Travels in America

Well, as you might have guessed from the silence here on the blog, I've been busy travelling the States, but now I'm back in Manchester. I had a good time visiting five different US cities, sometimes being a tourist staying in hostels, other times staying and catching up with friends. It was strange being in Boston as it was all very familiar and I always knew where I was, which wasn't true the rest of the time. It's a very different experience riding the subway in a city you know, you find yourself dropping into a commuter-zombie mindset and just zone out. But when you're a tourist you're much more alert and slightly nervous about knowing where you're going.

If you're interested in my decision in New York (see previous post) I ended up going to All Souls Church. What clinched the deal was that it was near to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I went in the afternoon.

I did too much to report on here, and I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in it all. But entries in the near future may include thoughts on my experiences last month.

Comments

The dumbest thing about American Unitarian Univeralism

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Is humanism theologically tolerant?

OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...

LOST and theology: who are the good guys?

***Spoiler alert*** I'm continuing some theological/philosophical reflections while re-watching the series LOST. One of the recurring themes in LOST is the idea of the "good guys" and the "bad guys." We start the series assuming the survivors (who are the main characters) are the "good guys" and the mysterious "Others" are definitely bad guys. But at the end of series 2 one of the main characters asks the Others, "Who are you people?" and they answer, in an extremely disturbing way, "We're the good guys." The series develops with a number of different factions appearing, "the people from the freighter" "the DHARMA initiative" as well as divisions among the original survivors. The question remains among all these complicated happenings "who really are the good guys?" I think one of the most significant lines in the series is an episode when Hurley is having a conversation with ...

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