The what?

Consider yourself accepted...welcome!

     The more rational females on this site the better.  I have an R.C. background also (central Maine) even went to R.C. school. Somewhere around age 7 the priest asked me when I was going to become an alter boy; I couldn't think of why me or anyone else would want to bother. I've been an athiest since. 

    I live near Toronto now (born Canadian, I just grew up in Maine) you'll find people from all over the world here, so enjoy and post. This post just got me my 1000th point.

Welcome! Pull up a chair and has a free coffee an pastry. =^_^=

[Initiate Tongue Biting ON]

This is me not ranting about UU.

[Initiate Tongue Biting OFF]

good to see another girl on the forums!  welcome.

(and yeah, not so into uu myself either - nothing personal)

I skimmed through the UU wikipedia article.

I'd rather have Kay, explain it herself before I make a judgement, which would be more a sweeping generalization.

rather than cutting and pasting and adding quotes to one long post, I'll quote directly.

You haven't met I AM GOD AS YOU yet.  I can pretty much guarantee he's going to offer to do more than validate you.

Girls Girls Girls !!! Welcome Kay .... Cool Thomas Jefferson and his, identified themselves as Deists and Unitarians, and as Jesus fans, while against Paul's christain dogma.  .... Lots on line, as you would seem to know.

... basically non dogmatic , and I think close to pantheism, regarding the nature of consciousness. ( which instead makes me atheist)

Google, "Thomas Jefferson Unitarian" 

http://www.adherents.com/people/pj/Thomas_Jefferson.html

   Do you have some fav sites or essays to share Kay ?

http://www.religioustolerance.org/u-u.htm

Overview:

"Unitarianism Universalism is an unusual religious organization. Unlike most religions in North America, it does not require its adherents to adhere to a specific set of beliefs. Its membership includes individuals who identify themselves as Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Humanists, Wiccans, or  other religious tradition. Many inter-faith couples find it to be a comfortable religious home. UUs view the main function of the congregation as facilitating the spiritual quest of its members". ///// 

            I am an atheist story jesus and buddha fan .... and so I rip into them religious idol worshipers ... as jesus and buddha  egg me on ! ....   Jesus, the jewish buddha story one , was a bad ass !

sleep away

I have met only a pitiful few theists that don't do what you so aptly described.

Shiny Happy People??

glad to meet a former R.C. that smartly left when he was ahead. I'm of the personal view that celibacy is a crime against nature, except in cases of true sexual deviants (you all know, the ones that talk about "free will" and then not give their victims that vaunted right).

congrats on this being your 1000th point!

I'll stick with the coffee, thanx and thanks for the welcome.

Do you have a clearer pic? You look like a cutie.

it's an older Second Life avatar of mine. The only resemblance is in the hair and the eyeglasses.

thank you. To each their own. I'm interested in it, but don't know much about it from an inside perspective, so the more people who give me their perspectives, the better equipped I am to decide if I should look into it or not bother with it.

Ok... so here goes.  Every UU I've had any contact with has been extremely deferential about their beliefs, to the point of absurdity.  Without exaggerating very much, the creed of most of them has been something like:

"I may or may not believe in something that may or may not exist and may or may not have always existed, and might, according to some people, possibly be referred to as god, or maybe universal consciousness, or universal spirit, or maybe just Karma, or maybe something that we haven't heard of, and maybe it does something in the universe, or maybe not, but I like pot luck suppers."

No kidding.  I really think UU is a place for people who just don't want to admit that they don't believe in god to go to church.  They're mortified of the idea of stepping on other people's religious beliefs, and they really, genuinely believe that belief in something spiritual is a good idea -- maybe more important than the actual existence of what is being believed.

If you read much of my writing, you'll see that not only do I think it's ok to be vocal about absurd beliefs, I think it's a kind thing to do.  So, you can understand why I would find the UUs revoltingly passive.

thanks for your point of view. Seeing as how I'm in a red portion of Texas, where there's an average of 1 christain church for every 25 people statistically, I wouldn't have known this, as the UUA isn't closer than half a day's drive in any direction.

I have no problem with that. I just said I was interested in it, which I am.

You do realize that making a pimp mad is generally a bad idea? When a pimp gets mad bitches tend to get slapped.

~sigh~

And you wonder why you don't get laid.  Seriously, dude.  Be nice.

I don't know if you're much of a reader, but there are a couple of books I think you should read before you commit too hard to your idea of what human systems are and why they exist.

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley (Paperback - April 1, 1998)

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright

In a nutshell, the recently developed ability to run complicated computer models has enabled us to test a lot of basic strategies for organisms in systems.  It has shed a lot of light on how we came to be moral creatures, and in particular, why and how we form societies.  I think you'd find these books pretty fascinating.

Heh.  Oddly, even though this is my typical M.O. I still get blasted by theists all the time for "telling them what to believe."  A lot of people equate the presentation of an idea with force feeding an idea.  Personally, I think all the evidence points to the conclusion that people can't decide what to believe anyway.  We can only believe when there's enough reasons for us to do so.  I'm not usually presumptuous enough to believe myself enough of an authority to sway someone's opinion.