…for there are those who find us wanting.

I Attend a Unitarian Universalist Service by D. J. McAdam

An enlightening article that I stumbled upon during my weekly crisis of faith.

Filed by Stephen at 8:35 am under Religion, UU
8 Comments

In his latest post, Stephen once again touched upon something particularly relevant to recent events — in this case, Hatemail. As you will see below, a rather innocuous Myspace bulletin instigated a fairly intense discussion between a friend from college and myself. I’ve decided to post it here as well as on the Hatemail site because it not only outlines the deeper purpose of this project, it also deals primarily with the greater issue of forgiveness.

I’ve reprinted the conversation almost completely verbatim, save for changing her name and removing sensitive personal details from both sides of the dialogue. Discuss!
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 11:06 pm under Religion, Social Issues
1 Comment

“I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: ‘My son did this to me.’ I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: ‘I forgive my son.’ Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand.” — Mother Teresa.

As I sat on the train last Sunday, after a most wonderful and inspiring church service, I found myself with a lot of free time. Not having brought my headphones or even my laptop with me, I was simply sitting there taking in the scenery and decided to meditate.

A half hour later, I brought myself back to normal consciousness, and had the best day ever. I was calm, collected, had not a single sign of stress, and just generally — happy. So, I decided then and there that I was going to write about meditation for my Friday post.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Stephen at 8:00 am under General, Religion, UU
14 Comments

“We ought always to deal justly, not only with those who are just to us, but likewise to those who endeavor to injure us; and this, for fear lest by rendering them evil for evil, we should fall into the same vice.” — Hierocles

As winter sets in, I swear I slip further into darkness than I intend. I’ve been dreading the decreased sunlight and loss of Daylight Savings even as I look forward to the radiant colors of the leaves turning, nature’s last flare-out before it settles in for a long, dark, respite.

This, of course, gives me time to reflect on some of the darker topics, more specifically the problem of evil. Now, not to dwell too hard on what evil is, or what people consider evil, it’s important to note that this is one of the few concepts that is purely human, involves humans, and can only be perpetrated by them. I’m fairly certain that Mother Nature’s meddling in our lives is simply mindless destruction, whereas Uncle Sam’s meddling in our finances is pure, unadulterated, evil.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Stephen at 8:42 pm under Religion, UU
2 Comments

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.” — Albert Einstein

I grew up thinking everyone needed to go to church. Not just for community, not just for spiritual nourishment, but mainly to keep one from going to hell. Believe it or not, this was a viewpoint I held at least in some form until a little over a year ago — maybe even less. At that time, I was driving 110 miles round-trip to attend a Unitarian Universalist church in Orange County, dogged by the irrational fear that we were all headed straight for hell due to our collective non-belief. But I still went, perhaps out of some greater motivation to find just where all of this was leading, but more for the growing hope that I had been seriously misinformed. And soon, the vestiges of my rotted Christian outer layers fell like so many skin cells sloughed off our bodies. I finally began asking questions, getting into heated discussions, connecting the dots into my own original ideas; in short, I stopped accepting religious ideas wholesale. I had a wonderful place to belong, to give of myself — hence why leaving was so difficult for me.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 1:57 am under Religion, Atheism, UU
3 Comments

I go through these weird cycles where I’ll get up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and, for lack of a better occupation at 2:30 a.m., stare at Homestar Runner and drink green tea for an hour or so before swiffering my floors for the umpteenth time. These are the days I enjoy the most, actually — the ones where I’ll look up from my work and notice it’s only 11:00 when it really feels like 5:00 in the afternoon. As I’m writing this, I still have a kitchen full of dishes left over from my birthday dinner, empty wine glasses on my table, and a disconcerting amount of dirty laundry that’s found its way to my living room; every so often the air fills with the sound of the clanks and thuds of the heaters kicking on all over the building. It may be free, but I doubt I’ll ever get used to the sound of the metal casings surrounding the radiators bowing and flexing as they heat up.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 5:59 am under Religion, Atheism, UU
2 Comments

Since returning from my road trip from California back to Chicago, two things have happened that warrant their own blogs. But I wanted to write about the road trip before writing about anything else. But now enough time has passed since everything happened that I feel comfortable squashing it all into one post. But heads up — it will be long and probably inconsistent.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 9:43 pm under General, Religion, Pop Culture
5 Comments

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m moving to Chicago late next month to start up my studio, so I’ve been here in the city since Monday afternoon looking for a place to live. I managed to find a wonderful space not long into my search, so now I’m just waiting for my application and deposit check to go through. I’ve decided to break with tradition and suspend excitement until I sign the lease, but I do have a lovely (note: expensive) bottle of wine chilling in the fridge for when things become set in stone. Which I hope is fast approaching, cause waiting sucks. At any rate, I have the penultimate performance of that super-smash musical HATS to look forward to. Only the finest!

On Tuesday morning I’ll be leaving bright and early for the Tampa area — specifically Clearwater, home to the worldwide headquarters of Scientology, don’t you know — for the UUMN annual conference, something I’ve been looking forward to for some time if only because I’m being right posh and staying at the Hilton all week. I’ve been a UU for only a short time, so this is my first major function in the larger community; I’ll be performing Michael Colquhoun’s Charanga and On a Windswept Plain (one of my own pieces — both off my summer recital program), conducting two pieces on the Choral Reading Session, and presenting one of my choral works at the Composer’s Workshop. And with any luck the Scientologists won’t sneak into my hotel and kill me in my sleep.

Take care, kiddos.

Filed by Trevor at 7:25 pm under General, Shameless Plugs, UU, The Arts
1 Comment

Is a myth. Free to be a Christian, maybe, but that’s it. Case in point:

[EDIT: I should have pointed out that the hecklers are not senators, they were from a fringe group called “Operation Save America.” Their press release regarding this incident can be found here.]

Filed by Trevor at 11:31 pm under Religion
6 Comments

I recently read an article by Isaac Asimov, written in 1964 and published in a World Book Encyclopedia. He told in scientific terms how life on this planet probably started. After I read it, it was like a light turned on in my head.

A long time ago, when the Earth was very different than it is today (i.e., no plants, no animals, no Starbucks, lots of hydrogen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, etc.), the oceans were much more volatile and both liquids and gasses on this planet were much thinner. The sun’s rays could penetrate the atmosphere much more powerfully, and UV rays would get through to everything. At some point, the oceans’ water was less like the water it is today and more like ammonia, with all the hydrogen and whatnot, which is a fair argument since hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the universe.

Back in the 1950’s, some scientists ran a series of tests in which they concentrated UV rays on liquid mixtures that they theorized the oceans were probably like. The UV rays typically caused the atoms to get very excited, and larger molecules formed. They found in several of the compounds (which were most akin to ammonia) that the concentrated UV rays caused the creation of amino acids, which are the basic building blocks of proteins, which are key to providing energy for things like, oh, you know, self-reproduction.

So, the theory goes that back on ancient Earth, the sun’s UV rays eventually created amino acids in the ocean, which after a while formed into proteins, and sooner or later cells began to reproduce themselves (ta-da! Life!), and gradually became more and more complex, which has gotten us to where we are today.

Asimov said it more elegantly.

Nevertheless, I find it to be a very, very good explanation of how life actually started, and it was verified by multiple experiments trying to do exactly that. Once I read this, I knew I had science on my side.

Before reading on, I would like to steer you towards my friend Ben’s blog, where he has posted an interesting article on the natures of science and religion (it is the article dated June 16, 2007).
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 9:08 pm under Religion, The Science
3 Comments