We use the phrase 'doubting Thomas' like it's a bad thing.  But is doubting always bad?  Put yourself in Thomas's shoes for a moment, when the rest of the disciples report they had seen the one he knew had been crucified.  How would you have reacted?

I am hoping to start up a discussion on existential Christians --- not Christian existentialism, but existential Christians. To start off the discussions, I have prepared 3 Powerpoint presentations and posted them on youtube. See below.

Existential Christian Statement

Existentialism …next steps

I am doing a UU service on Mystery (exact title TBD) early next year. I have my own thoughts on Mystery and its spiritual importance, but I wonder what others think.

What do we mean by Mystery when we talk about it in a spiritual/religious context?

What is the relationship between Mystery and God (as you conceive God)?

What role does Mystery play in your faith/spirituality?

Is invoking Mystery sometimes cop-out to avoid problematic questions/answers about faith?

(Bishop Spong:)

Original sin died in the writings of Charles Darwin. Maybe that is why traditional churches have been so threatened and so frightened by Darwin. Original sin implies an original perfection, from which we have fallen. Darwin makes us aware that there was no original perfection but an evolution of life from single cells to self-conscious complexity.

What sayest thou?

I feel compelled to discuss here this Quebec "values" charter that may seek to ban public servants from wearing "religious symbols" such as hijab, kippah, or crosses while working. 

Personally, I feel very sad and confused about this direction, if it truly reflects a common view in Quebec or the rest of Canada. Does it reflect our limits on truly embracing diversity?

Okay, a lot of the discussion around here ultimately comes down to "how do you interpret and understand The Bible"?

If one is a Christian, The Bible is something that one has to reckon with and develop some kind of understanding of.

But why The Bible?

If you are of the conservative, fundamentalist, or traditionalist wings, there's no question of why. The Bible is the basis of Christian faith because it says it is. The fact that that is a circular argument doesn't seem to matter.

I came across this thought provoking article that certainly deserves discussion on this forum.

We have examined concepts like "God," "religion, and "faith" here on the Café, but we haven't examined "spirituality," at least not recently.

So what is "spirituality" to you? Your personal definition, and/or dictionary definition, and any experiences and feelings that define spirituality for you.

The son of a friend of mine is studying at the Masters degree level in public policy at George Washington University in Washington, DC. As a project for

his statistics class, he wanted to test was that free and available broadband internet access would improve academic performance as measured by students' educational test scores.

Everyone, from his professor to his colleagues, liked the idea and thought the data would bear that out. It did not. Statistically, at least, it had a net effect of zero.

Deism. May I invite you to begin by exploring this with me? Generally speaking, have you checked out what it says about this topic in Wikipedia and the Web, in general?