OBSERVE, THEORIZE, TEST, REPEAT

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1 OBSERVE, THEORIZE, TEST, REPEAT Drawing on Humanist Beliefs About Authority and Credibility Rev. Jack Donovan, Unitarian Universalist Church, St Petersburg, 5/7/17 READINGS Gathering Opening Meditation Reading Benediction The Ideal of Goodness Entirely Human, by novelist MaryAnn Evans (George Eliot) We Are Born Bad, by preacher-politician J. C. Watts (2015) It Matters What We Believe, by UU Rev. Sophia Fahs Cherish Your Doubts, by UU Rev. Robert T. Weston Well, Yes, I Do, journalist Susan Stanberg interview with artist David Hockney Shall I Pledge from The Pilgrims Covenant adapted by UU Rev. Alice Blair Wesley SERMON Citizens of the Soviet Union used to joke that there were two ways their society could be saved the natural and the miraculous. If angels came down from heaven and fixed it, that would be the natural. And if Soviet citizens fixed it themselves, that would be a miracle. Today, and really for some time, the American people and many peoples around the good Earth seem to be in the same circumstance. As was written in the First Humanist Manifesto about four score minus seven years ago, The doctrines and methods (of the world s religions seem) powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Hence the manifest of principles of Religious Humanism. And of course it should apply not only to societal problems, but individual challenges like, Shall I eat a peach? Dare I disturb the universe? How do we decide what to believe is Real and what is Moral? A few decades after the 1933 Manifesto, UU leader Sophia Lyon Fahs wrote the words with which we opened this morning, It Matters What We Believe. Our Thoughts for Gathering, contrast the beliefs of Mary Ann Evans (aka novelist George Eliot) with those of contemporary politician-preacher J.C. Watts. They give us a sense of the choices of belief that Americans and Earthkind have available to guide them on their path. And hence why it matters for us to examine what we believe about life and living and why. Personally, I still abide with the beliefs defined by Sophia Fahs as inclusive and affirming bonds of a world community with sincere differences which beautify the pattern and which are ever growing with the upward thrust of life. This for me is what we do as a church help all souls grow in understanding and caring, community and blessing. 1

2 To date this church year, we have looked at the belief systems (defined as beliefs about Authority, Reality, and Morality) that can be drawn upon from one s Direct Experience, from the Prophetic Individuals of our lives and world, and from humankind s diverse religious traditions East, West, and Primal. Now this month we turn to the last offering the new religious kid on the block, Religious Humanism. What are Humanism s beliefs about the reality of life, about how best to live morally, and about how best to choose such beliefs? It seems wise to start our mining of Humanism by going into its beliefs about Authority because, at its core, it seems to me, Humanism is about who gets to say what to believe. Cicero, the great pre-christian Roman cultural and political leader, building on the Greek philosophers, created and gave meaning to the word humanitas, from which the idea of Humanism derives. For him, humanitas meant both the practice of humane learning and a quality of mind that resulted that is, educated, analytical, reasoned, compassionate, and benevolent. Rome, the Renaissance, the American and French Revolutions, and much of modern value building referred back to Cicero s beliefs about what made human beliefs credibly authoritative. Fast forward to 1933 when World War I and the Great Depression had made evident great American and global inequities and iniquities, when authoritarian, totalitarian, and oligarchic powers unleashed vaster-than-ever tragedy upon the peoples. Out of the Unitarian and Universalist ranks came The Manifesto, endorsed in 1933 and as revised in 1973 and 2003 by numerous intellectual and moral luminaries such as Betty Friedan, James Farmer, Andre Sakharov, Riane Eisler, Kurt Vonnegutt, Arun Gandhi, E.O. Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Julian Huxley, John Ciardi, B.F. Skinner, and 21 Nobel Laureates. Manifesto I s sources of credible Authority for a person s beliefs included: 1) Modern science gleaning understanding of the natural world; 2) Intelligent inquiry purposed to meet human need; The Manifesto specifically excluded from Authority any revelation attributed to the supernatural without testable evidence, as in And God said.. Manifesto II s sources of credible Authority added: 1) Inclusive, democratic testing of beliefs, as scientific method requires; 2) Compassion and empathy as guides to the service of humankind and life. 3) A clarification that modern science is based on evidence and reason; Manifesto III added: 1) The practices of modern science that include observation, experimentation and rational analysis; 2) Relevance to human and earthly relationships and interdependence; 2

3 3) Relevance to human happiness. These are the standards offered by the three Humanist Manifestos, initiated and continually reinvigorated to a great extent by Unitarians and Universalists. A new collection of UU Humanist essays reflects these standards of Authority for belief and has added three others of value, I think. One is Metaphor as a credible Authority that is, narratives and imagery that point to not-so-obvious underlying Realities of being or Moral behaviors. The merit of metaphor is that, by being suggestive of greater truth, it invites deeper reflection and insight into the nature of being and life and into moral relationship; A second Authority is our Doubt and Uncertainty. They too can prompt us to deeper examination of beliefs. Call it intellectual humility, like Einstein saying, I am a child playing in the shallows at the edge of a vast sea of knowledge. Think of British evolutionary biologist H.B.S. Haldane ( ) saying, My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. A third Humanist Authority, newly acknowledged at least in the recent UU Humanist book of essays, is mystical experience and intuition. Like metaphor and uncertainty, mystical experience and the intuitive sense make us aware of dimensions of Reality and Morality which we do not understand for certain at the moment and perhaps never will. On these points, yes, metaphor, doubt, intuition, and mystical experience seem to go counter to much Humanist thinking. Some Humanist thinkers see a transcendent dimension of life as having nothing to do with Reality. But these logic-transcending Authorities have proven to make people think more carefully, more tentatively, more curiously. This is a major suggestion made by philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn in his ground-shifting and ground-breaking 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It is the anomalies, the discrepancies that don t fit the existing conventionally accepted theories that accumulate and provoke curiosity and a search for a more explanatory model or description or paradigm for Reality. In response to discrepancies that existing theory can t explain, the out-ofthe-box thinker says, Well, maybe this aspect of Reality really requires this different explanatory description, this new paradigm. The earth is not fixed; maybe it moves. The sun does not go around the earth, but maybe vice versa. Life forms are not stable or permanent, but maybe evolving. The universe is not unfolding as God designed, but maybe is at most God playing 3

