Unitarian Universalism and Humanism

[endlessvoid2018]

So I have found that I agree with a lot of notions of the "Unitarian Universalist," faith. I also agree a lot with Humanistic values. There doesn't really seem to be anyone on here though that is a UU.

UU's generally accept everybody, regardless if you are Christian, Pagan, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Agnostic, or Humanist, etc.
Where I am coming from, I am not religious. I mostly Identify as Humanist and Agnostic.
I believe in the inherent dignity of all human beings, and compassion, tolerance, and equality, regardless of religion, gender, race, or whom you love or what sexuality you are. My god beliefs, if I did have any, would be very Deistic in nature. I basically don't believe in any kind of personal god.

I also believe in others rights to practice whatever religion or beliefs they believe in, however, I do not believe in forcing said religious beliefs on others. I believe in secular values. What I don't believe in is proselytizing, whether it's outside the church, in schools or in politics.

I read this recently about what some UU's believe, and it sort of hits the nail on the head for me:

"Most Unitarian Universalists believe that nobody has a monopoly on all truth, or ultimate proof of the truth of everything in any one belief. Therefore, one's own truth is unprovable, as is that of others. Consequently, we should respect the beliefs of others, as well as their right to hold those beliefs."

This is sort of where I have an issue with (Secular) Humanism. Many people seem to be, at least from an outside perspective, anti-god and/or anti-afterlife.
I am not, even though I consider myself a Humanist. I simply don't allow my beliefs, even if I had any beliefs regarding any kind of god or religion, to factor into my decision making about how I treat others, more specifically in a negative way.

I guess I may be in some degrees, both a Humanist and a UU. I have found my own personal truths. However, my truths might be different from yours.

Any thoughts?

 

[JustGeorge]

So I have found that I agree with a lot of notions of the "Unitarian Universalist," faith. I also agree a lot with Humanistic values. There doesn't really seem to be anyone on here though that is a UU.

UU's generally accept everybody, regardless if you are Christian, Pagan, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Agnostic, or Humanist, etc.
Where I am coming from, I am not religious. I mostly Identify as Humanist and Agnostic.
I believe in the inherent dignity of all human beings, and compassion, tolerance, and equality, regardless of religion, gender, race, or whom you love or what sexuality you are. My god beliefs, if I did have any, would be very Deistic in nature. I basically don't believe in any kind of personal god.

I also believe in others rights to practice whatever religion or beliefs they believe in, however, I do not believe in forcing said religious beliefs on others. I believe in secular values. What I don't believe in is proselytizing, whether it's outside the church, in schools or in politics.

I read this recently about what some UU's believe, and it sort of hits the nail on the head for me:

"Most Unitarian Universalists believe that nobody has a monopoly on all truth, or ultimate proof of the truth of everything in any one belief. Therefore, one's own truth is unprovable, as is that of others. Consequently, we should respect the beliefs of others, as well as their right to hold those beliefs."

This is sort of where I have an issue with (Secular) Humanism. Many people seem to be, at least from an outside perspective, anti-god and/or anti-afterlife.
I am not, even though I consider myself a Humanist. I simply don't allow my beliefs, even if I had any beliefs regarding any kind of god or religion, to factor into my decision making about how I treat others, more specifically in a negative way.

I guess I may be in some degrees, both a Humanist and a UU. I have found my own personal truths. However, my truths might be different from yours.

Any thoughts?

I wish you well on your new journey!

 

[endlessvoid2018]

Thanks! I don't really know what my journey is, or what I am, or what I believe entirely.

I have found myself at different times calling myself an atheist, Agnostic, Deist, Humanist, an Ietsist, a Panentheist.
I may be on a journey to discovering my own truth. Perhaps I don't need a title!

 

[JustGeorge]

Thanks! I don't really know what my journey is, or what I am, or what I believe entirely.

I have found myself at different times calling myself an atheist, Agnostic, Deist, Humanist, an Ietsist, a Panentheist.
I may be on a journey to discovering my own truth. Perhaps I don't need a title!

I would say you don't, but some don't seem happy without them.

They can be convenient, anyways.

 

[sew.excited73]

Thanks! I don't really know what my journey is, or what I am, or what I believe entirely.

I have found myself at different times calling myself an atheist, Agnostic, Deist, Humanist, an Ietsist, a Panentheist.
I may be on a journey to discovering my own truth. Perhaps I don't need a title!

Ditto . Currently, Ietsism fits me perfectly though.

 

[Quintessence]

We do have UUers here (hi, by the way) - though I haven't been to the local fellowship in some years now, honestly. It's an appropriately modern religious tradition that addresses the challenges of living in a multicultural society. If it was a tradition that proselytized, it would probably have a lot more numbers than it does. It's sort of an ideal fit for a lot of the "spiritual but not religious" crowd in a way that will challenge them to understand that "religion" might not be what they thought. That said, each fellowship is going to be a bit different depending on the demographics of the area. I've been to three in different areas of the Midwest and each had a different vibe to it.

 

[endlessvoid2018]

Hello! And I guess when I say "religion," I generally mean revealed religion or scripture based religion that claims that an invisible deity that wants particular things from you or to treat others in some manner.

Yes, there is one that I attended once that had a very church-tone to it, but ultimately focused a lot on human sentiments. It personally reminded me a bit too much of a regular, Christian-based church service. The people were nice enough, though. Several of them were also Humanists.

 

[danieldemol]

I find myself stuck between UU ideas and secular humanism too.

But I've gotten along without having an organised religion so far (having tried organised religion in the past) so I'm in no rush to choose between the two.

