Belief In An Open World

1980
Lakeland

Belief In An Open World

If you read our newsletter, you will have noted that on third Sundays I will discuss and present some important aspect of our Unitarian Universalist tradition or principles. This is in response to requests. For some of you, this will be a walking of roads you know well. The landmarks will be familiar and, perhaps, not very exciting. But share in the journey. In the [question and Talkback] period, fill in gaps I have overlooked, correct me in particulars, add your reminisce to illuminate some part of our Unitarian Universalist religion.

One additional comment: it is my intention that everything I say on any Sunday has something to do with our tradition or principles. Sometimes this relationship may be obscure and implicit rather than obvious and explicit. But the connection is always there, I hope.

I have called the initial presentation in this series, “Belief In an Open World.” By an open world, I mean freedom from dogma. Or, to cite the first purpose of our Unitarian Universalist Association, “To strengthen one another in a free and disciplined search for the truth as the foundation of our religious fellowship.”

The Unitarian Universalist Association has just released a survey (1979). One of the questions asked of those persons who were surveyed was: If you were asked to explain Unitarian Universalism to a person who possibly was interested in becoming a member of this denomination, which three aspects of Unitarian Universalism do you believe would have the greatest appeal to him/her?

“Freedom from dogma” was the most chosen aspect, by a wide percentage. The survey distinguished between Unitarian Universalists who had been members two years or less and those who had been members for longer periods. 59% of all those surveyed said that “freedom from dogma” had the greatest appeal, and 72% of those who had been members two years or less made the same choice.

What is dogma? In religious institutions, dogma represents imposed beliefs which must be acknowledged. For Roman Catholics, who must recognize the authority of the Pope to speak without error, that is a dogma. For many Protestant groups, a creed is a dogma, or the proclamation of the inerrancy of scripture thought to be diving. [CJW note: Clipping about Bailey Smith, President of the Southern Baptist Convention – “Pastor Claims Jewish Prayers Aren’t Heard”]

Dogmas are not limited to the area of religious organizations. There can be political dogma, scientific dogma – every area of human activity. Dogmas are characterized by expecting belief without questioning rather than testing by experience and reason.

What is it to be free from dogma? It is what has been described as the scientific attitude. There is no intention to substitute science for religion. Science is not an idol to be worshiped but a method to be used. A scientific attitude includes:

Natural curiosity: every inventor has this quality.
Impartiality and breadth of view.
Persistence and industry in exploring new truth.
Accuracy in observation and notation.
A constructive skepticism.
Fearlessness at what may be discovered.
Loyalty to new truth as it emerges from testing and experience.
An open mind – for these new truths may either support existing theories or overthrow existing theories.

One of my teachers once wrote (Phenix – INTELLIGIBLE RELIGION), “The most elementary factor of all human experience is that every moment brings to birth a new world. The state of things in one moment of time is never exactly the same as that which prevailed at the previous moment. This only to say that we live in a world of ceaseless change. The fact of change is perhaps the most fundamental human experience. There is no form of existence where change does not rule, even the ‘eternal’ hills do not stand forever, as any geologist can testify.”

The scientific method of curiosity, search for truth, testing the findings, has many parallels with the Unitarian Universalist response to freedom from dogma.

We have no hierarchy to tell our persons what they must or must not believe. Our ministers are elected by their congregations, not appointed. The President of our Association is elected by the churches and fellowship. Our people choose to trust themselves. The legendary labor leader Joe Hill is quoted as saying, “Anyone who can lead you to Paradise can lead you out of it.” (HUMAN SCALE, p. 69) Thus our leadership is accountable to you, the members, not the other way around.

The prevailing freedom from dogma requires that everyone be accountable to himself/herself for what one can and will believe. Unitarian Universalists who look for an authority to hand them a creed will not be content (to remain). When one has the freedom to search and discover what is true for him/her then one has the responsibility to do just that (to search and discover).

Many persons find this task of truth-seeking too formidable or too threatening. That is certainly one of the causes of our small numbers. In some recent research, social scientist Margaret Fiske came to the conclusion that “there seem to be fewer autonomous, self-generating people in recent studies than previously.”

I respond to what philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote (quoted, Thomas, p. 465). He was writing of economic systems, [but] I would apply the wisdom much more widely: “If a more just economic system is attainable by closing men’s minds against free inquiry, the price is too high.”

Left at this point, [the] Unitarian Universalist freedom from dogma in an open world could and sometimes has resulted in a rather insufferable arrogance, putting down anything anyone else believes. There have been those who have assumed, too proudly, that liberal religion is for the enlightened and everyone else’s religion for the benighted and ignorant.

If we are loyal to an attitude of inquiry, truth-seeking, then one must hold the possibility that the other fellow could be right. Therefore we are free from dogma only when we respect differing beliefs, seek to understand. Whenever possible (and I know – it’s not always possible) to share ideas and belief, compare in good-will.

In that schoolboy discipline of linguistic philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein stands out. What do words mean? What do religious words mean? To greatly oversimplify, he believed religious words describe central features in the landscape of human experience. Because our perceptions differ, a landscape may register differently to an artist, a geologist, an archaeologist, a policeman, or a farmer. But unless these different perceptions are shared, with respect, there can be no authentic communication.

Basic then to freedom from dogma is an openness to beliefs of others – to respect even when one must disbelieve – and seek to understand.

A historian (Thomas, p. 445) tells the story of two men who quarreled and then fought as to whether Ariosto or Tasso were the better poet. They mortally wounded each other and with their dying gasps confessed that the two of them had never read either poet.

One thing more, I believe, is a strong card in our freedom from dogma. Good persons can be found in our experience who do not conform to usual beliefs. It is painful to observe political candidates seeking desperately to be conformists, particularly religious conformists.

To summarize briefly – this is an open world – it is changing – it is dynamic. New truths have always emerged and will continue to do so. We cherish the privilege of seeking the truth, respecting other persons’ beliefs even when we do not hold them and judging persons not by their confessed beliefs but by their behavior.

Maxwell Anderson (Joan of Lorraine), Masters, Stage Director, when asked, “What’s your religion, Mr. Masters?” answers, “I guess democracy. I believe in democracy and I believe the theater is the temple of democracy. A democratic society needs a church without a creed – where anybody is allowed to talk as long as he can hold an audience – and that’s what the theatre is – thought, it’s sort of dwindling down to a side chapel lately....”

What the playwright envisioned for the theatre – a temple of democracy – I have cherished all my life in the Unitarian Universalist religious society.

[CJW note: But the open world is one of mystery and expectancy – poem ...]