It Matters What We Believe UUFR UU Fellowship of Raleigh July 22, 2012 Rev. John L. Saxon I Last winter, I preached a sermon on Spirituality for Atheists. And when Lynda heard what the title of the sermon was, she sent me an email saying she liked the word for, but had problems with spirituality and atheist. I didn t change the title of that sermon. But I did have a brief and friendly email discussion (not an argument) with Lynda about religion and belief. Lynda felt that talking theism, atheism, and religious belief isn t very helpful and Unitarian Universalists should get beyond belief as a way of defining who we are or aren t as a religious movement. So she suggested that I preach about Beyond Belief. I agreed with her that theists and atheists should try to find common ground beyond their differing beliefs remembering that deeds are more important than creeds and that, as Francis David, the 16 th century founder of Unitarianism in Transylvania, said: We need not believe alike, to love alike. But I also told Lynda that I believe that it matters what we believe and that, as theologically diverse as we are, Unitarian Universalists do share some common beliefs that define us as a religious movement. So I told her that I d preach a sermon on It Matters What We Believe if she d preach one on Beyond Belief. And here we are. Today I ll share with you a bit about what I believe about belief. And next Sunday Lynda will share her thoughts about belief with you. II Belief is a mental state in which an individual holds a particular premise or proposition to be true. Beliefs, themselves, though, are neither true nor false. They may be justified or unjustified or even delusional to the extent that they are or aren t based on objective proof or evidence, reason, logic, or experience. But no belief, itself, is objectively true or false. And simply believing something doesn t make it true. It s the premise or proposition, not the belief, that s true or false. And there are many, many premises or propositions that cannot be proved true or false. Belief and knowledge are, therefore, fundamentally different. In the words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg: What one believes, one cannot know. What one knows, one cannot believe. To believe something he says, means that its perceived veracity depends upon the subjective loyalty of the believer. So belief is confidence in the truth or existence of something that is not susceptible of objective proof. Belief, therefore, is always a matter of trust or faith. And, at its core, belief is always more a matter of the heart than of the head. Etymologically, the word belief is derived from Proto-Indo-European roots that meant to hold dear or love. And therefore, as Karen Armstrong has written, to believe is to make a commitment with one s whole person to that which our hearts hold most dear and true. III On January 24, 2010, Rev. Peter Morales, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, preached a sermon in which he called on Unitarian Universalists to create a religion beyond belief.
True religion, he said, is not about what we believe or pretend to believe. It s not about creeds or dogma. It s not about what we think, but about what we love, what calls to us, what moves us, what we hold sacred. It s about being faithful to what we hold to be of ultimate value and importance, and then living that faith in our words and deeds. If that s what religion beyond belief means, then I believe that Morales is absolutely right. Rev. Morales, however, also went on to say that belief is actually the enemy of religion. Belief, he says, leads to pointless metaphysical and theological arguments. Belief divides people into those who are chosen or not chosen, those who are saved and unsaved. And belief leads to religious intolerance, persecution, violence, and war. Believers, Morales said, are dangerous. And, once again, Morales is right. As the English actor Peter Ustinov once said: Doubt is what unites us. Beliefs only divide us from one another. And beliefs religious, political, or cultural can have destructive consequences: the Spanish Inquisition, the burning of heretics (like Michael Servetus) at the stake by the defenders of orthodoxy, the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia. Morales is right. But I believe that he s only half right. The problem is not belief itself. And the solution is not creating a religion or life without belief. Believing is an integral part of what it means to be a human being. We are living, breathing, believing beings. No one is a complete agnostic or nihilist. Everyone, my Uncle Jack used to say, believes in something. (And then he added: I believe I ll have another beer. ) So living without belief is simply impossible. The problem with belief isn t belief itself but being absolutely certain that your beliefs are absolutely right and those of others are absolutely wrong. The problem with belief is believing that your beliefs are so right and true that it s OK to kill, torture, or persecute those who don t share your beliefs. The problem with belief is not belief