I took this table from
this post on Triangulations. I find it interesting to look at the sheer diversity among atheists etc. so I filled it out.
Self-Label(s)
| Agnostic Atheist (believes there is no god/are no gods but acknowledges that she cannot prove it) |
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Past Sect History
| Unitarian Universalist |
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Past Belief History
| Life Long Non-believer (Birthright) |
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Past Orthopraxy History
| Church every week as a kid. Christmas and Easter. |
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Level of Certainty:
| Moderate |
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| Openness: | Open, but cautious |
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Degree of Outreach:
| Varies between Affirm, Debater, Active. More on the active side online. |
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Present Religious Participation:
| Often (various kinds of progressive Judaism), rarely (Unitarian Universalist) |
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Stance toward
Categorically Rejecting Religion: | Religion is okay. We should recognize and use its contributions while correcting its excesses and allowing others to believe what they will. |
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| Degree of Enchantment | Enchanted |
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| Mystical Perceptions: | Non-Mystical |
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Theory of Religion:
| I'm not sure how the first religions came to be. I think we have a need for explanations and that religions today serve many roles, such as marking important stages in our lives (birth, coming-of-age, marriage, death) and marking time on a more day-to-day basis into working and non-working time, holy and mundane time (especially religions that have a sabbath or day of rest). They often mark the seasons as well (look at your favorite Christian or Jewish holidays - lots of them draw on pagan celebrations tied to the seasons). They serve as moral arbiters, as well, but I think in most of these respects we could do without them, as long as we had some agreed-upon system for this. |
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Non-theistic Leanings
| Nothing supernatural |
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Secular Superstitious or Irrational Habits
| I knock on wood. |
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View of Reason
| Reason is very important. Humans tend to be irrational. |
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Faith Items
| We'll make it past our current troubles, somehow. |
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Hey Thyrn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting. Good luck on the new blog. This was a very fun way to quickly get to know you. I hope others enjoy it too.
I notice that you have both Jewish and Unitarian roots, and know several other people w/ the same background. Is this common?
ReplyDeleteCRL, I made a comment to a rabbi about meeting some Jewish folks at a Unitarian family camp as a kid (which resulted in my first ever trip to a synagogue when we went to the girl's bat mitzvah) and he said that there are a lot of Jews in Unitarian circles. I think Unitarian Universalism, though historically Protestant, is inoffensive because it doesn't require you to believe anything. This is what lead my grandparents, neither of whom believes in God but both of whom wanted their kids to have some knowledge of religion, to go to a UU church.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some UU congregations avoid specifically Christian language and call themselves fellowships and so forth. There tend to be no crosses, no altar, and very few references to Jesus except around Christmas and Easter. At least judging by the fellowship we used to go to.
So I couldn't say how common it is, but I could see how it would happen.