What do you think? Does good need evil to exist? Can we have joy without also knowing suffering?
I experienced a truly Secular Sunday this week while delivering the talk at North Idaho Unitarian Universalist fellowship.
My talk was about hope and fighting for optimism and joy during times of personal and global suffering and strife.
A major way I find hope is through humanity, believe it or not. We create hope for reach other. And the congregation at NIUU demonstrated that beautifully during the service itself today.
We can be the ones to make hope, to deliver hope to our people.
The first Secular Sunday of 2024!
The sermon at my church this past week was a tough one for me to sit through. It raised a lot of very difficult questions that ultimately were the questions that caused me to give up belief in God.
If you still hold faith in God or some version of God, what do you do with God's sovereignty and power? How do you frame that in light of the very broken world in which we live?
Deep thoughts about God brought to you by my son. Maybe he's right!
If you believe in God, how do you conceptualize it/them? That classic father/son/holy spirit? An analogy? A force? An energy? Love or Light?
If you don't believe in God, do you have something else that you put faith in? A concept or philosophy? A greater thing that we're all a part of?
This week's talk was on hope, and rest, and the counter-cultural idea of Sabbath: intentional down time without production, without hustle, without consumption at the forefront of our lives.
I love this idea within or outside of religion. I think rest and being present in the here and now is a very healthy way to live, and I strive to stay present when I can. And when I do, I feel so much better compared to when I'm stressed, anxious, worried, and caught up in plans or comparing.
Re-wording the Apostles Creed into a secular worldview :
*We believe in the Holy Spirit -- Mystery, wonder, the Muse
*the holy catholic church -- being a small part of a greater whole, one piece of a larger body, that for me now is the human body and life itself
*the communion of Saints -- living in community with others, working together collectively toward the greater good, being humble and selfless
*the forgiveness of sins - mercy and radical justice for all
*the resurrection of the body - rebirth, second chances, resurrecting ourselves and our own identity throughout our lifetime
*and life everlasting -- finding ways to thrive and flourish in this one, precious blink of an existences that we are mysteriously lucky to have.
As a former Christian turned agnostic atheist who still attends church with my family, I have thoughts on the Sunday Sermons.
I'm thankful to go to a healthy, supportive, open-minded church where doubt is welcomed, not simply tolerated or even shunned. I feel comfortable attending but certainly have a new filter through which I process the lessons.
I plan to post regular videos about my secular perspective from a church service, applying some of the bigger Truths and concepts from a non-denominational church to our agnostic or atheistic beliefs and lifestyles. (You can follow my Youtube channel here)
Chapter 1: "From where do you find hope?"
Tldr: In you! In humanity and our collective good, even if I need to seek it out at times.
Dealing with religious guilt is going to take a while.
I encourage you to embrace your freedom of no longer having a judgmental God looking over your shoulder all of the time.
Go live your life and enjoy it as much as you can!
What do you think? Can God be all-powerful, all-knowing, and loving?
Would Love have made this world this way?
Why not just start us all in Heaven?
If there is some kind of Diving Being out there in charge of all this . . . Are they really worthy of our worship as they watch us suffer terribly?
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