If you're interested in a non-Christian perspective, I can offer one. I've been a Unitarian Universalist for almost 15 years, a skeptical agnostic before that, and an evangelical Christian before that. I've been around a time or two and put myself through the ringer on questions like this.
In a nutshell, I agree with you. Whether you believe in God or not, whether Jesus is Christ to you or not, it's hard to ignore the obvious flaws and faults in the people around you. Including the folks who are supposed to be dialed in to the scriptures, who supposedly know what God meant and have been raised up to show us all how to follow the Word.
And once you've seen the flaws in those folks, it's a short step to wondering what made the guys who wrote it all down any better. And then you learn about writings and gospels that were left out of the book, and you wonder how those folks knew those were the parts people didn't need to hear.
And you start to wonder whether God actually had a hand in any of it.
It's tempting to throw the whole thing out at that point, and you may go in search of other sources of big-T Truth, or reject the idea of Truth, and maybe God, altogether.
But you can also start finding the truth behind the messages, reading with a critical eye and using your own judgment to determine which messages are consistent with the message Jesus said was most important:
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Love humankind.
And when you start doing that with the Bible, you start seeing similar messages pop up in other traditions, other literature, even in fiction. And you start to realize maybe our concept of God is too small--that maybe Christians aren't actually the only ones who can grasp the truth.
If you're interested, Unitarian Universalists recognize that we can find truth in lots of different sources, and we think the true measure of a person is not what they believe, but how they treat others. We're not Christian (although our roots are Christian, and you can find lots of former Christians and Christian-adjacent folks among us), but we find value in the teachings of Jesus and other prophets/wise people who taught us to love one another.
I hope you find what you need. Please keep asking questions!
Mmm, interesting in deed….well yeah, I’m not going to lie to you. Im very lost spirituality; I want to believe, I love the concept of a higher god loving us and angels taking care of us etc. When I was a child I did my communion, I went to church regularly etc. And I could say I learned how to be a big lover/emotional person in parts because of that world…..but at the same time it’s so hard to be connected with a place filled with so much violence and disgrace. I don’t want to be associated with that. So my faith is a bit confused….I’m interested in learning your POV. What are UU?; what do you believe in?, how do you function?; do you use the symbol of the cross like regular Christians?; what are the differences between you and a regular Christian? Etc….maybe I’ll find a place here
UU, historically, originated as the merger of two Christian denominations: the Unitarians, who believed in the unity of the godhead (as opposed to the trinitarians such as Catholics) and the Universalists, who believed in universal salvation.
These days, however, UU is its own thing, no longer a Christian denomination. It is a non-creedal religion that emphasizes the good we can do in the world over particular theological beliefs. This means it's very come-as-you-are. You're free to believe or disbelieve whatever makes sense to you.
You might find a place here. A lot of us found UU from a similar background as you've communicated here.
u/raendrop has given you a good overview of who we are, where we came from, and what we believe. I would add a phrase you'll see again ans again as you look into our faith: we are a covenantal religion, not a credal one, which means we find common ground in how we agree to act toward each other (and by translation, everybody else) rather than in the beliefs we profess.
As to my personal beliefs, I agree with you that the image of a loving God with his armies of angels all taking care of us is very comforting. I just wonder whether maybe God takes care of us by giving us the tools and abilities to take care of each other. In other words, maybe the angels are us?
Keep asking questions, and dig into older threads on this sub. We tend to get the "what is UU?" question about once a week, so you can get a broad variety of answers. I'd also recommend finding a congregation near you, joining them for a Sunday service, and staying to talk to people if you can. There are also lots of congregations who livestream their services and post the archives online; my church is one of those.
This sounds like me. My doubts started as a teen and got louder over time. After I had kids, I joined a UU church - mostly for them to have a 'village' of elders to model kindness, etc. But as a white American raised Episcopalian, I couldn't fathom not being Christian. I read books by Elaine Pagels, Meg Barnhouse, etc and took a class at church called building your own theology. I finally accepted my agnosticism. It definitely a journey.
Sacred texts are myths, such as Greek mythology. They are instructional parables made centuries and thousands of years ago by people whose brains worked differently than ours today. The texts are used to explain abstract ideas so humans can understand. They are not to be taken literally but as useful fictions.
