Sunday, October 16, 2016

A Personal Theology - Heresy and Universal Truth

The following is a short talk I gave at the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship (KUF) back in 2012:

I really appreciate the opportunity to give my own personal testimony on the Sunday when the theme is "Freethinkers and Heretics", because I do consider myself as a freethinker or heretic. Probably many of us here do. When I was young, my mother brought me and my sister to church on Sunday. At first, to the United Church in Collins Bay. Later, to the Christian Reformed Church just a few blocks north of here, presumably because the United Church was not sufficiently orthodox. At that time, I thought I should be a Christian. My first act of heresy, then, was abandoning the faith of my
ancestors.

When I first started thinking independently about theology, I thought about the concept of "universal truth". That is, is there a religion that would apply everywhere in the universe and at every point in time. I quickly came to the conclusion that no Earthly religion could possibly make such a claim. Later, in university, I took a course in world religions. And although Buddhism and Taoism appealed to me in theory, in practice they too seemed to miss the mark.

"Freethought", according to the Wikipedia, is the philosophy that opinions should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism, and not authority, tradition, or other dogmas. By that definition, I suppose I am a "Freethinker". But I'm not really comfortable with the term, probably for the same reasons I'm not comfortable with the term "atheist". Consider the question of "God": Science doesn't really tell us that God doesn't exist. Following the scientific method, the most we can say is that God is untestable. And if untestable, there's always the possibility that there is such a thing. That is, to me, saying that there's no God seems just as dogmatic as saying there is. Which is perhaps a heresy to most freethinkers.

But to be clear, although I can acknowledge the possibility that there may be a God, since it is untestable, I find little use in the concept. Even those who do fervently believe in a God can have vastly different opinions about the deity. And so, at a practical level, I believe we must live our lives assuming there's no such thing, and use our intellect and compassion to guide us. I like the quote attributed to the Italian heretic Galileo: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

The way I see it, science is the best tool we have to understand the universe around us. But scientists themselves are the first to admit that science has definite limits. (Or they should be.) While science can model how something happens, it can't explain why. For example, why do some things seem to happen just when we need them to happen? Often, I want to know if there's some specific reason for my existence. And, I think many of us have some vague sense of something just beyond our five senses. I know there are no definitive answers to these questions. But that doesn't stop me from pondering them and considering the possibilities.

I first learned about Unitarianism in the early 1980's from an article in the Toronto Star, and later, I started attending Sunday service at the First Unitarian Congregation, when Chris Raible was its minister. After a few years, I moved further away and stopped attending. So for a while, I considered myself a "lapsed Unitarian." When we moved to Kingston in 2010, Sylvana suggested that we check out KUF, and I readily agreed. And soon thereafter, we signed the membership book. We came for several reasons: First, we wanted our daughter to benefit from the religious exploration program. Second, as newcomers to the city, we wanted to meet new people. Third, I liked the idea of a weekly spiritual retreat.

But finally, I come here to be challenged. To me, the most important avenue to personal growth is to stretch the limits of your comfort zone. I don't just want an environment where people are unconditionally accepting of my beliefs and values. Although we should be respectful of each others' beliefs, I believe that you honor my beliefs best by understanding them and expressing your thoughtful disagreement with them if necessary.

Lately, I've been participating in a number of UU discussion groups on Facebook. On-line, I see a lot of diversity among UU's. So much so that, when I offer my point of view, I sometimes feel like a heretic. But the way I see it, the diversity is a real strength of Unitarianism. Many of us approach the great questions of "Life, Universe, and Everything" through spirituality. It seems that fewer of us deal with these questions analytically. Can we use analytical tools in matters of faith? I believe we can. For example, I think the validity and usefulness of the "Golden Rule" can easily be demonstrated empirically. And it's the one principle that practically everyone can agree on regardless of faith, or heresy. And so, the way I see it, the "Golden Rule" is probably the closest we can get to the concept of "universal truth".

Cheers! Hans

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Customer Service and Dieting

My weight loss since September

For health reasons, Sylvana and I knew we needed to lose weight. And so back in September, we both joined Weight Watchers. Based on our previous experience, we knew this was the best way to meet our goals, and so far, it has been successful. We both still have a ways to go, but Weight Watchers gave us the tools to make it work. And hopefully stick this time.

So a couple of weeks ago, Sylvana went on-line to renew our memberships, but she noticed that WW already automatically renewed us both at the 1-month price. This isn't what we wanted. We wanted to renew at the 3-month price, which is more economical. Sylvana went to the chat line on WW's web site. The customer service rep was friendly, and connected her with someone in the billing department, Abdul. Abdul, however, didn't respond. In spite of several prompts over 20 minutes, there was nothing from Abdul. Sylvana closed the connection, and tried again. Again, she was connected to Abdul. But this time, he closed the connection immediately.

Needless to say, Sylvana was furious. This is an absolutely unacceptable level of customer service. We discussed the issue, and decided it was time to terminate our membership. We decided to stay with the program until the middle of March, but not to go beyond that.

However, the lousy customer service is not the main theme of this blog posting, nor is it the main reason we're quitting Weight Watchers. WW has changed. The biggest change is a new points program, called "SmartPoints", replacing their PointsPlus plan.

(As an aside, years ago computer programmers used to have a saying: Whenever Microsoft uses the word "Smart", be on the lookout for something dumb.)

Some time ago, they had a simple points regime, based on calories, grams of fat, and grams of fiber. The formula was easy to remember, and you could easily figure out the points just by looking at a nutrition label. But almost 20 years ago now, they introduced the PointsPlus program. Instead of counting calories, the formula now counted grams of carbohydrates and grams of protein, giving more points to carbs and fewer for protein. You pretty much needed the WW calculator to properly compute points, or you had to look up the points in their books.

Late last year, they introduced the SmartPoints system. When we joined WW, we knew (or at least should have known) that something new was coming since the books and points calculator for the old plan were available at discounted prices. In the new program, you punch in calories, grams of saturated fat, sugars, and protein into the calculator.

Of course, they claim that the new program is much better, claiming faster weight loss than ever before. However, we have issues with the new program. In the past, they encouraged a slow and steady approach to weight loss since there can be health issues associated with rapid weight loss. And they always advertised their programs as allowing you to eat anything you want. But under the new program, foods with lots of carbs come out with a lot more points. So many more points that many of your favorite foods are now effectively out of bounds. Looking at how heavily carbs are discouraged, I wonder what's the difference between the SmartPoints program and the Atkin's Diet?

Sure, limiting carbs is a good idea. But there always has to be balance in any diet. And while it's a good idea to favor protein over carbs, in our opinion, it's not reasonable to penalize carbs so much. By denying your favorite foods, you run more of a risk of falling off the wagon, with all the associated repercussions, including the possibility of binge eating.

That said, we will continue with our dieting. This is still too important for us not to continue. We just won't do it anymore as Weight Watchers members. And we'll continue following the PointsPlus system.

And just to be clear, we don't want to discourage anyone from trying the Weight Watchers program. The new plan may well work for some people, just as the old program works well for others. Weight loss isn't always easy, and you may have to make some effort to find a strategy that works for you.

Cheers! Hans