 

[Quintessence]

The thing with UU is you don't have to choose - it's an inherently syncretic tradition. One of the things I did when leading a service once was a survey of the membership to check boxes of what traditions they identified with? We very deliberately designed it so folks could check multiple boxes. A lot of folks did, because that's how UU works. Honestly, it's how religion works in general - the idea religion is some exclusive box that you can check one and no others is a modern oddity specific to exclusivist religious traditions. For everybody else, religion is just who you are and whose you are - which can and should tick several different boxes that someone decided to make up.

 

[Spice]

I've been interested in UUC off and on for years. I like their base that theology is a personal discernment. I like the focus on love, hope, peace, and joy. I like the simple and mostly modern music. But to date, every "visit," which have only been online, (the closest brick and mortar UU Church is 90 minutes away) has not held me and built me up as I personally need. They are still too "clubbish" for my taste. They're still too "organized." They still vote to accept or reject faith principles. They still have concern about their "numbers" and "collections."
And yet I still buffer a sermon from time to time in hopes I'll find one worthy of adding to a saved file.

Good luck on your continued quest.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Ditto . Currently, Ietsism fits me perfectly though.

What is Ietsism?

 

[endlessvoid2018]

What is Ietsism?

Ietsism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Ietsism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thanks. I did read that when I looked it up but it seems to be a vague definition so I was hoping to hear how someone who would label themselves as such would define it. As i understand it it’s a belief in some higher power that isn’t god?

 

[Spice]

Thanks. I did read that when I looked it up but it seems to be a vague definition so I was hoping to hear how someone who would label themselves as such would define it. As i understand it it’s a belief in some higher power that isn’t god?

From what I've been able to find, it's a new name for Agnosticism. "iets" is Dutch for something. I haven't found any tenants or principles of belief, in fact, from what I have been able to discover is that it's just a more certainty of something over agnostics which is purely "don't know."

 

[endlessvoid2018]

"Ietsism," yes, is basically a form of Agnosticism. For me, it's merely a belief in something beyond what is known.
The ironic thing is you can be a Theist-type or atheist, and still believe in Ietsism. I'd argue that this "something," for me, doesn't
even necessarily indicate a god, but literally just something. Perhaps a higher type of spiritual force in the universe. I don't know.
Even when I identified as an atheist, I still had a hard time with materialism, due to my Ietsist leanings.

This is where I feel like a lot of my thought processes are at though with a lot of things.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

...

Any thoughts?

I am like you, but in practice I live to far away from an UU group to be active.

 

[endlessvoid2018]

I understand that each UU congregation or "Church," can be different. There are several around me.
The one I attended was a little bit too church-like for my tastes.

 

[sew.excited73]

What is Ietsism?

Ietsism means you do believe there is something greater/that most people cannot see, hear etc. or explain with science.

We are not agnostic about whether there is something or someone or not. We feel there is something.

We are just not necessarily married to the idea of it being a ‘man on the throne’-kind of Godhead as described in any holy book, although we also don’t rule that out… we just don’t know what it is, but we are pretty sure… more than the 50-50 of agnostics anyway… that there is a higher power.

Does that make sense?

I don’t think an agnostic would say they are 99% convinced there is something rather than nothing?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Ietsism means you do believe there is something greater/that most people cannot see, hear etc. or explain with science.

We are not agnostic about whether there is something or someone or not. We feel there is something.

We are just not necessarily married to the idea of it being a ‘man on the throne’-kind of Godhead as described in any holy book, although we also don’t rule that out… we just don’t know what it is, but we are pretty sure… more than the 50-50 of agnostics anyway… that there is a higher power.

Does that make sense?

Yes, that makes sense. Thank you!

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I believe in the inherent dignity of all human beings, and compassion, tolerance, and equality, regardless of religion, gender, race, or whom you love or what sexuality you are ... I also believe in others rights to practice whatever religion or beliefs they believe in, however, I do not believe in forcing said religious beliefs on others. I believe in secular values

Yep, that's what a humanist is. It's not necessary to be an atheist to hold those values.

This is sort of where I have an issue with (Secular) Humanism. Many people seem to be, at least from an outside perspective, anti-god and/or anti-afterlife.

I'm an agnostic, atheistic humanist. I am not anti any gods or an afterlife. I neither believe they exist nor don't exist, which is what makes me both an atheist and an agnostic.

As for UU, we have such a group around here (Lake Chapala, MX), and many of my atheist friends attend regularly and have invited us to join them, but it's pretty off-putting to me - too many religious trappings:

Faith? No thanks. Christianity? No thanks.

Moreover, they meet in a church and call their meetings services:

And then there's this:

I don't find wisdom in religion, and where I agree with any of them, I have come to the same conclusions without it. And it bothers me that they think there's wisdom there. What wisdom? The Chrisian Bible contains nothing of value to me but the Golden Rule, and its scriptures violate it when they call atheists and gays abominations. If you're a humanist, you run circles around such people when to comes to reciprocity as an ethical principle. I'll bet you don't call anybody an abomination. And I'll bet that you aren't interested in imposing your values on the unwilling, because you wouldn't want to be treated like that.

And this:

I don't go to religions for anything. I believe religion should be avoided and is unrelated to truth.

Also, my outward search for meaning in life ended years ago when I realized that I'm the one who gives my life meaning and purpose, and answers aren't to be found asking others. Now, I only look within to my conscience and memory (knowledge gained through experience) for guidance and haven't changed my outlook there in decades.

This is a deal killer:

What? Worship?

Sorry, but this is all a huge turn-off for me.

But maybe these kinds of things aren't as cringy to you as they are to me. Perhaps you should give it a try and see if it fits you.