'Good Without God' - (Rev. Barbara Prose)

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, April 6, 2014, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Assistant Minister. SERMON DESCRIPTION “Are you a humanist?” If you say yes, are you a secular humanist, a spiritual humanist, a religious humanist, a religious naturalist humanist, or a Christian humanist? Perhaps you consider yourself to be a secularist, a materialist or a rationalist. Or do you shy away from theological labels in general - which seems like a reasonable choice when faced with so many, nuanced, distinctions? Here in Tulsa, you may have been dismissed as a mere humanist. If you come to The Point regularly, you may self-identify as a generic or even a raving humanist. Humanism has had and continues to have a deep and lasting impact on our faith tradition and the evolution of religious understanding around the world. Joss Whedon, recipient of the Humanist Chaplaincy Award at Harvard in 2010 wrote, “Faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God means believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers.” Whether you agree or disagree with this statement, in a faith as free as ours, we each have a responsibility to be able to articulate as best we can, what we hold as our highest values, and why. With the religious freedom we cherish comes the responsibility to study, debate – or argue, and finally decide, define and declare where we stand. My hunch is that we are all humanists. No matter what service we attend. No matter what God we profess we do or don’t believe in. SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-souls-unitarian-church/id193096943 VIEW ON YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/AllSoulsUnitarian?feature=mhee SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: http://www.allsoulschurch.org/make-a-donation1 LET’S CONNECT: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allsoulstulsa https://www.facebook.com/bprose1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllSoulsTulsa All Souls Church Website: http://www.allsoulschurch.org