Rick Asks About Unitarians and Unitheism, Are They Similar? If So, In What Ways?--FREEDOM & FAITH IN ACTION Options

[Lindsay]

Rick, I have a great respect for the Unitarian philosophy of religion: Here is a brief outline. Perhaps we could invite a unitarian to join the dialogue here.

http://web.mac.com/mgienke/iWeb/BSEUnitari...%20beliefs.html

BTW, over the years, I have been invited to speak at several Unitarian churches in the Toronto area. I usually use the topic: WHY I COULD BE A UNITARIAN, BUT I AM NOT.

My short answer is: Because the United Church of Canada is so inclusive in matters of theology and faith that I have all the freedom of belief I need within it. The UCC is more into orthopraxy (the practice of agape/Christian/Love--Like the Democrats are supposed to be, Rick) than in orthodoxy
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Meanwhile, Check out: http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthrea...32917#Post32917

There I am carrying on a lively dialogue with several atheists/agnostics in a thread by Socratus. I think he is a physicist and a Russian Orthodox. The following is the latest post I made to his thread.

Where and Who is God ? .......

Good dialogue, everyone. If the following comment on the topic is a repeat, I apologize:

Socratus, I know you mean well in raising this question, but, for me, it is a question that I, as a unitheist, would never ask. http://www.unitheist.org

IMO, GOD is not a some 'who' who exists some 'where', like you and I exist. For me, to think of divine Being, the infinite and eternal Now in this way, is to create an idol with the mind.

When Richard Dawkins asks theists: "What and where is your evidence for 'God'" he is asking the same kind of question we have as the title of this topic. In effect he is asking: "Who is, and where is, your God? Introduce me!"

If he asked me this, my answer would be: "Richard your question is like that asked by very young children: 'Daddy! Mommy! If God made us and the world, who made God?'

"Children need to be more mature before they can even ask mature questions and understand mature answers. I trust you are mature and know what I mean when I say: GOD, like the whole of Nature, or Reality, is the every Who and the every Where in which you and I exist.

"Now, as a mature thinkers, surely we can turn on all our physical, mental and spiritual senses. Therefore, to you I say relax, enjoy--and as the scientist you are--continue to help all of us explore this self-evident panentheistic truth. If you prefer to call this truth Nature and/or Reality, go ahead. In addition, I like to use the succinct term GOD. I give you the same freedom of the use of language that I ask of you."
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If anyone has Richard Dawkins e-mail, I would love to hear his response to the above.
BTW, I firmly feel that we all have the right to define GOD, God , god, whatever, ion our own terms.

[maximus242]

In other words Lindsay, the emotional "feeling" that you have about an experience is proof that it is divine. Because you had a "divine" experience and it "feels" divine, therefore it must BE divine.

However, emotions are neurological reactions, they are not divine guidance as to what is right and wrong, nor are they indicators of what is correct or not correct. If your emotions were correct in guiding you what to do, everytime you thought, felt or had the emotion of hurting someone then that means you should have done it.

So whenever someone makes you angry then you should attack them right? No. Of course not. Same thing is true with emotional feelings of rightness. Just because you feel something is right doesnt make anymore difference than because you feel something makes you angry.

Just because it feels like its divine doesnt mean its proof that is or that you should believe it it. Just because you feel angry doesnt mean you should go on the attack. Emotions measure our judgement of an experience, from the cerebral cortex where it interprets something to the medulla ablangada which is responsible for fight/flight response.

If you percieve something as dangerous the perception is sent to the medulla ablangada which triggers the fear or anger response taking over many different systems of the brain. If you dont perceive it as dangerous then the response is not triggered. Emotions are caused by our perceptions of things. If you perceive something as right you will feel that it is right.

If you percieve it as divine then you will feel that it is divine. Two people can have the identical experience and have vastly different judgements of it. Its no coincidence that divine experiences always seem to happen to those who believe strongly in the divine. Belief affects our perception of things. Go talk to someone who is highly paranoid, you will notice a VASTLY different interpretation of reality compared to yours.

And once again, if God is everything, then thats the same as saying god is all things in the universe, which really doesnt mean anything. Also how do you know this is true?