What do unitarians universalists believe

Our faith, of course, does have requirements. To become a Unitarian Universalist, you make no doctrinal promises, but you are required to do much more. You are required to choose your own beliefs -- you promise, that is, to use your reason and your experience and the dictates of your conscience to decide upon your own theology, and then you are asked to actually live by that theology.

You are asked to take your chosen faith very seriously. In a very real sense, all theology is autobiography, is it not? Our experience, real and vicarious, is what informs our sense of reality, our internal picture of the way the world works, what our values are. We believe what we know is true -- that is, our felt knowledge--not what we are told is true. In the final analysis, how can a person who wishes to live with integrity do other than this?

Our free faith was hard won. It has a long history, and our religious ancestors died for this freedom. A Unitarian, King John Sigismund of Transylvania -- now known as Romania -- pronounced the first edict of religious freedom in the year I traveled to Romania several years ago and stood in the church in Torda, where that proclamation was made. This was an almost unimaginable act in an age in which people were being burned at the stake for not getting their theology just right.

Francis David, King Sigismund's spiritual advisor, was the single greatest influence on the king's theological beliefs. After Sigismund's death, David lost favor and was finally arrested for his views. I made a pilgrimage to the town of Deva and walked up a long, dusty hill to the dungeon where he was imprisoned. It was actually a deep hole in the ground into which David was lowered, and there he sickened, and died.

His famous words still live with us, though. He said simply, "You need not think alike to love alike. Many others died for their faith during this period of religious persecution. The Unitarian movement came out of the left wing of the Protestant Reformation, and we were way too far to the left for both Calvin and Luther.

The Unitarian scholar Servetus, who wrote On the Errors of the Trinity , was burned in effigy by the Catholics and then burned in fact by Calvin, with a copy of his book strapped to his thigh.

It is said that if he had been willing to change just one word of his book -- to change "Jesus is a son of God" to "Jesus is the son of God" -- he could have saved his life. So this is our heritage -- or at least a little taste of it. It is rich, and we can be proud of it. This is not light or easy stuff that we're a part of. But because we are a free faith, could our movement be said to have a theology? After all, our contemporary churches are populated with Christians, atheists, humanists of various stripes, Jews, Buddhists, and even Wiccans.

Whoever will, may come. Nevertheless, when we look at our history and the practice of our faith, certain theological themes dominate, and so I will argue that, yes, we do have in fact a theology of sorts, a theology that has been relatively clear and consistent through time. We must begin with the assertion that Unitarian Universalism has always emphasized freedom as a core value.

It follows that human beings have a choice. We are not predestined by God before our births, to be saved or unsaved. We are not mired in original sin by the very fact of our birth and therefore have to go through a ceremony called baptism, even as babies, to cleanse ourselves of that sin.

We do not have to have someone sacrifice himself by dying on a cross to save us from hell. Yes, human beings have a propensity to do evil, but we also have the propensity to do great good.

Unitarian Universalism describes itself as one of the most liberal religions, embracing atheists , agnostics, Buddhists , Christians , and members of all other faiths. Although Unitarian Universalist beliefs borrow from many faiths, the religion does not have a creed and avoids doctrinal requirements.

Bible - Belief in the Bible is not required. Communion - Each UUA congregation decides on how it will express the community sharing of food and drink. Some do it as an informal coffee hour after services, while others use a formal ceremony to recognize Jesus Christ 's contributions. Equality - The religion does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual preference, or national origin. God - Some Unitarian Universalists believe in God ; some do not.

Belief in God is optional in this organization. Heaven, Hell - Unitarian Universalism considers heaven and hell to be states of mind, created by individuals and expressed through their actions.

Jesus Christ - Jesus Christ was an outstanding human being, but divine only in the sense that all people possess a "divine spark," according to UUA. The religion denies the Christian teaching that God required a sacrifice for the atonement of sin. Prayer - Some members pray while others meditate.

The religion sees the practice as spiritual or mental discipline. Sin - While the UUA recognizes that human beings are capable of destructive behavior and that people are responsible for their actions, it rejects the belief that Christ died to redeem the human race from sin. Ballou also emphasized human reason in religion.

Scripture often refers to people who are dead in sin Ephesians , Romans A dead, unsaved person will not be taken up to heaven. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. Universalism looks friendly and accessible, but it is a lie. Some proponents of Universalism-Unitarianism believe Jesus was just a good man and to believe in the resurrection is unreasonable.

Lewis argued that seeking middle ground is irrational; rational people must define Christ as either divine or unworthy of worship and praise. Early Unitarians and Universalists took the Bible seriously, though rarely literally. While we continue to see it as a rich resource of stories and wisdom, most Unitarian Universalists do not see the Bible as authoritative on its own.

From our radically Protestant heritage, we believe each person must formulate their own beliefs rather than subscribe to what is passed down. Clergy offer their views, which may hold some authority based on their education and experience. However, they hold no more authority for most Unitarian Universalists than other respected members of the community.