The Religion of Allen Smith

Please note that this webpage is under construction - it needs updating!

Unitarian Universalism

I am a Unitarian Universalist. For some information on what this means, see http://www.uua.org/visitors/index.shtml. For those from countries other than the US and Canada, note that Unitarian Universalism, while related to Unitarianism in other countries, is, unlike most of them, not a Christian denomination - although it certainly has many Christians (IMO, some very Christian Christians) within it.

My most fulfilling worship has generally been in the company of other UU Young Adults (18-35 age range; see C*UUYAN's web page), or as a part of my scientific research and computer work.

Many UUs are, like me, scientists, such as my dissertation advisor, Dr. Peter Kahn. Another UU whom it seems appropriate to mention, given that the WWW is the medium by which we are communicating, is Tim Berners-Lee, sometimes called the founder of the World Wide Web.

In the minds of some, being a UU and being left-wing are connected. I do not believe that this is the case, either historically (UUism was founded on classical liberalism - this is why it is called a "liberal religion") or currently (something like 30% of UUs are Republicans in the US, for instance). For more on this, see my politics page.

(Neo-)Paganism and Transhumanism

I am both a (neo-)pagan and a (trans)humanist. For more on the former, see the CUUPS home page; for more on the latter, see the transhumantech mailing list, Anders' Transhumanism Page (keeping in mind that Anders is not a biologist), the Extropy Institute, http://johnkdavis.typepad.com/tuun/transhumanism_and_uuism.pdf (by James Hughes - a local copy is at transhumanism_and_uuism.pdf), and the Transhumanist UU Network. (Note that I am not a believer in the "Singularity" in the transhumanist meaning, incidentally.) Some might see these as contradictory; obviously, I do not. While I believe in the divine (which I sometimes see as a pantheistic deity and sometimes as manifestations such as the Horned God), I am aware that neither I nor anyone else has any proof that such exists - or any disproof. Part of my problem with extremism in religion comes from that people are behaving as if they had proof of their own viewpoints - or disproofs of those of others - when they do not have such (or, as in Creationism, when their viewpoints are provably false by rational standards). (Note in regard to Creationism that evolution by natural selection is a fundamental part of my scientific research. As Theodosius Dobzhansky (correctly) wrote in his essay of the same title, "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (American Biology Teacher Vol 35 March 1973).)

Christianity

I grew up a Christian - specifically, a (moderate) Southern Baptist. I still know, and love, many Christians of all varieties, such as my parents and other relatives. (Indeed, part of my hatred of Christian Fundamentalism - and other varieties of religious fundamentalism, including that which disguises itself as non-religious or anti-religious (e.g., Communism and Fascism) - comes from the harm I saw Southern Baptist Fundamentalism do to many moderate Southern Baptists. These good people followed (and still follow) Jesus' teachings of love better than any fundamentalist, just as do UU Christians, just as do many other Christians. A better-known example of the harm done by religious fundamentalism happened on 9/11; Christian or other non-Muslim fundamentalists are, of course, just as likely to perpetuate such evil, whether through terrorism or through the political process.) But Christianity simply doesn't work for me, for a wide variety of reasons.

Other information

Below is a list of some UU organizations and other religious resources. Please note that I don't by any means agree with everything found at each of the below links. Moreover, due to personal privacy concerns, some UU organizations in which I am involved may be left out of the below, or may be below only when my degree of involvement would suggest they should be above as well.

Back to home page

This is viewable in Any Browser and is Valid HTML 4.01.

Page written by Allen Smith (send mail to actual -at- spamcop.net), with CSS web design by Liora Engel-Smith (my primary). I am not responsible for any pages linked from these, except for those that I have written.