Subject:
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Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 21 Jul 2004 02:12:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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1655 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Frank Filz wrote:
> There are UUs who have no religious beliefs (unless you want to claim
> "faith" in science as a religious belief).
They ascribe to the UUA core beliefs, such as they are, so they ascribe to some
form of religious belief. Religion is defined as:
2a) any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics
and a philosophy.
2b) any system of beliefs, practices, ethical values, etc. resembling,
suggestive of, or likened to such a system.
Humanism is deemed a religion, even though it makes a direct assertion of the
non-existence of any supernatural force, and given the precepts of the UUA, I'd
say that any member who considers him/herself to be an atheist is probably
either a humanist or an agnostic.
> I've only ever heard atheism as denying the existence of god, even from
> ministers and divinity students, so I wonder how valid that Webster's
> definition is.
Webster's New World Dictionary is regarded as the most accurate representation
of American English. It's used exclusively by the AP, and it changes with
evolving word usage rather than trying to restrict words to a static meaning.
If it includes that text in its definition, it means that Americans have been
using the word in that regard, and enough to warrant inclusion. If "atheism"
means something slightly different than it did when it was first coined as a
word, well, so does "nice", which used to be a form of insult.
> Even if you take that definition, there are UUs who would probably still
> qualify (I have heard people talk about the Sunday service as a "symposium"
> or "lecture" to remove all semblance of religion - though you may not find
> any UU ministers who take that extreme).
They've joined a recognized religion, so they are no longer true atheists,
though they may still hold the same basic beliefs regarding the existence of a
divine being. Again, I suspect that any UUA member who strongly claims to be an
atheist is actually a humanist, by definition. They believe in
self-fulfillment, ethical conduct, and many of the other philosophical precepts
of various religions, with the notable exception that they do not ascribe to
beliefs in the supernatural or divine.
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