Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth 
Linnea Edwardson
What I Believe and Why
As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to say to everyone today, I found myself at a loss of words which really doesn’t happen very often. I decided to go online to see if I could find something about Unitarian Universalists. I found one website that really helped me out. It talked about what Unitarians believe and why. When I was reading about the different beliefs I realized, that I really am a UU. One of the things that really stuck out in my mind said, “We believe that personal experience, conscience, and reason should be the final authorities in religion. In the end religious authority lies not in a book, person, or institution, but in ourselves. We put religious insights to the test of our hearts and minds.” This is something that makes sense to me. What someone believes should come from the heart and mind. If you can’t follow your heart in what you believe, or trust in yourself, than how can you trust in a book or what someone else tells you. It might be easier to just let someone else tell you what you believe but then you aren’’t being true to yourself.
Another thing that stuck out in my mind as something UU’s believe is, “We believe that religious wisdom is ever changing. Human understanding of life and death, the world and its mysteries, is never final. Revelation is continuous. We celebrate unfolding truths known to teachers, prophets, and sages throughout the ages.” I think that is so cool because things always are changing. It’s like science. There are so many different discoveries everyday and a lot of old discoveries are being changed because of new ideas and knowledge. I think religion is the same way. People can learn new things everyday about their religion. When I knew that I had to talk about what I believe, I did some research about being a Unitarian and I learned a lot of new things about this faith. Everyday things change and people need to be open to new ideas, and open to different religions and people. I know that Unitarian Universalist’s are like that and that is one thing that I really love about our religion.
Most of my friends are fairly religious people. Religion doesn’t come up in too many conversations but when it does, I usually just sit back and keep my mouth shut. I don’t know why I do this but I think its probably because I don’t want to offend anyone. My friends will talk about how God will help to solve the problems and what I really want to say is how do you know? How do you know that God will solve it? Or they say something about how God has a plan for everyone. I can’t understand this because when a little girl is raped and then killed, how does God have a plan for her or at 13 when my friend Annie who had so many talents and could have gone so far in life was killed in a car accident, what was Gods plan for her? When so many people suffer everyday because they don’t have food, shelter, or clothes on their body, what is Gods plan for them? I am not here to try and put down anyone else’s beliefs. I just want to try and understand them. I don’t know everything that I believe in. It just comes down to that. There are times that I have wished I believed in God or could just tell people I was Lutheran or Catholic because it would make things that much easier. But then I realized that life wasn’t meant to be easy. If I had grown up in a different religion I might not be the person that I am right now. I wouldn’t have had the privilege to meet so many wonderful people. I love who I am and the different things I believe in. I believe that every person deserves respect, I believe in acceptance and I believe in myself which to me is just as important as believing in a God or a higher power.