The summary of today’s service says that the purpose of bodies is to produce intense religious emotion.  It is better to say ‘foster religious emotion’ rather than produce, I think.  The body, I will suggest, is a community of living things that gives us the world, and when we are given the world, we have [...]

We’ve all the heard the old line, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  This is bad news for freethinkers.  Since we are all going to hell anyway, we don’t even get the advantage of a paved road.  So what are we going to do with our good intentions, given that we can’t [...]

A few years ago, Jen and I and my brother went to St. John’s, in the US Virgin Islands,  for a week.  One night, Jen stayed in, and my brother and I went out about the town.  My brother is single, and it became my job to help my brother meet as many of the [...]

Now I grew up Catholic, but, looking back now, I can’t say that I got a very accurate portrayal of Jesus.  For example, I still have a framed image of Jesus given to me by the Nun who shepherded me through the year-long process of First Confession.  I was around 8 years old.  A bearded [...]

My son Matthew and I are both what are called ‘artistic personalities.’  This is one of those labels that’s like a rug; you sweep a lot of dirt under the nice pattern.  Anyway, if you remember any high school chemistry, you’ll remember that sometimes when you combine two substances, you can make fire, explosions.  Well, [...]

Skepticism as Religion:  Kurt Vonnegut and the Meaning of Life

In our governing principles, Eduard Schroeter wrote, “the foundation of this congregation is reason.”  This is a frightening thing to say, it is.  Reason identifies our very human capacity to embrace reality, all of it.   As I wrote this, my dog, Ananda, was snoring by our [...]

You know how the most beautiful music is almost always sad?  I feel like that’s because life is sad, sad in a beautiful kind of way because it tries so hard, we try so hard.  There’s happiness, yes. It appears suddenly in our lives, like a gift - it is a gift - but we [...]

At one level, the Harry Potter series is about a very old conflict, the conflict between fearless living,  symbolized by Dumbledore on the one hand, and fearful grasping, symbolized by Voldemort on the other.  It’s a conflict inside ourselves.  Dumbledore and Voldemort are archetypal figures; each exists within us, I think.  When Dumbledore calmly informs [...]

Follow Your Dreams:  The Importance of Religious Education
So how many people really feel moved by that e.e. cummings quote?  Yeah, I’m not surprised, especially in this crowd.  We all want that so much; to be “nobody but ourselves.”  In our story for all ages, Mr. Plumbottom pulls it off, doesn’t he?   But here is the [...]

Cosmological Argument
Definition:  ‘God’ means maximal expression of ‘actuality’ or ‘fact.’
Definition:  ‘fact’ means ‘concrete’ or ‘particular’ and also ‘contingent’ or ‘falsifiable.’
Definition:  ‘maximal’ means ‘greatest conceivable expression.’

Argument

Something exists (Gamwell’s argument)
Something actual exists (ontological principle)
Actualities are partially determined (Hartshorne)
There are many actualities (corollary to 3.)
Each actuality valuates other actualities (corollary to 3.)
Valuation of actualities requires a cosmic, [...]