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The Religion of Allen Smith: Unitarian Universalism

I am a Unitarian Universalist. For some information on what this means, see http://www.uua.org/aboutuu/uufaq.html. (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.) When I am awake and feeling like dealing with other people (than my primary) on Sunday mornings - which is admittedly rare - I may be found at the Unitarian Society of New Brunswick. My most fulfilling worship is generally 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 and CFUU.

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).)

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.

I am polyamorous (but am monogamous with regard to Rutgers/UMDNJ and New Brunswick, due to being in a committed relationship with someone (my primary, Liora Engel (soon to be Liora Engel-Smith)) who is here and is not polyamorous; we have married in a civil ceremony (since getting people together for a UU committment ceremony would be rather complicated since she is from Israel...) after my defense), and assisted in the founding of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness (UUPA).

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.

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Page written by Allen Smith (send mail to meatcan2@beatrice.rutgers.edu, substituting easmith for meatcan2 - see my antispam pages for why).

I am not responsible for any pages linked from these, except for those that I have written. Neither is the Structural Biology Computational Laboratory, the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Cook College, or Rutgers University responsible for (or have any copyright on) pages that I have written. My webpages are not official Rutgers webpages.