Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, 619 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25701-2103
Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association ' Newsletter Number 2009:33
The Free Thinker
Newsletter of the Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, WV
December 16, 2009
Events for Sunday, December 20, 2009
10:00 A.M. WORSHIP with the Reverend Jack Wilkinson.
HOMILY: "A Christmas Perspective"
Considering Dylan Thomas's "A Child's Christmas in Wales"
10:30 A.M. Coffee Break
11:00 A.M. PROGRAM with the U. U. Fellowship:
Claire Horton presents "The Un-Christmas Play"
Prepare for a reversal of sentiment as we are served up a quaff of satire with our wassail.
Future Programs (programs are held at 11:00 AM)
Note: Worship Services with The Rev. Jack Wilkinson will be held every Sunday at 10:00 A.M.
December 27th: The Rev. Jack Wilkinson on "Unitarian Universalism"
January 3rd: Open Discussion
January 10th: Jaqueline Muth reviewing War Is A Racket.
January 17th: “Autobiography” with Jim Maphet
January 24th: "The Art and Religion of Mustang Bhutan"
3d wk in Feb "Autobiography" with Randy Miller
Retrospective of Last Sunday's Open Discussion
Ed Necco's presentation on Secular Humanism was a sheep in wolf's clothing. It was a religious buffet disguised as godless gumbo. It was Gaucho Marx pretending to be Karl. Nevertheless, I shall do my best to let it stand on its own feet.
Ed set the tone with Dylan Thomas's poem beginning with "Do not go gentle into that good night" and ending with "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." He meant it, in part, as an affirmation of the unproved assumption that consciousness ends at the grave. His premise was that life is precious because no other condition of consciousness succeeds it. However, if our lives were really brighter by virtue of the ensuing darkness, then the existence of a child who lived only one year would absolutely light up the firmament. This notion of human enhancement by contrast with its supposed opposite obviously has its limitations.
He cites the meeting of 1933 that gave birth to the Humanist Manifesto.. Among the thirty signers were several Unitarian and Universalist ministers (I count five) which argues for the religious nature of its source. This was succeeded in 1973 by Humanist Manifesto II with modifications. From the first Manifesto Ed emphasizes that man is self-creating (existentialism) and a part of nature (arguably, naturalistic theism). Humanism argues that science makes supernatural creeds unacceptable. (The trouble here is that empirical science rules out super-nature at the outset and crafts all its precepts in super-nature's absence without ever having proved its non-existence.) Next, Humanism says that humankind will be enhanced by education, (which happens to be the fundamental precept of all liberal thinking.)
From the Manifesto II he derives the following. Ethics are autonomous and situational. (Many people of faith will agree with this, but it does not rule out the existence of correlative transcendent values.) The individual must experience a full range of liberties (our Founding Fathers). He compared the Humanist Manifestos I and II to the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Humanists are internationalists who think their best option is to transcend national sovereignty. We must continue to adjust norms. We must engage in world planning and take inventory of world resources. Humanists believe in free inquiry.
Here is a perspective on Humanism: 1) belief in the application of reason and science; 2) many Humanists are physicists and philosophers; 3) 90% of Secular Humanists are also Atheists; 4) belief in a relationship between cosmic events and personal events (which is the esoteric maxim of macrocosm vis a vis microcosm or the adage "As above, so below."); 5) democracy; and 6) a series of oppositions:
Optimism vs. Pessimism
Hope vs. Despair
Learning vs. Dogma
Joy vs. Sin
Tolerance vs. Fear
Love vs. Hatred
Reason vs. Blind Faith
(Much of the foregoing is from a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi )
Why are the Humanists despised? Ed told the joke of the man looking for his lost coin under the streetlamp because that was where the light was brightest. I think his point was that this man was not a Secular Humanist, who would have had the sense to look in the dark where the coin had been dropped. He said that to be a Secular Humanist one has to work at it. It's like parenting or being a Buddhist (Chop wood and carry water!). The Humanist asks the question "What have you chosen to know?" and "What have you chosen to do?" He quoted the aphorism (from Thoreau, I think) "The unexamined life is not worth living." We live in a glorious, threatening cosmos (People of faith say "a glorious, angry God”) It's time for atheists to step out of the closet. (Jealous of gay pride, are we? Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
The Humanist decries man's inhumanity to man. Ed calls our attention to the book, Hitler's Willing Executioners and to accounts of the Rape of Nanking, which degenerated into a beheading contest. Ed said the most spiritual experience was to look into the eyes of a child. Inasmuch as the eyes are the windows of the soul, Ed obviously believes in a soul. Yet the soul is made in the image of God, whom Ed says doesn't exist. Go figure!
The Humanist must develop critical thinking and personal courage. He must move beyond human endurance and embrace science and social values. We must celebrate the fact that we don't know everything (agnosticism). Exercise skepticism and admit fallibility. Lack of evidence equals untruth. On the other hand he suggests a subjective path (Einstein?). We can't see phenomena sometimes, but we can see their effects (wind?). Each person is responsible to provide evidence for his claims. Don't exclude the arts from your life: Picasso's "Guernica," Mozart's concertos, and Whitman's poem to a common prostitute (suggestive of the Indian yogi Ramakrishna, who saw a prostitute and went immediately into Samadhi). Necco urges gratitude, responsibility, and early old age (calm, serenity). He says "death is a sad, full moment." (Indeed, the transition from Nature to Spirit tends to grab one's attention.)
Ed said something I agreed with: if Christians really believed their precepts, they wouldn't cling so to life. Amen! They sometimes lack the courage of their convictions. Perhaps they have an emptiness they don't acknowledge. Too bad for them! As for me, emptiness is filled irrefutably with Spirit. Death holds no terror. Nevertheless, it gets my attention, as it does Ed's.
Light From Jack's Lantern
Let's consider the Newsletter, its purposes, and what I consider my own role to be. Someone, who shall remain nameless, wants me to include the Program and nothing else. Someone else likes what I do but says I snipe too much at non-believers. I took this job on over a year ago and at some point I decided to make it fun. If I can't continue to make it fun, then I'd rather not do it at all. Here's my perspective on it so far.
First, I report the upcoming Sunday, both the Worship and the Program. Next, I report Future Programs, and then I give a Retrospective of the previous Sunday, which both tells non-attendees what they missed and rewards the presenter for his trouble. So I indulge myself with an occasional sidebar. That spices things up. Sometimes I do Denominational News, because we all need to be brought up to speed concerning the UU movement. Finally, in my column, “Light From Jack's Lantern” I feel free to fully indulge myself.
As a personal privilege I feel free to speak here of my own esoteric beliefs in this column created for that purpose. Beyond that I occasionally feel the need to remind you that you are Unitarian Universalists and that you would do well to know what that means. I think all of you have the instinct for it but that some of you aren't sure about the rules. This congregation has chosen to remain at a stage of permanent arrested development, and this is a situation to which I am reconciled. However, my e-news voice might become occasionally strident as I strain against our limitations. I am of course pleased when I find out certain readers enjoy what they have read, and happy to overhear it when something I have written stimulates discussion. Those of you who are unhappy with my exercise of intellectual and religious freedom can exercise your own intellectual and religious freedom by simply not reading by the light of the Jack’O Lantern.
Merry Christmass!
President: Bob Williams ' Vice President/Programs Director: Randy Miller ' Treasurer: Jim Maphet
Newsletter Editor: Jack Wilkinson III (304-521-9201)