Friday, August 12, 2005

truths

This is from the UUCF-L (Unitarian Christian Fellowship) list. I found the quotes in the article referenced to say undenyable truths. As I mentioned to the friend who brought it to our attention, it was like one more marble in the marble jar of wisdom.

Here are the words I found so inspiring (note that the friend who brought these words to our email list said the term "universalist" should be replaced with "unitarian"):

"1) Man is an evolutionary creature, literally lifting himself out of the dust of an animal past toward fulfillment as a mature and rational being.
2) Man is not a "fallen" sinner needing to be saved by miraculous saviours; he is a struggling being striving to remove the attributes of a brutish past. His "salvation" will be accomplished by his own good works and as he comes to realize that wholeness is achieved through love, charity, justice and freedom.
3) We view Jesus as a teacher of such ideals, a remarkable human being esteemed along with Gandhi, Buddha, Lincoln and others.
4) The universe is viewed as one natural process, always in flux, dynamic and growing. Man is a part of this natural process, a co-partner in its evolution.
5) The Bible is seen as one traditional point of view, not always accurate or inspirational. The Universalist selects from its pages what appears to him to be of worth and adds it to other writings, the large and ever-growing accumulation of which is his "sacred" literature.
6) Certain questions are recognized as unanswerable: the existence of after-life-realms, the nature of "God, " and so forth. Universalism does not dogmatize on that which it cannot know. Such beliefs are left to each individual to reason out for himself.
7) One life-at-a-time, however. Universalists are engaged in creating in this life, on this earth that thing which men have variously called "the Beloved Community, " "the Kingdom of God, " "the Commonwealth of Man. "

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