Orthodox Rabbis, for example, explicitly tell their congregants that the Torah is parable not fact, and that terms such as "the hand of God" are figurative. I have an Evangelical Christian friend who says the same. She believes the Christian Bible is the word of God, but that not to be taken literally.
There are UU Christians, but most of us are not Christians and essentially believe that Jesus was a historical figure with some cool ideas who was fully human. Many of us (including myself) are atheists who don’t believe in a deity of any kind.
We can’t deconstruct your faith for you. That’s a path you have to walk yourself. If a UU church or community is part of that path, there are plenty of people who’ve been in your shoes and found that UU spaces were a helpful part of their spiritual journey. But on principle UUs will not tell you what to believe, metaphysically, as we all have different metaphysical beliefs (or lack thereof).
So you agree with me that Jesus was just a cool dude (like you said) that died tragically but was just a dude, okay, I get it. But I’m curious, in that case in what you believe in?, like, how do view history?; in your pov Jesus appeared out of nowhere and he was cool and that’s it?; like; I’m trying to understand what Unitarians believe
“What UUs believe” is not a monolithic single. We are a non-creedal faith, so our metaphysical beliefs vary. There are UU atheists, UU Muslims, UU Jews, UU Pagans, UU agnostics, etc.
My personal belief is that Jesus, like Mohammed, the Buddha, etc, was a fully human person who influenced history through his ideas and teachings becoming widespread. I don’t think he was god in any sense, because I don’t think there is a god, in the traditional sense of an all-knowing powerful deity or entity that controls the universe.
I agree with Biblical scholars’ view that the Bible was written by humans, and its language and messages are therefore shaped and influenced by the writers’ own cultural contexts and viewpoints. Even among theologians, there are no serious Biblical scholars who think the Bible is some kind of magical divine creation that humans didn’t create themselves.
I also don’t believe there is an afterlife or that humans possess souls or personalities that persist after our deaths.
I don’t think any one person is more sacred or holy than another. If any of us are sacred and holy, all of us are sacred and holy. I think human creativity and our capacity to behave with kindness and compassion are the most important things in life.
If you're interested in a non-Christian perspective, I can offer one. I've been a Unitarian Universalist for almost 15 years, a skeptical agnostic before that, and an evangelical Christian before that. I've been around a time or two and put myself through the ringer on questions like this.
In a nutshell, I agree with you. Whether you believe in God or not, whether Jesus is Christ to you or not, it's hard to ignore the obvious flaws and faults in the people around you. Including the folks who are supposed to be dialed in to the scriptures, who supposedly know what God meant and have been raised up to show us all how to follow the Word.
And once you've seen the flaws in those folks, it's a short step to wondering what made the guys who wrote it all down any better. And then you learn about writings and gospels that were left out of the book, and you wonder how those folks knew those were the parts people didn't need to hear.
And you start to wonder whether God actually had a hand in any of it.
It's tempting to throw the whole thing out at that point, and you may go in search of other sources of big-T Truth, or reject the idea of Truth, and maybe God, altogether.
But you can also start finding the truth behind the messages, reading with a critical eye and using your own judgment to determine which messages are consistent with the message Jesus said was most important:
And when you start doing that with the Bible, you start seeing similar messages pop up in other traditions, other literature, even in fiction. And you start to realize maybe our concept of God is too small--that maybe Christians aren't actually the only ones who can grasp the truth.
If you're interested, Unitarian Universalists recognize that we can find truth in lots of different sources, and we think the true measure of a person is not what they believe, but how they treat others. We're not Christian (although our roots are Christian, and you can find lots of former Christians and Christian-adjacent folks among us), but we find value in the teachings of Jesus and other prophets/wise people who taught us to love one another.
I hope you find what you need. Please keep asking questions!
Mmm, interesting in deed….well yeah, I’m not going to lie to you. Im very lost spirituality; I want to believe, I love the concept of a higher god loving us and angels taking care of us etc. When I was a child I did my communion, I went to church regularly etc. And I could say I learned how to be a big lover/emotional person in parts because of that world…..but at the same time it’s so hard to be connected with a place filled with so much violence and disgrace. I don’t want to be associated with that. So my faith is a bit confused….I’m interested in learning your POV. What are UU?; what do you believe in?, how do you function?; do you use the symbol of the cross like regular Christians?; what are the differences between you and a regular Christian? Etc….maybe I’ll find a place here
UU, historically, originated as the merger of two Christian denominations: the Unitarians, who believed in the unity of the godhead (as opposed to the trinitarians such as Catholics) and the Universalists, who believed in universal salvation.
