try and convince someone of the reasonableness of faith was to appeal to the very antithesis of what supernatural faith is all about.

SO WHAT DO UUs BELIEVE?

So when Unitarian Universalists are asked the question, “What do you believe?” almost all will reject the notion of supernaturalism. They will reject the presumption that there is another realm of being, beyond the dimensions of time and space.

Unitarian Universalism is a this-world faith…its field of operation is on this Planet and in this Universe. Seldom would we accept believing in the supernatural. That doesn’t mean that any one of us is not free to believe anything we want; rather, I’m saying that one of the pillars of faith for UUs is that we believe faith and belief are rooted in this world…in this here and now.

In the Memorial Service I conducted here yesterday for Peggy Goodman, I quoted a statement from Steve Jobs, the computer giant and co-founder of Apple, who died last Tuesday. The quote came from his Commencement Address in 2005 at Stanford University. It was two years after he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told to get his life in order because he had at best only three months to live. Two years later, at Stanford, he said these words:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

I share that belief. My faith has told me that when my kids were born, they came with a sign which identified them as: “Future replacements currently in training.” Just this past Thursday night, my now 39 year old son and his wife gave birth to a new granddaughter, Lila Gray. She too had a sign which read: “Okay, Poppy. I made it. Get ready to leave.”

            Unitarian Universalists believe those kinds of things: Death happens to all of us. Most of us don’t want to hang around with tubes in our nose, and needles in our arms, and all kinds of meds being pumped into our bodies. When it’s time, we want to get the hell out of Dodge and let our kids and grandkids deal with the mess we’ve made.

            I’ve told the story of a summer service series at a previous congregation. During the summer we always moved the time for the service forward. So when this young couple came in the door at 11, I caught them and explained about the time and the program changes. They told me that they were going to get married in the Fall, and were visiting various churches so as to decide which one they wanted to attend after marriage.

            I then asked them if they had any questions I could help them with about Unitarian Universalism. They talked a little bit and then the young woman asked, “Do you believe in life after death?”

            I started to try and explain our diversity, but then I said, “You know what? People are going to be coming back from their group discussions shortly. What if I explain what you’re doing and the question you asked?”

            They agreed, and after the groups had made reports on their group discussions, I shared the question from the couple with the audience. I asked, “Would any of you care to share what you as a Unitarian Universalist believe about what happens after death?”

            A few hands went up, and the sharing started. One believed we disintegrated into chemicals and dissolved into the Earth. Another was going to be cremated and wanted her ashes to be dumped in the ocean so that she could visit the places she had always wanted to go to. Another said she didn’t have any idea and it really didn’t matter. All together, there were six disclosures, and none was the same.

            With each answer, I could see the young woman’s face expressing incredulity. She had just been introduced to what UUs believe about what happens after death.

A SIMPLE TOOL TO HELP UNDERSTAND UU AND LIBERAL RELIGIOUS FAITH.

German theologian, Paul Tillich, who fled Nazi Germany in the early 1930s because of his Jewish ancestry, gave us a very simple set of tools by which to understand faith. He said first: There are two kinds of faith. The first is horizontal faith; and the second is vertical faith.

What do those mean? Think of horizontal as being eye to eye. It’s about living here on Earth with other human beings and with other species. My Miss Joyce recently read a book entitled, Inside of a Dog, whose contents she shared in part with me. According to the author, one of the reasons untrained dogs are always jumping up on people is that they want to be eye to eye with you. Get down on their level and they won’t jump on you, although they may slobber and lick you a bit. That’s the horizontal dimension.

Horizontal faith is faith about the things of life: real people, real species, and real earth issues. If you will find a hymnbook somewhere, I’ll show you what I mean: Turn to page 1 (ignore the awful title of that hymn) and then turn back one page. Under the title, “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote….

Just below it are seven statements, each ending with a semi-colon. These are each horizontal faith statements. The first one, for example, is an affirmation of “The inherent worth and dignity of every person;” and we affirm that we will also promote it. There are six more of the same ilk. They are all horizontal faith statements.

Now most of those, though important, have also been around for some time. There’s nothing there that will cause you to get up and walk out. They’re guidelines for horizontal living.

Below those are what you might call matters of vertical faith. The heading states: “The Living Tradition we share comes from many sources.” Here the mix thickens. These are not Dick and Jane sentences. These did not pop out of the toaster ready for butter. Listen if you would. One source is:

“Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” Can I have an “Amen?”

Or what about the last one, which is:

“Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason, and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.”

And everybody said, “Amen.”

My point is clear: When we leave the horizontal for the vertical, what happens? It gets very tricky to say something simple and clear.

Which is why even though most everybody agrees with what’s on this little card, they really, really don’t like it saying, “We believe….” That’s presumptuous on my part.

So one of the things that happens, though, is we don’t have a vertical center that we can all agree on. In other words, if we’re going to have diversity, we need to have something to compare with…something about which we can have diverse opinions.

So does that mean, vertical beliefs aren’t important? Does it mean we are not concerned with the who of who we are? The what of what we are? The where of where we are? The when of when we are? The why of why we are? Or the how?

Or does it mean that to hold vertical beliefs and be a Unitarian Universalist, there have to be a couple or three implied presuppositions:

1.      Our vertical beliefs are works in progress; they have an asterisk beside them that reads, “Subject to Change.” What this also means is that we will always strive to have tolerance for the beliefs and unbeliefs of others, as we wish for them to do for us.

2.      Our vertical beliefs and unbeliefs are very important to us; however, if they vary from yours, we will not insist on their being more important or given more sway than yours or those of others.

3.      Beliefs are important, but it’s not important for us all to believe the same thing.

4.      Now here’s one that you may not like…let’s just say it’s a Wayneism: We will always be aware that our beliefs and unbeliefs are part of an evolutionary cycle for which many gave their lives and risked their well-being. Utilizing the religious language from which we evolved is one way to respect the depth of their sacrifice, and the richness of our heritage.

For example, the last two people put to the stake for heresy in England were Unitarians. John Calvin of Geneva had Michael Servetus burned at the stake with his book, The Errors of the Trinity, chained to him. The point is we respect the path from which we have come, and where others may be at this time.

CONCLUSION.

The most important point of faith which I have not yet mentioned is, faith is for a purpose. It’s to motivate you to care for yourself, so that you may help others, and exhibit concern for the world of which we’re a part.

Shalom. Salaam Aleikum. Amen. And Blessed Be.