UU minister James Ishmael Ford on his belief

In my youth I prayed to know God. I prayed with complete earnestness, with the fullness perhaps only a youth can muster with a deal. Show me your face and after that you can kill me. I meant it. And I was met with silence.

Many years have passed. Today, by most conventions I’m an atheist. That is I do not believe in a human-like consciousness that directs things. In a universe of uncertainty I come as close as a human mind can to certainty that there is no deity that acts within history.

And, within my experience there is something. Sometimes I call it presence. Sometimes I call it love. I suspect I know the grubby roots of that love, how it arises within my mammalian consciousness. But, it seems to have a larger existence, as well.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2015/09/a-terrible-beautiful-presence.html

A post from a UU minister last year, but still relevant, and, I think, relevant for any time we are dealing with our feelings about anyone else’s struggles – maybe even those we don’t agree with or are opposed to.

Pax, Lisa

Blue Boat » Spiritual Practices For White Discomfort http://blueboat.blogs.uua.org/2015/08/17/spiritual-practices-for-white-discomfort/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blueboat+%28Blue+Boat%29

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2015/07/5-reasons-you-cant-find-the-right-spiritual-path.html

Many of us, like this UU minister, are a complicated mix of beliefs and values we cherish from a Christian or Jewish upbringing, the mystic thread of seeing beyond the everyday surface of things that runs through medieval and some present Christianity, Judaism, Zen, Sufism, and nearly all religions, insights from pagans and nature religions, and the reason of humanism and science.

A Blessed World Humanist Day to You!
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkey And mind/2015/06/and-a-blessed-world-humanist-day-to-you.html