AboutJon Bond Expertise Will answer all questions regarding Unitarian Universalist (UU)church; including ancient history (Universalists go back to at least 250 A.D.) and medieval history (Unitarians look to 1553 A.D. as their beginning) up to merger of the two movements in 1961 and continuing up to present. Am familiar with Christian church organizations and relationship of UUs to traditional churches.
Experience Currently member of Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado. Past vice-president of Board of Trustees and currently on Membership Committee. Have taught UU history for over 20 years. Have attended Unitarian Universalist General Assemblies (annual meetings held in June) for past 15 years.
Organizations Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado
Question I am an atheist. I believe that when I die I will NOT enjoy a "memorable" afterlife. I believe it is possible, or even probable, that spirits exist, but not in a conscious, thinking, and active way. Other spirits I believe just go back to there source without any knowledge a history.
Do I have a place in the Unitarian church, how is my own philosophy similar to yours?
Thank you for answering my question!
Answer Hi Matt -
I "goofed" 'cause I've been gone for five days and did not mark my availability. Consequences are your question was not answered in a timely fashion. My apologies.
Of course you have a place in the Unitarian church. We pride ourselves in welcoming atheists and humanists. Recently (in the last three years), our organization took a survey to find out what we believe is important in our religious lives.
Almost 10,000 Unitarian Universalists took the time to fill out and return the survey, giving us all an invaluable snapshot of who we are Our association has been enriched by the knowledge gained from the answers many UUs provided.
This survey began a process designed to reach out to all UU individuals and congregations called "Fulfilling the Promise." This Concept was set in motion by the Unitarian Universalist Association's Board of Trustees. Its goal was to help us move toward agreement about why we come together as congregations and as an association, and what we hope to accomplish.
The survey questions came from individual UUs, as did the suggested responses. More than 500 people helped create this survey. We hope you will find your own experience reflected in the questions and answers, even if the exact language you would use is not perfectly captured here.
What follows are the total tabulations for the first 8118 surveys. Your question deals with theological perspective, which was question number 30. In the survey, question number 30 results follow (ignore "" - that resulted when I copied some previously formatted characters):
Please check the one of the following which best describes your theological perspective:
The balance of the questions (age, sex, length of church membership, etc.), gave us a picture of who are demographically and as church persons. They provide a picture of what we say our values in religious community are.
Matt - I don't know if an atheists (in the Unitarian Church) would answer question #30 as a "humanist" or "other" You would be more knowledgeable there. In any case, my answer would be that you would certainly be welcome.
