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When I tell people I am a Unitarian, most people don't know what that means. Is that a religion? A denomination of Christianity? A cult? they may ask. It's probably a bit of all three and none of the above at the same time.

Unitarianism is often described as a free and inquiring religious movement. Essentially we are a community of individuals who feel spiritual or religious but do not want a priest or holy book dictating to us how we should live our lives.

Unitarianism has no creed, no doctrine and no holy scripture. It promotes the concepts of freedom, tolerance and reason in religion, and is open to anyone who believes that these three things apply to them. In a sense, Unitarianism is a form of atheism, in the loosest possible sense of the word; because, although every member is free to believe in a god or gods (and most do), no specific definition of that god is ever agreed upon by the members.

In the UK, most Unitarian communities are heavily inspired by Christianity, in the same way that Christianity is heavily inspired by Orthodox Judaism. Most British Unitarians hold the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus in very high regard even if they don't believe he rose from the dead or that he was God's son.

The name Unitarian is a bit of an anachronism, as it is the name of one of many dissenting movements from centuries ago - specifically those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Today we use the name only for historical reasons - most of us are Unitarians because we want to be able to think freely about all aspects of religion, not just the Trinity. In North America our movement is known as Unitarian Universalism - the second part of the name being another dissenting movement (those who rejected the doctrine of Hell). The distinction is only in the name, and it's not supposed to imply that Unitarians in Britain believe in Hell - we are free to believe what we like.

If you're interested in learning more about the Unitarian movement, I'd recommend reading a short book by Rev. Cliff Reed entitled Unitarian? What's That? which is available for free online.

My beliefs are my own. As I have said above, meeting a Unitarian is absolutely no guarantee of any belief system so what you read below is my own belief and not some sort of Unitarian doctrine that the rest of us all believe too. They don't.

God

Do I believe in God? Sort of. I certainly don't believe in the God of the Old Testament; some sort of beard in the sky with a booming voice that is able to make decisions and order people around. What I do believe in is a sort of shared human spirituality - something not unlike the concept that Carl Jung tried to rationalize as the collective unconsciousness and also very much like the Holy Spirit of the New Testament. I believe there are forces at work uniting the people of Earth in a way that goes beyond the two kinds of Physics that we understand now.

I call this force God because that is (sort of) what the Christians call it. I don't believe it has a personality that listens to my prayers - I can't talk to God and God can't talk to me (or anyone else). But nevertheless, I feel it inherent in all human beings and I feel that when we do good for each other we are closer to this God. For me, worshipping God and celebrating the good deeds of humankind are one and the same.

Am I scared that science will rationalize this God away from me? No. I believe that one day (maybe soon, maybe centuries from now) we will work out exactly what this thing is, but as far as I'm concerned all that will happen is that someone will give it a new name - it'll still be the same God to me.

As time goes on, I am starting to grow weary of the word God and I've taken to calling myself a spiritual atheist, which means someone who believes in some vaguely-defined Holy Spirit but not in anyone's definition of "God the Father". I wouldn't be surprised if I returned to this page in a year's time and removed the word God altogether.

Jesus

To me, Jesus is a mythological figure, much like Robin Hood or King Arthur. I take the same attitude towards my understanding of Jesus that I do to these other myths. That is to say that while there is no evidence he ever existed, I might as well assume he did, even though the real man was probably very different to the one in the stories.

I believe that Jesus was the figurehead of a huge political uprising in the Middle East around two thousand years ago. His name became attached to the whole movement in the same way that Gandhi, Che Guevara and Martin Luther King became attached to the whole of their uprisings, even though we are really looking at the work of hundreds or thousands in each case.

I believe that this uprising was a fight against the religious fundamentalist oppression of the Orthodox Jews of the time, and the dictatorship of the Roman Empire. Jesus and his disciples taught that instead of worrying about ancient laws and customs we should be thinking about human rights and what we can do to help each other.

I do not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. I do not believe that Jesus walked on water or fed five thousand people with one lunchbox. I do not believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. When you read the Gospels, you are reading the Hollywood version of events - embellished to make Jesus look like something greater and more exciting than a left-wing political activist.

I do not believe that Jesus was the first of his kind, I do not believe he was the last. People like Gandhi and Martin Luther King should be remembered in precisely the same way that I remember Jesus.

The afterlife

I have no opinion about the afterlife at all. For many religious people this is a big hangup - everything they do in their life is to win points for the afterlife. I think it's very sad that people have to concentrate on what will happen to them after they die rather than what is happening to them and the people around them right now.

I am a universalist, though, which means I believe that if anything happens to people after they die, the fate is the same for all. I do not believe in judgement at death, since that would be ridiculous unfair for so many reasons, and doesn't tie in with anything else about the way the Universe works.

A popular Unitarian way of answering the question "do you worry about the afterlife?" is with "afterlife? It's the duringlife I'm worried about!"

Evolution

Let's get something straight. I am not a Creationist or an adherent of Intelligent Design. Both of those theories cannot stand up to scientific scrutiny and are completely out of the window as far as I'm concerned.

I do believe in evolution but I am not fanatical about this either. As many scientifically-minded critics have pointed out, the theory still has many unknowns involved and still hasn't been proven empirically with any complex organisms. Because the evolution theory is always under fire, many scientists have taken up a defensive position which has left a lot of rational people thinking it can be the only explanation of the origins of species. I'm happy to accept it as the best theory we have right now (certainly better than the so-called "alternatives" proposed by fundamentalist Christians) but I'm keeping an open and skeptical mind as to how much of the theory we have got right and how much of it is yet to be discovered.

Soul

For me, soul, Spirit and God are completely interchangeable concepts. They are all one and the same thing to me: the universal binding lifeforce.

I do also (somewhat irrationally) believe in the concept of a soul mate which I will discuss on another page.

Angels, demons, Satan

I do not believe in any of these things, except as a metaphor for human behavioural characteristics.

Baptism

I am quite strongly against the concept of infant baptism. I believe that a child should not be given a religion from the day he is born. If a child wants to be part of a religion (his parents' or another) when he is old enough to make that kind of decision for himself, that is when he should receive his baptism or confirmation or whatever if he wishes.

I am happy to attend other people's baptism services but I would have to refuse if anyone asked me to be a Godparent.

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