Larry Jordan

Sometimes, readers will ask me, "If you don't believe in a Supreme Being who creates the Universe and manages human affairs, then what do you believe?"

Jim Palmer, a friend and mentor who wrote the foreword to my book, recently posted a podcast episode called, "Is Christian Theism Dead?" for the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality.

We believe different things for different reasons. Sometimes, our beliefs are rational or sensible. Sometimes, our beliefs are borne of experience. Sometimes, our beliefs are due to fear or insecurity. Some people believe things because it feels more comfortable to believe them.

Last month, the local Unitarian Universalist church asked me to speak about the seventh principle, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part," since the principle so closely matches my one-line creed that "Everyone is related, and everything is connected."

A minister, a rabbi, and a Zen teacher walk into a bookstore. If this is the setup for a corny joke, then the punchline is that they all like the same book.

Joe Shlabotnik was Charlie Brown's favorite major league baseball player. Joe's unfortunate claim to fame was making spectacular catches of routine fly balls.

Recently, I posted about the joys of writing. The post was heartfelt and true, and it best reflects my feelings about writing, but it was not the whole story. There are some frustrations of writing, too.

My adult children encouraged me to write The Way, and the book was modeled after an “ethical will” in the Jewish tradition. An ethical will is NOT an autobiography. Instead, it is an expression of one’s experiences, life lessons, and values.

Everyone is agnostic, but not everyone admits it. Sometimes, we confuse firmly-held beliefs with well-documented facts, but beliefs are not facts.

Many Christians assume that belief is the most important feature of religion, since belief is such an important feature of Christianity. However, in most religions, orthopraxy or right action is more important than orthodoxy or right belief. Community and practice are two aspects of orthopraxy.

All theology is speculation, and when we realize that there are almost 50,000 Christian denominations and that all of them have changed a lot in 2,000 years, we see how absurd it is to claim that any denomination, no matter how large or how old, contains "Truth with a capital T." 

In a few weeks, I will be speaking on "Belief, Community, and Practice" at our local Unitarian Universalist church. Since 2000, there has been a precipitous decline in church attendance, aggravated by the pandemic. Today, 60% of American never or seldom attend a religious service.

One of the unexpected joys of writing a book is participating in some interesting conversations surrounding the book -- at author talks, in book clubs, and online. Yesterday, I had an online chat about organized religion with a Facebook friend in Africa who is reading my book.