Worship Service at Unitarian Universalist Church in Meriden

August 12th “Robert Ingersoll, Humanist Hero” -

This Sunday, we look at the life of Robert Ingersoll with Doug Peary, moderator of our church and the author of Humanist Heroes.  

Ingersoll, who lived in the mid to late 19th century, was the son of a Congregational minister and became a renowned national religious skeptic and speaker.  Prominent and well liked, he was asked to run for the U.S. Presidency, but was told he should tone down his attacks on Christianity.  Refusing, he said, “My creed is this:  Happiness is the only good.  The place to be happy is here on earth.  The time to be happy is now.  The way to be happy is to make others happy.”  Ingersoll was one of the first people to call himself a Unitarian Universalist after he noted that the Unitarians say humans are too good to be damned to hell and Universalists say that God is too good to damn them. 

Child care is provided during the service.