4 dice for the thrill of seeing what happens. And now to find the evidence and reasoning as proof. Perhaps if humankind learns to give more credibility and authority to doubt and uncertainty, we will dwell less in conflicted competition and more in compassionate cooperation. I think of elder artist David Hockney s simple response when interviewer Susan Stanberg exuberantly said Light, and where it comes from, is every painter s preoccupation. Painting can change the world. In the midst of all our miseries, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. And Hockney replied, Well, yes, I do. I get a deep pleasure from looking. I see the light on a puddle as marvelous. Yes, I do. That was all he said. That was, I think, all he needed to say. Yes, indeed, he did experience a deep knowing of the beauty, thrill, and mystery of life. And out of love for this most fundamental phenomenon of the universe, he developed the skills of oil and brush and canvas to bring that beauty and thrill and mystery to our attention, too. From all of this, I take Humanism to mean simply that trustworthy human belief, core human understandings about life and how best to live it, come only through the human senses and mind in relation with all existence. The rest is not trustworthy. With that definition, I think we can mention two last Humanist sources of Authority for our beliefs: Conduct and Conscience. Confucius, an eminent Humanist, said to the Duke of Lu, What need is there of the death penalty in government? If you showed a sincere desire to be good, your people would likewise be good. The virtue of the prince is like the wind; the virtue of the people is like grass. It is the nature to grass to bend when the wind blows upon it. This is Conduct or Example as Authority. If one sees that Behavior works and proves true, we take it as authoritative for our future behavior. Recently an American theologian visited a town in Northern Uganda plagued with raids by a Christian terrorist group called The Lord s Resistance Army. The LRA captures children and forces them, by torture if need be, to serve as soldiers. Every night in the town, hundreds of children gather to sleep at the school house, for safety in numbers. Every night a woman comes to stay with them and comfort them through their fears. To do so, she leaves her husband and children at home a few blocks away. The American asked the woman, Why do you do this? For the children, she says. Yes, but 4

5 why you? What s your motivation? I am what is called a Christian, she says. Every day I read the gospel. Every Sunday I eat at the Lord s Table. How could I do that and not be here each night? This is Conscience as Authority Conscience developed in the woman by reading of exemplary conduct that became Authoritative for her - and Conscience perhaps developing in the theologian by seeing exemplary conduct that may have become Authoritative for him. So this is Humanism s belief of what it takes to be Authoritative: Observe, imagine different scenarios, consult community, love, theorize, live, experience, test with reasoned analysis and conscience, then repeat. Observe, imagine different scenarios, consult community, love, theorize, live, experience, test with reasoned analysis and conscience, repeat again. The Covenant of the Association of UU Congregations sums it up in the principle, We covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and backs this up with what I take to be a list of all the world s wisdom sources, covered in six categories. Shall Humanist Authority be your guide? It does take a village plus individuals to generate such Authority. The good news is, there is a village, and it has individuals. It s natural, and miraculous Thoughts for Gathering READINGS The Ideal of Goodness Entirely Human, novelist MaryAnn Evans/George Eliot The fellowship between person and person which has been the principle development, social & moral, is not dependent on conceptions of what is not human. The idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of goodness entirely human (i.e., an exaltation of the human). We Are Born Bad, Baptist preacher-politician J. C. Watts (2015) We are born bad.. Children do not need to be taught to behave badly they are born knowing how to do that. We teach them how to be good. We become good by being reborn born again. (Some) believe we are 5

6 born good, that we create God, not that he created us. If we are our own God, as they say, then we need to look at something else to blame when things go wrong, not us. Opening It Matters What We Believe, by UU Rev. Sophia Fahs Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness and the feeling of being especially privileged. Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies. Some beliefs are like shadows, clouding children s days with fears of unknown calamities. Other beliefs are like sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of happiness. Some beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies. Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern. Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one s own direction. Other beliefs are like gateways opening wide vistas for exploration. Some beliefs weaken a person s selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness. Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth. Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world. Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life. Meditation Cherish Your Doubts, by UU Rev. Robert T. Weston Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false. Let no one fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief. The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing; For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure. Those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are built on shifting sands. But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock. They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge, the work of tgheir hands shall endure. Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help; It is to the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant of truth. Reading Yes, I Do, NPR s Susan Stanberg interviews artist David Hockney 6

7 Stanberg began, saying, Light, and where it comes from, is every painter s preoccupation. Painting can change the world. In the midst of all our miseries, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. And Hockney replied, Well, yes, I do. I get a deep pleasure from looking. I see the light on a puddle as marvelous. Yes, I do. Benediction Shall I Pledge from The Pilgrims Covenant adapted by UU Rev. Alice Blair Wesley Shall I pledge with those gathered that I will walk in the ways of truth and caring as best I understand them now or may learn them in days to come -- that we and our children might be fulfilled and that we might speak to the world in words and actions of peace and good will? Silent Response Options: Yes, No, or We Shall See. 7