itself, but the content and consequences of our beliefs whether they are like walled gardens and encourage exclusiveness or are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies. The problem isn t belief itself, but how our beliefs shape who we are, what we do, and how we live. And so, I believe that Sophia Lyons Fahs was right when she said: It matters what we believe. IV It matters what we believe because our beliefs define, in part, who we are as human beings. At a fundamental, existential, ontological level, what we believe is what ultimately grounds us and gives depth and meaning to our lives. Some people argue that values are more important or basic than beliefs. I don t know which comes first beliefs or values. My guess, though, is that it s a two-way street: Our beliefs shape the values we hold and the values we hold shape our beliefs. And, in any case, our beliefs and values shape our attitudes and, at least to some extent, our behavior what we do and say, how we act, how we live our lives. And so, it seems clear to me that, at some level, it does matter what we believe. And because what we believe matters, I believe that it s important to think deeply and carefully about what we believe and try, as best as we can, to articulate our beliefs to ourselves and others. That s why, as Unitarian Universalists, we affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That s why we have courses on Building Your Own Theology and Articulating Our UU Faith. And that s why, starting this fall, I m going to be asking some of you
to share your personal credo or statement of belief each month during our Sunday worship service. V It matters what we believe what each one of us, you and I, believe. But how is belief related to religion? Some people, including Peter Morales, argue that religion should be about what we love and what we do not what we believe. And I agree that some religions, especially some versions of Christianity, put far too much emphasis on belief. I do not believe that religion should be equated with belief. But I also don t believe that any religion is, or can be, a religion without belief, because, to paraphrase the words of UU theologian Henry Nelson Wieman, a religion without a common faith is merely a talking club of individuals, not a religious community. All religions affirm some beliefs regarding the universe, the holy or sacred, human nature, life and death, good and evil, and other religious questions. Buddhists don t believe that there is a god in the traditional sense of the word, but they do believe in reincarnation, enlightenment, nirvana and the Buddha s Four Noble Truths. Buddhism isn t a religion without or beyond belief. And neither is Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, or Unitarian Universalism. According to UU minister Edward Frost, a religion needs to be able to say to the world what it is that its adherents believe. And, in the words of one of my seminary professors, David Bumbaugh, a religious movement that is unwilling or unable to define what it holds sacred [surrenders] both its claim to religious significance and its ability to respond to the larger world. And so, he says, if we are to respond to the needs of the world from a liberal religious basis, it is critical that we be able to address and answer [the question]: What do we believe? We must do so, he says, because the answer to that question is the only thing that can provide a foundation for or make possible a vital religious vision. And if we ignore that question, our response [as religious liberals] to the world [will be] shallow-rooted, short-lived, selfserving, and episodic. The question, therefore, is not whether Unitarian Universalism or any other religious faith is defined, at least in part, by a set of commonly accepted beliefs, but rather whether and to what extent it is willing to identify, articulate, and publicly declare those beliefs, how broad or narrow those beliefs are, how inclusive or exclusive they are, how tightly or loosely it will hold onto the truth of those beliefs, how open or closed it will be to modifying those beliefs, and how those beliefs are lived in the lives of its members. VI Unitarian Universalism is a noncreedal religion. That means that we don t require anyone to subscribe to any particular religious creed or statement of belief in order to be one of us. But it doesn t mean that belief doesn t matter. And it doesn t mean that there are no shared beliefs that define Unitarian Universalism as a religious movement or unite us as religious liberals. Unitarian Universalism affirms and values the right of individual conscience and freedom of belief the right of every person to search for what is true and right in life and decide for herself, free from external authority or coercion, what she believes based on her own experience, intuition, imagination, conscience, and reason. And yet, according to Warren Ross (a writer for UU World magazine), while Unitarian Universalists vehemently reject any creed, we seem to be forever searching for some verbal