These days, however, UU is its own thing, no longer a Christian denomination. It is a non-creedal religion that emphasizes the good we can do in the world over particular theological beliefs. This means it's very come-as-you-are. You're free to believe or disbelieve whatever makes sense to you.
https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles
https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe
You might find a place here. A lot of us found UU from a similar background as you've communicated here.
u/raendrop has given you a good overview of who we are, where we came from, and what we believe. I would add a phrase you'll see again ans again as you look into our faith: we are a covenantal religion, not a credal one, which means we find common ground in how we agree to act toward each other (and by translation, everybody else) rather than in the beliefs we profess.
As to my personal beliefs, I agree with you that the image of a loving God with his armies of angels all taking care of us is very comforting. I just wonder whether maybe God takes care of us by giving us the tools and abilities to take care of each other. In other words, maybe the angels are us?
Keep asking questions, and dig into older threads on this sub. We tend to get the "what is UU?" question about once a week, so you can get a broad variety of answers. I'd also recommend finding a congregation near you, joining them for a Sunday service, and staying to talk to people if you can. There are also lots of congregations who livestream their services and post the archives online; my church is one of those.
And above all, keep asking questions!
This sounds like me. My doubts started as a teen and got louder over time. After I had kids, I joined a UU church - mostly for them to have a 'village' of elders to model kindness, etc. But as a white American raised Episcopalian, I couldn't fathom not being Christian. I read books by Elaine Pagels, Meg Barnhouse, etc and took a class at church called building your own theology. I finally accepted my agnosticism. It definitely a journey.
Sacred texts are myths, such as Greek mythology. They are instructional parables made centuries and thousands of years ago by people whose brains worked differently than ours today. The texts are used to explain abstract ideas so humans can understand. They are not to be taken literally but as useful fictions.
Orthodox Rabbis, for example, explicitly tell their congregants that the Torah is parable not fact, and that terms such as "the hand of God" are figurative. I have an Evangelical Christian friend who says the same. She believes the Christian Bible is the word of God, but that not to be taken literally.
There are UU Christians, but most of us are not Christians and essentially believe that Jesus was a historical figure with some cool ideas who was fully human. Many of us (including myself) are atheists who don’t believe in a deity of any kind.
We can’t deconstruct your faith for you. That’s a path you have to walk yourself. If a UU church or community is part of that path, there are plenty of people who’ve been in your shoes and found that UU spaces were a helpful part of their spiritual journey. But on principle UUs will not tell you what to believe, metaphysically, as we all have different metaphysical beliefs (or lack thereof).
So you agree with me that Jesus was just a cool dude (like you said) that died tragically but was just a dude, okay, I get it. But I’m curious, in that case in what you believe in?, like, how do view history?; in your pov Jesus appeared out of nowhere and he was cool and that’s it?; like; I’m trying to understand what Unitarians believe
“What UUs believe” is not a monolithic single. We are a non-creedal faith, so our metaphysical beliefs vary. There are UU atheists, UU Muslims, UU Jews, UU Pagans, UU agnostics, etc.
My personal belief is that Jesus, like Mohammed, the Buddha, etc, was a fully human person who influenced history through his ideas and teachings becoming widespread. I don’t think he was god in any sense, because I don’t think there is a god, in the traditional sense of an all-knowing powerful deity or entity that controls the universe.
I agree with Biblical scholars’ view that the Bible was written by humans, and its language and messages are therefore shaped and influenced by the writers’ own cultural contexts and viewpoints. Even among theologians, there are no serious Biblical scholars who think the Bible is some kind of magical divine creation that humans didn’t create themselves.
I also don’t believe there is an afterlife or that humans possess souls or personalities that persist after our deaths.
I don’t think any one person is more sacred or holy than another. If any of us are sacred and holy, all of us are sacred and holy. I think human creativity and our capacity to behave with kindness and compassion are the most important things in life.