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  1. applewuud

    atheism and agnostism

    Outside of a scholarly community, I think the terms "atheist" and "agnostic" are commonly used to describe how you react or respond to religious people/theists and their ideas. To an average person, the difference is: An atheist responds "you're wrong" to someone telling him/her about God, an...
  2. applewuud

    Article: Bosnia's Muslims divided over inroads of Wahhabism

    What are the Islamic Community Regulations? Is Mustafa effendi Ceric elected by a group of Muslims in Bosnia, and is there some kind of overall organization of all mosques there? Or are there different schools of thought depending on the mosque?
  3. applewuud

    Moral Decline

    In my lifetime I've seen a HUGE turnaround in the attitude towards drinking and driving. In my parents' generation, it was considered a minor foible. In the movies of the time, having a drunken car wreck was a plot device. Thanks to MADD, today there is as much sanction against drunk driving as...
  4. applewuud

    "This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper."

    We just saw another popular dystopian film last night, "V for Vendetta". Once again, religion is discounted as a valid alternative to chaos, in the person of a bishop who's portrayed as a serial pedophile and having consented to human experimentation with deadly viruses. And, it portrays...
  5. applewuud

    What do you think of the "visitors section" at UUA?

    So, Jamaesi, that makes you one in a thousand (or 2,000, depending on how many UUs there are):) . The Starr King seminary in Berkley has a UU Muslim scholar-in-residence (although he's on leave of absence this year, I believe). I wonder what kinds of dialogues that might lead to in the future?
  6. applewuud

    "This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper."

    I wish this thread had started sooner after I saw the film...it is so full of ideas and inspirations I'll have to get the DVD. It interests me that "TEOTWAWKI" films, (or "dystopias" like Blade Runner) are turned out by Hollywood on a regular basis...there's another one coming out this week...
  7. applewuud

    The Coffee House - the UU Fellowship Thread

    Where did most of these "New UUs" come from? What attracted them to your church? In your orientation, what kinds of subjects do you share? Do you talk about different theological perspectives, or more practical day-to-day issues?
  8. applewuud

    What do you think of the "visitors section" at UUA?

    At the uua.org website, they've revamped it totally and the opening page has 4 buttons, one of which is labeled "visitors". There are various "beliefs within" links that consist of short paragraphs aimed at Christians, atheists, Hindus, Buddists, Jews, even Muslims. My initial impression is...
  9. applewuud

    Does it bug you that....

    Certainly if someone's secure in their belief, they don't get very upset about someone who disagrees with them. For example, until recently most scientists didn't bother to debate about evolution vs. creation and the age of the earth. It was (and is) regarded as a settled issue as far as the...
  10. applewuud

    Why not a UU

    That number is from a workshop at General Assembly; I believe there's a study done by the Alban Institute that covers several mainline denominations, but I can't find the exact source. Sorry.
  11. applewuud

    Why not a UU

    I've heard similar complaints from all sides of the spectrum, and I feel that way myself sometimes. Sometimes I'm the "cranky old humanist" who's revolting against something that seems to me irrational. Other times I'm the "closet theist" reacting against a shallow analysis of scripture by an...
  12. applewuud

    Why not a UU

    A value-based statement on this from a UU perspective might be: Because we believe that individual reason is a gift to us from the universe, and that we have the responsibility to follow scientific evidence wherever it leads, we conclude that our greenhouse-gas emissions are impacting the...
  13. applewuud

    Why not a UU

    The essence of this thread, it seems to me, is to be open to criticism of Unitarian Universalism itself, and then go out into the world and transform our Faith for the future. A few posts back I mentioned a lecture I heard at GA that's similar to the sermon that started the thread. However...
  14. applewuud

    Should UUs become pacifists?

    The "we" would be the UUA, in this proposal. I don't "know" that either, but there's a lot of empirical (from behavioral sciences) and historical evidence to demonstrate how violence as a means of social or political control causes more problems than it cures. I'm not a pacifist myself at the...
  15. applewuud

    Favorite UU hymns

    "For the Earth Forever Turning" (which is really "Blue Green Hills of Earth") and "For the Beauty" are both from the Missa Gaia (Mass for the Earth) by the Paul Winter Consort. They perform this every year at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC around Earth Day. The harmonies in the UU...
  16. applewuud

    Question about Homosexuality

    To go back to the origination of this thread--a Baha'i group (a Local Spiritual Assembly, I assume) wanting to rent space in a Unitarian church--I'm surprised. Many years ago our church wanted to rent space to them, but after consulting with their national office, the Baha'is said they were...
  17. applewuud

    Should UUs become pacifists?

    I agree, and that is the heart of the matter. But one idea behind the "Peacemaking" SAI discussion is that things are so complicated in terms of effects and consequences of violence, that we should just say "stop", like the Mennonites and Quakers. We don't know exactly how to make a just and...
  18. applewuud

    Why not a UU

    There's been a lot of change in the position of HUUmanists in the past 21 years. The integration that has been, and is still taking place, is to see religion and belief as part of our human heritage. Mid-20th century humanism rejected a lot of spirituality as superstition; it's evolved a...
  19. applewuud

    A question for RF UU's

    What's a Tenebrae service? I haven't heard of that. There's a "communion" ritual in one of the UU youth group books, that we found particularly meaningful. It's based around an old story about the difference between heaven and hell...in both, people are gathered around a pot of stew, with...
  20. applewuud

    Should UUs become pacifists?

    The link to the "Peacemaking" statement drafted by the Commission on Social Witness is: http://www.uua.org/csw/CSAI_06-10_P.pdf
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