Universalists and the friends (quakers) are two branches of christianity. UU's are unitarian-universalists, as the two joined a while back to survive declining numbers.
Once upon a time, Unitarians and Universalists were the dominant form of christianity in America. More than half of the signatures on Declaration of Independence were from those sects.
Unitarians reject the trinity. In this regard they're basically bacon-eating, christmas celebrating Jewish. Which gets a bit complicated since they clearly believe that god mellowed out a lot between the time when he was telling Joshua to butcher whole nations and then letting romans put himself to death.
Universalists reject the concept of judgement.
Friends (Quakers) reject basically all scripture and ordained leadership.
Humanism... is complicated to explain and to put it very simply it suffices to say that they're SJWs.
It is possible to be a quaker or a universalist without being a deist. There doesn't HAVE to be a deity for their ideologies to work.
Interestingly, the more recent dominant forms, Methodism and Lutheranism, came about because of the Civil War. Most Union army chaplains were Methodists and actively converted soldiers over with Methodism's more aggressive endorsement of the emancipation cause and the righteousness of that war.
This is, incidentally, where the "AND METHODISTS!!!" punchline in Blazing Saddles comes from, because in the late 19th century Methodists were pretty much regarded as belligerent, bloodthirsty warmongers who'd taken advantage of the Civil War to spread their faith.
Universalists and the friends (quakers) are two branches of christianity. UU's are unitarian-universalists, as the two joined a while back to survive declining numbers.
Once upon a time, Unitarians and Universalists were the dominant form of christianity in America. More than half of the signatures on Declaration of Independence were from those sects.
Unitarians reject the trinity. In this regard they're basically bacon-eating, christmas celebrating Jewish. Which gets a bit complicated since they clearly believe that god mellowed out a lot between the time when he was telling Joshua to butcher whole nations and then letting romans put himself to death.
Universalists reject the concept of judgement.
Friends (Quakers) reject basically all scripture and ordained leadership.
Humanism... is complicated to explain and to put it very simply it suffices to say that they're SJWs.
It is possible to be a quaker or a universalist without being a deist. There doesn't HAVE to be a deity for their ideologies to work.
Interestingly, the more recent dominant forms, Methodism and Lutheranism, came about because of the Civil War. Most Union army chaplains were Methodists and actively converted soldiers over with Methodism's more aggressive endorsement of the emancipation cause and the righteousness of that war.
This is, incidentally, where the "AND METHODISTS!!!" punchline in Blazing Saddles comes from, because in the late 19th century Methodists were pretty much regarded as belligerent, bloodthirsty warmongers who'd taken advantage of the Civil War to spread their faith.
They would say they're not, and neither you nor I are authority to gainsay that.
Now, if you're prepared to say you speak with the voice of god... then we might be able to work something out.
Well, they did, and they've gotten away with it (in the case of the Universalists) since the 1700's.
Reason and religion don't mix. Stop trying to make it work.