The late Unitarian Universalist minister Forrest Church suggested a thought experiment:<\/p>\n
Imagine waking one morning from a deep sleep to find yourself in the nave of a vast, ancient \u201cCathedral of the World.\u201d \u00a0At one end is the first altar ever built; at the other end is a shrine to the world\u2019s newest faith; in-between is a long series of apses devoted to myriad deities, prophets, and teachings.<\/p>\n
Builders are still at work here, having toiled from time immemorial, tearing down and raising up niches in this cathedral.\u00a0 Their work will never be finished.<\/p>\n
The Cathedral of the World has innumerable stained-glass windows\u00a0where light shines in,\u00a0each unique and beautiful in its own way..\u00a0 Some windows are long forgotten, covered with dust; others are revered by millions, considered the most sacred of openings.\u00a0 Each tells a story about the creation of the world, the purpose of life, the nature of humankind, the mystery of death.<\/p>\n
Fundamentalists claim that the light shines only through one group\u2019s window, their own. They believe in a Deity who only they can see.\u00a0 Some even throw rocks through other peoples\u2019 windows.<\/p>\n
Skeptics, seeing the bewildering variety of windows and worshipers, conclude that\u00a0the light contains\u00a0no Truth .\u00a0 They won\u2019t believe in a Divinity they cannot perceive directly.<\/p>\n
Unitarians see the cathedral differently.\u00a0 They know how vast it is, and that our lives are too short to contemplate all of it.\u00a0 Yet they also sense that each part contributes to the whole, so they find value wherever they visit, learn, and participate.<\/p>\n
UUs acknowledge our limited understanding; respect differing insights; defend others\u2019 right to their own beliefs; and credit each path with a portion of truth..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The late Unitarian Universalist minister Forrest Church suggested a thought experiment: Imagine waking one morning from a deep sleep to find yourself in the nave of a vast, ancient \u201cCathedral of the World.\u201d \u00a0At one end is the first altar ever built; at the other end is a shrine to the world\u2019s newest faith; in-between … Continue reading UUs Imagine the Cathedral of the World (#112)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8917,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions\/8917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}