Unitarian Universalism- a religion without a god.

I am sixteen years old. 

For eight years now I have been going to a fellowship called UUFF (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg)

The year I turned fifteen I went through a bridging ceremony at UU that allowed me to truly explore my religion.

Since my religion does not necessarily have a god or higher power, you may think that my religion isn't really one.

I am here to try and prove you otherwise.

There are three points that I would like to make in this note towards my religion.

1. Just because we don't have a god doesn't mean we have no rules. 
2. There is an origin to our religion, it did not just pop out of nowhere. 
3. We are not all atheists.

No God, No rules?

Most people probably believe that if I don't believe in a god then I must not be religious and that I must be atheist. That is simple ignorance that I am hoping to remove from my circle of friends before I die; maybe even before I graduate if they are willing to listen.

So, no god equals no religion according to most of society. However, take Buddhism. That's a religion yet there is no god; none at all. They simply believe in the existence Siddhartha Gautama who was the first man to achieve enlightenment. A mere mortal man; much more relate able, really. They have The Eight Fold Path, The Five Precepts, and The Four Noble Truths and yet most people see it as a religion despite these facts. 

Why should UUs be any different?

Unitarian Universalists have The Seven Principles. In the simplest version they are:

1. Each person is important
2. Be kind in all you do
3. We're free to learn together
4. Search for what is true
5. All people have a vote
6. Build a fair and peaceful world
7. We care for Earth's lifeboat

In a lovely sermon given by Steve Watkins. It was said by him that our eighth principle should be:

  8. Have a sense of humor :)

These are the rules and ideas that UUs are supposed to base our lives and actions upon. The only difference between our rules and other religions is that ours do not come from a higher power. 

In their original form, the rules are greatly open for interpretation, creating what I believe to be the essence of Unitarian Universalism, the freedom to choose what you believe. 

What? We came from Christianity?

Now, if the point of being a UU is to choose what you believe then we could all be considered heretics.

“We are heretics because we want to choose our faith, not because we desire to be rebellious. “Heresy” in Greek means “choice.”’

Unitarian Universalism was founded by two different groups (Unitarians and Universalist) and both originated from Christianity. When Christianity first emerged the, “believers could choose from a variety of tenets about Jesus. Among these was a belief that Jesus was an entity sent by God on a divine mission. Thus the word “Unitarian” developed, meaning the oneness of God”'

Another idea from the first few centuries of the Common Era was the idea of universal salvation. The Universalists came up with this, saying that everyone could be saved. Yes, Unitarian Universalism has its basis in Christianity. In fact, some UU churches have retained that element in their congregations today.

So, what do you know, our founding religions were Christian. Alas, my church retains little to none of that religion but I feel that that little fact may increase the credibility of Unitarian Universalism to a majority of society. Despite it's superficiality. 

The quotes used in this explanation are excerpts from an article called Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith By Mark W. Harris. (http://www.uua.org/publications/pamphlets/introductions/151249.shtml)

Atheists, they're everywhere! ...or not.

Walk into my church and look around and you will see a majority of one race. The UU I attend is basically a white, middle/upper class church which is rather unfortunate because people assume this means we all must believe the same thing. But people who attend UUFF believe a wide variety of things. Some believe in reincarnation, ghosts, Greek gods, pagan gods, some unknown higher power or even (in my case) absolutely nothing but the inherent worth and dignity of every living being. We are not a large group of atheists who sit around for a few hours on Sundays and bash every religion that we find “foolish”. There are even people who go to UUFF who believe in the well known Christian God.

The R.E (religious education) classes that we have for the youth of UU are focused around teaching kids about other religions and how to use their ideas and our own to live a productive and happy life. We are taught simple ideas in the elementary class, more thought provoking ideas in the middle school class, and participate in moral debates in the high school class. We are presented with a world religion, told the facts and ideas about this religion, and are told to use our brains to understand why people follow this faith, if we believe in it, and how we accept that religion into our lives.

UU is about understanding the world and coming up with what we believe by what we see and hear. No rules are there to tell us what to do and what not to do and we are free to choose what we wish.

These are only three points about my religion and while there are many other things I could say on its behalf, these are the three things I find most important in understanding what I believe and who I am. These are the ideas of Unitarian Universalist. It's up to you now to say whether you think it's a religion or not.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg is on 5044 Plank Road in Fredericksburg, VA 22407 with the phone number being (540) 548-1301