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.

[Lindsay]

(Lindsay @ Dec 17, 2009, 09:51 PM) *

.... It is this notion of God as Totality that I believe in.

"What if everything, Totality was all inside your head?" Code asks.

This idea came to me when I was a child. I remember: looking at the stars on a cold clear night. Interestingly, there was no light "pollution" for sky watchers in Newfoundland during the blackout while WW 2 raged around us (1939-1945).
BTW, Bell Island (then over 10,000 people)--ten miles north of St. John's--was attacked, twice, by enemy subs. Torpedoes sank four iron-ore carriers and hit one of the two loading piers. The subs attacked in the Spring and Fall of 1942. I saw the bodies of quite a number of young merchant seamen--they drowned when their ships sank-- hauled ashore not far from where I lived. http://www.bellisland.net

Back to my thoughts as a sky watcher: Every time I closed my eyes the thought came to me: If every human being was, like ants, born blind, would the stars exist?

A wise cleric, Dean William Ralph Inge (1860--1954)-- http://www.google.ca/search?q=Dean+Inge&ie...lient=firefox-a
a famous dean of St. Paul's cathedral, London England--in response to a cynical statement made by an astronomer about how insignificant man is in the eyes of astronomy, is reported to have responded, "But you are forgetting that man is the astronomer." One of his books was, "God and the Astronomers".
Interesting bio of Dean Inge--"the gloomy dean"--
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/william-ralph-inge/