A Very Active Group

The following link is to a very active, Unitarian Christian, discussion group. Check them out when you get a chance.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnitarianChristians/

The Purpose Driven Life

Even though the book seems to be written from a more fundamentalist viewpoint that I happen to have, I got a lot out of reading this book and recommend it to anyone with at least Christian leanings.

Following the instructions in the book, I spent some time everyday for 40 days reading one chapter of the book and considering what it had to say until the next day. The time required was minimal, but there were many rewards/insights to be found.

The books is written around 5 purposes that can be summed up as worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and mission. As should be apparent, the importance of service is a key theme. There is no attempt to fit you into a box of a set shape; everyone being different and the desirability of that is recognized as very important.

I avoided reading this book, despite seeing it all over the place for a long time. I am glad I gave it a try. Hopefully, you will too. Let me know how it goes.

The Ultimate Cause

I once heard that the most basic definition for God is that entity which is without cause or that entity which is the ultimate cause. At the very least, this would make God the ultimate starting point for everything, and in our way of thinking, everything has a cause back to some first cause.

So why then all the objection to a mere statement regarding Intelligent Design in the public schools? Darwin never explained how things got started, and there has to be a start. I am not advocating teaching the Book of Gensis in a public school, just making a statement to the effect that something, seemingly intelligent, may have gotten the ball rolling.

How can that not be science? There is plenty of evidence to support that conclusion. The complexity of and yet narrow margins between which life can exist is only one example.

If you ask me, refusing to make any statement as to a beginning is unscientific and some much burying of heads in sand.

On the Issue of Creeds

An article that I wrote with the above title was published in a recent issue of the American Unitarian (June 2005). It will soon be available on the AUC website (see below) for those interested in reading it who don't subscribe to the print journal. Let me know what you think.

http://www.americanunitarian.org

JESUS by A.N. Wilson

I just finished this book on Jesus today. Lots of surprises!

The focus of the book was on finding the Jesus of History as opposed to the Jesus of Faith within the Gospels. That turns out to be a little more difficult than it might appear. The two seem very different.

Wilson's take is that it is hard to find much we can be sure is the historic Jesus in the Gospels, but there are some hints. He takes these in combination with what is known about the culture and politics of the time and comes up with many interesting and plausible speculations.

An example that I found particularly intriguing is the assertion that the High Priest's servant present at the arrest of Jesus who had his ear cut off was none other than the Apostle Paul when he was called Saul. Sounds a little strange, but Wilson does have some evidence to support this.

One thing that Wilson talked about seems to capture where we end up in some respects in searching for the historic Jesus in this book. In the Fourth Gospel (John), Pilate asks Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus does not answer.

I noticed that in this same Gospel Jesus says that no one asked him "Where are you going?" or in a certain ancient tongue, "Quo vadis?" Maybe this is an avenue for Wilson to look down in further study.

The book is not recommended for fundamentalists who are senstive about their faith, but Wilson is respectful in his writing. Give it a try otherwise.

Newspeak

The Happy Holidays controversy brings to mind something from Orwell's 1984 - NEWSPEAK. Eliminate ideas by eliminating words.

December 25 is Christmas, so the greeting should be Merry Christmas. This year we could add Happy Hannukah because Hannukah starts on December 25. Happy Holidays is generic, not properly descriptive. We could be talking New Year or 4th of July.

I don't know about you, but I don't think anything from Orwell's world of 1984 is worth having around. Let's leave Newspeak in the book - the only place it belongs.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy New Year - know what I mean?

One Year Makes a Difference

I see it has been a little over a year since my first blog posting. A lot has changed in a year.

It was about a year that we were last in New Orleans. Many of the places we saw then are now gone. Hard to believe.

Been nearly a year since we moved to Virginia and many changes have come about as a result.

Have done a lot of reading in the last year and have many new ideas to play with.

Published an article in the AUC's journal.

Found a church (I think).

And soon a new adventure begins ... hopefully.

Stayed tuned.