Unity Church

Not only is this fallacious appeal to authority silly, it isn't even true. There is broad agreement among all credal Christians on bibliology. And you're right, you should not attempt to debate me on an issue wherein I have vast expertise while you have none.

 

You mean like when you debate biology with me or when Garp tries to debate politics with me? I have advanced degrees in both areas, and I teach science, but anyone is welcomed to disagree with me. At least I used to be a minister whereas you two know nothing about my areas of expertise, but you still try it with your uninformed opinions. You're right, I am not an expert on philosophy and mythology. That's why I listen to well-known professors at accredited seminaries and world-renowned researchers with degrees from accredited schools. They disagree with you on some things.

I didn't say that you disagree with most Christians on everything; you have a literal interpretation of historical and supernatural aspects that most Christians do not have.

 

By the way, I had to study Islamic extremism and the history of the conflicts with Israel from an objective standpoint. I didn't spend my entire life studying the religion I was raised in and thinking that I received an objective education on other religions. Going to Christian seminaries that, obviously, teach with a bias does not make one an expert on all religions. Thankfully, there are Jewish and Christian scholars who are capable of looking at their own religions objectively, which allows them to make accurate comparisons to other religions. There's a difference between receiving an education and receiving affirmation. Someone who is in agreement with most of the followers of their religion doesn't intentionally attend and teach at seminaries that are outside of the mainstream.

 

In my understanding there is Ebionite influence in theology but Muhammad's wife Khadija was the niece of a Syriac priestmonk, and Muhammad himself was illiterate. She is the lynchpin of many practices and of the Quranic writings. Also Arabic script was invented or at least heavily borrows from Syriac because it was a tool by Syriac monks to teach theology to the Arab pagans. There are different versions of the syriac connection: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahira

An example are names of the individuals themselves are Syriac language origin.. example Khadija Arabic is from Qadisho/a Syriac meaning "holy" or al-Nabi the prophet is from Syriac Nibi.. there's a lot more linguistically

 

I was with the Unity Church (Unity of Little Rock) for two years and was a member of the media team. It was at the beginning of my deconstruction from Christianity and I got interested in New Thought after exploring the University of Sedona. After liking what I was hearing and researching, I found Unity. While still a member, I have not been a regular attendee for 7 years. Currently, my local Unity Church is shutting down its physical location as it is up for sale and has been without a Spiritual Leader for years after he went to become a Spiritual Leader in Dallas, Texas. I'm not sure what they will do now but last I heard, they were having services at the UU church just a few blocks down from them.

 

I stopped attending because I was burned out from volunteering, started to lose interest in participating in the services after our spiritual leader had left, and had fully deconstructed out of faith to Atheism. While I was reading books on spirituality and participating in some of the events they had there, I was also reading Atheist content and watching a lot of Atheist videos and testimonials of deconversions that came from all walks of life including church leaders and pastors who had left the faith. As of now, I'm circling back around in my journey by watching progressive-type sermons and listening to Christian music occasionally but still do not consider myself a believer. I'm a Secular Humanist but still enjoy aspects of Christian culture at times.