formula to which we can all (or at least most of us) say, Yes, that s what I (more or less) believe. And so Unitarian Universalism suffers from a perpetual identity crisis constantly searching for what it is that defines and unites us, and yet terrified that any definition will exclude someone from our circle or morph into a dreaded creed that will infringe on the individual freedom and liberty that we hold so dear. The issue, though, is not one of individual freedom and diversity versus common belief. It is not either-or but both-and. As former UUA President Bill Schulz has said: Individual freedom of belief exists in dynamic tension with the insights of our history and the wisdom of our communities. And this fact, he says, puts the lie to the oft-heard shibboleth that Unitarian Universalists can believe anything they like. It is true, he says, that we set up no formal religious test for membership [in our congregations], but it is not true that one can subscribe to views at variance with our most basic values. The problem in articulating the shared beliefs that we hold as Unitarian Universalists is not our theological diversity but rather, in the words of the UUA s Commission on Appraisal, our inability to do the hard work of finding common ground to build a strong, effective religious voice. VII The question what do we believe? is, according to David Bumbaugh, simple, but profoundly challenging. It is challenging, he says, because it drives us to consider what are the boundaries of our religious community and what is so central to our identity that we must proclaim it, even at the risk of offending someone. But it is also simple because there is, in fact, a unity that exists within our diversity. Our diversity, he says, rests in a powerfully homogeneous core of shared beliefs and attitudes. Thus, as Bill Schulz says: Regardless of [our] differences, there are a whole host of faith affirmations with which the vast majority of [Unitarian Universalists] would be comfortable. For example, Schulz says, Unitarian Universalists believe that creation is too grand, complex, and mysterious to be captured in [any] narrow creed. [And that] is why we cherish individual freedom of belief. At the same time, [though] our convictions about Creation lead us [to affirm] that the blessings of life are available to everyone, not just the Chosen or the Saved; that Creation itself is Holy the earth and all its creatures, the stars in all their glory; that the Sacred or Divine, the Precious and Profound, are made evident not in the miraculous or supernatural but in the simple and everyday; that human beings, joined in collaboration with the gifts of Grace, are responsible for the planet and its future; that every one of us is held in Creation s hand a part of the interdependent cosmic web; that no one is saved until we all are saved, where all means the whole of Creation; and the paradox of life is to love it all the more even though we ultimately lose it. That sounds pretty good to me! And while some UUs might not like some of the words like holy, sacred, or divine I think it s a statement that most UUs, including humanists like Bill Schulz, could live with (as long as we don t make it into a creed). Or how about the credo written by Patrick Murphin: We believe that many streams join to make a river, that the way to wisdom lies in an open ear and heart, that goodness may be pursued for the sake of goodness and not from fear of punishment, that knowing and not knowing are part of the same, and that ambiguity [doubt and uncertainty] are permissible.
Most, if not all, Unitarian Universalists believe that despite our individuality and differences we are all one that beneath our individuality and differences, we share with all of humanity a common source, a common nature, and a common destiny that binds us together. We believe that we are part of the interdependent web of existence, connected with every other human being, with all life, with all of Nature, with this Earth, the stars, and the Universe. We believe in love. We believe in compassion. We believe in justice. VIII I agree with Peter Morales that religion is not just about what we believe. I believe that deeds are more important than creeds. I know that, too often, belief is what divides us. And, like the Buddha, I don t see the value in arguing about beliefs that are based on metaphysical speculation. I share Peter Morales vision of a common ground that lies on the other side of belief a common ground beyond belief where people of differing beliefs and faiths can come together to heal broken human spirits and the brokenness of the world. Like Francis David, I believe that we need not believe alike to love alike. But I also believe that, as Unitarian Universalist, we do share many common beliefs. And I believe it matters what we believe. Because our beliefs, as well as our values, actions, words, and deeds, define who we are and what we hope to be. Because our beliefs shape our values and attitudes. Because are beliefs shape what we do and how we live. It matters what we believe. (Pause.) It matters what we believe. (Pause.) It matters to us. (Pause.) And it matters to the world.