If the Scientists are Right, Why are We Here?

One of the most interesting comedians of our time may be Woody Allen, because he deals with basic issues that most comedians do not touch, and he does so in a clever way.  He was the one who said "I am not afraid of dying; I just don't want to be there when it happens."  and "I believe there is life in the universe--except in parts of New Jersey."
Because I am married to a Canadian, I make it a practice to read MacLean's magazine regularly, to help me to understand Canadian life and culture better.  A regular feature of MACLEAN’S is an interview with some person of note. In the January 14 issue, I was pleased to find that the subject of the interview was Woody Allen and his shift to more drama, less comedy in his recent films. The interviewer noted that the earnest and searching nature of recent films seemed paradoxical coming from a man who once said that life is a come-by-chance, meaningless little charade. The interviewer asked “This is a paradox, isn’t it, making meaningful films about the meaninglessness of existence?”

Woody Allen’s response was very interesting. He said:

“I have no real answers or knowledge of these things, I only have my feelings about them, and I’m ready to explore the possibilities. My own personal conclusion concurs with what seems to be the everyday finding of our physicists, that [our existence] was an accident, that it will end, and it was just an odd little phenomenon that has no meaning, that [it] wasn’t created by any super-being or with any design, it’s just a chance phenomenon and a microspeck in an overwhelming, violent universe, and it will end, and everything that Shakespeare did and Beethoven did, all of that will be gone, every star will be gone – down the line – but that’s where we’re headed, out of nothing to nothing. And the trick, to me, seems to be to find, not meaning, but to be able to live with that and enjoy life.`By enjoy it I don’t mean sybaritically, I mean to be able to find some kind of M.O. where you can enjoy your life, even if it’s abstemious and you spend your life in a monastery and you enjoy culturing flowers and pea pods every morning or something, but if that will get you through it in some decent way, that’s the best you can hope for. To live with the awful truth, we’re endowed with this denial mechanism. Some people have less of a denial mechanism than others, but without it, if you faced the real truth all the time, it’s very, very unpleasant.”

Allen’s statement got me thinking. After all, I give great credibility to scientists and I long ago gave up on the notion that some Creator sat down and said “I think I’ll create a universe with a special solar system that has a very special organism called man and I’ll make it so that his whole life man will be having to choose between the devil and me.” I have to admit that every now and then I am attracted to some of the Raven and Coyote creation stories, but the Biblical story no longer captures any of my attention.

So, like many Unitarian Universalists, I have to find some explanation for the attraction that this spiritual community, this intriguing religious tradition, this fellowship has for me. Is it the social justice that it preaches? Certainly that is a part of it. Is it the chance to get together on Sunday morning with like-minded people to share some good music, hear some good words, and chat over some good coffee? I guess that’s part of it, too. Or is it because the awful truth described by Woody Allen motivates me to find some reason for being, for making my life one that has some meaning and that I can enjoy in the process? I think that it might very well be that search for meaning that brought me to a Unitarian church almost 50 years ago when I finally realized that my traditional Presbyterian church no longer answered my questions or gave me comfort.

In the MACLEAN’S interview, Allen went on to make a very significant statement. He said “I feel that if you solved all the political problems in the world, and solved all the relationship problems, and nobody was starving and everyone was living in peace and all of that, we would still have [existential problems] up against a very terrifying situation.”

Putting that statement into the context of a UU congregation, it means that even if we succeeded in all our social justice efforts, we were all healthy, well fed, and in peace, we would still need to find meaning in a life that arose from nothing and will return to nothing. Some UU’s, of course, still find the answer, or at least the comfort, in some form of higher power; others simply don’t concern themselves with those questions, but are content to simply enjoy the fellowship of the community. Of course, the paradise that Allen posits does not yet exist. And most of us, if not all of us, find that the work of getting us closer to that paradise brings real meaning and purpose to our lives and to this community.

As we begin the “After Ken” months in Juneau, we are going to have to be mindful about why we come to this community, why we are happy to help sustain it, and why we want to see it prosper. We will each have our own reasons – or maybe it is more accurate to say that not all of us will have the same reasons – but it will be important that we have some understanding of why we are here. Those of us who will be preparing Sunday services, RE activities, developing social justice programs, forming new groups to discuss important questions, to read books, to play bridge, Texas hold’em, or the latest game craze, or simply to get together for pizza a couple of times a month, we all need to know what attracts us and keeps us here.

I sense that the majority of us want the fellowship to grow to the size that will allow us to own our own facility and eventually to have our own full-time minister and other paid staff. That will happen, but only if we are mindful of our shared reasons for having this little institution. Those of us who are here today are the stewards for those who will be here tomorrow. I say that in the broadest sense of stewardship, not just the financial part. And some of the decisions we will be making will come to us sooner than we might want to make them. The other day, for example, one of the owners of Chalice Hall called and asked if we would consider buying the building and an adjacent acre. That came out of the blue and caught me unprepared. Suffice to say that, as Brian Rogers told us last year, sometimes you simply have to take risks and do what needs to be done, so your board and those members who have been active in updating our growth plan will be investigating the practicality of such a purchase and will be reporting to you as we learn more and have more concrete information for you.

It is an exciting time for the Juneau UU Fellowship. Our membership has grown by almost 50% over the past 12 months, we have the largest RE classes in our history, and for now at least, we have a pleasant meeting place that meets most of our needs. Let’s all think about why we are here and why we keep coming back. The answers to those questions will make the answers to questions like “should we buy this building” a lot easier to find.

May we have the strength, wisdom, and courage to make the right choices as we create the future of this loving community. Amen.