|
Home Page
Sermon Home
Sermon Archives
|
Groping for Spiritual
Truth in Dense Fog
Delivered by
Bepi Cordioli, June 12 , 2005
At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, New Bern, NC
Good morning! My name is Bepi Cordioli. I'm Lilo's better half, ha! Jimmy, our musicus, is our son-in-law, and Marisa, you are my BIG grand-daughter! My presentation is, “Groping for Spiritual Truth in Dense Fog”. I will enlist your help. At the end we'll have a discussion, and so you can contribute to this program. But before the brief open-forum we'll be viewing a video, and I'll get to the video in ten minutes or so. The things Dawkins said in the interview hit right close to home with me, I was quite impressed by this man. And so I asked Duncan whether I might one day put on this presentation. Guess what, here we are. The magazine that you will see Moyers show off at the beginning is this, last November's issue of the National Geographic. The cover story is about Evolution and Darwin. But right now, let me get to my preamble about myself, and try and describe to you how I get to feel the way I do about things spiritual.
Yes, I speak 'funny', 'cause I was born and grew up in Villafranca, Italy, that's why! My hometown is situated right by the Verona, Italy airport. It used to comprise some 15,000 souls, every single one of them Catholic, believe you me. I am turning 71 this week. I was mommy's kid, the youngest of a large family. It was a caring, simple, struggling, solid family. At 20 I got my associate degree, and went to work, at first as electronics lab instructor. That was mainly from experience gained as a radio amateur since age 12. That hobby is still going extra strong with me right now. A few years later, I joined the chemical industry, in electronic instrumentation. I was sent to the US on training. Then it was back to Italy, met Nancy, my future wife, then back to the US. I pursued and got my BS in Physics & Math plus graduate work in Els Engrg (from WVa and California) while working full time, but managed to spoil my marriage in the process. By this time we had three daughters. Then it was back to Europe. Enter Lilo, we married in London, she became 'mother' to my daughters. After 6 years in Italy, we moved to SC and then to NC. Been living here for 25 years. Over the 15 years prior to retirement I worked as Els Engr in Cherry Pt. Also, I ran from my home a 1-man dish business until 2000, and too, I was a 2nd language teacher of Italian, French and English. While raising my family in this country, we attended Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches. Then about 5 years ago, a small ad in the Sun Journal caught my eye , which led us to UU, and we've been attending pretty regularly for two years now.
Watch out, I'll rewind a bit. It was in high school at Mantua, Italy that I began to doubt the integrity of the church and truth of its message. These issues never went away. My church attendance faltered. My job took me away from Verona: to Milan, Bologna, the US, Sicily, and back to the US. As an immigrant, you're kinda lost in space, busy developing your new set of coordinates, like after a dive in the water. My 1st wife was an Episcopalian. Charleston's St John's felt so warm and un-regimented, compared to the churches back home! My reservations were suddenly on the back burner. And I was raising a family! One, two, three girls. I must have resolved then to ignore my spiritual issues while raising my children 'properly'. It didn't occur to me that a group like UU might be out there. Moved
a lot: Pennsylvania, Southern California, then Northern. Marriage was on the blink. Then Europe again, married Lilo, she takes over helping me raise our children. Six years later we move to South Carolina where we attend a Lutheran church. Then it's Morehead's 1st Presbyterian. We enjoyed our minister
a lot. He'd even get candid enough at rare times to express having doubts himself. But Art moves away, darn! (*see below) And the children move out to college. Lilo and I end up practically dropping out. Now, here I remembered that in the old country, lots of churches stayed open all day. So here in Morehead, a sense of spiritual awe took us from time to time into a church, any church, on a Sunday, but right after the service was over, if we could still manage to get in. The idea was to avoid what by this time I recognized as the 'fog'. And so Lilo and I would have a little silent contemplation, just sitting in a pew together. So then came the time in '93 when we built in Craven County and moved. We attended New Bern's beautiful 1st Presbyterian from time to time. Then we came upon wonderful, liberal UU! Actually, there was a 1st time and a 2nd time approach to UU. First it was at the synagogue, but after a couple of services by
Rev. Murphy, it felt too 'foggy', the same Bible doldrums of other churches. By this time I had become quite allergic to 'the fog'. Dropped out. We later re-discovered UU by coming to the Peace meetings, and so, here we are. It took us a LONG time to decide and join, but join we did. In the end it was you the people what won us over, -and the warmth, diversity, and the sense of spiritual freedom here in UU. As to 'the fog', I suppose it was my pilgrimage back and forth between the two continents, and in different regions thereof, that helped me isolate the 'fog' as a central problem. What also helped me was my continual 'studying' of my friends from around the world, listen to this, by ham radio. Who's ever heard of 'radio-anthropology? Anyhow, now I believe my eyes are open, and I feel true contentment. Actually, I'd hold this sense of contentment as possibly the greatest achievement of my life. And that tells you how dense I think the 'fog' is all around us all.
As to my own beliefs and ways, I certainly refrain from making up stories, that is, 'fog'. Out are original sin, salvation, Mary, prayers, the hereafter: the whole bit. On evolution I have NO doubt in my mind that we have evolved indeed through other life-forms. As far as I'm concerned, the earliest life may have been started by a god, or it may have been purely accidental, I may never find out. I have heard or read somewhere that scientists may be close now to being able to initiate a very basic life form. I know little about it, and I'm not holding my breath, que sera, sera.
God. I have no clear idea who or what God is. Given the enormity of the Universe, it'd be something out there that's totally
inconceivable by a generic dummy like me. And so I stand in deep awe of all the unknown, and stop there with a great sense of respect. And by the way, ever wonder who created God?
So that covers the bit about myself. A couple more comments, and I'll get on with the video: I recorded it off PBS early last December, when Moyers, here at his best I think, interviewed British zoologist Richard Dawkins. Later, I learned that our library downtown carries four of Dawkins' works. I read/perused them. And now, within a few weeks, I may get to read a fifth one, A Devil's Chaplain, it's mentioned in this video. I find Dawkins quite pleasant to read, -and I'm not a reader! Please do not expect a lot of religious stuff from these four books: Dawkins writes mainly about the technical end of evolution. I'd be delighted if A Devil's Chaplain were instead to have more of the stuff in this interview.
I applaud these folks: The National Geographic, Moyers, Dawkins, for doing something that takes courage. Like: daring to challenge the status quo, teaching the people, doing what at this particular time is politically incorrect. UU is also likewise courageous in many fields, but not, in my opinion, where it comes to religion. Why can't UU become more modern, more cutting edge? It would make a difference towards improving the world. Perhaps we'd have to tear off or cross out half of the pages in our book of worship (I know, we just bought them...) Why does the word filtering down from HQs call for MORE reverence, instead of LESS reverence for 'the fog'? See you after the video, I hope...
_______________
*(Went impromptu , when talking about Art:) By the way, I'd MUCH rather UU stayed lay-led. But I know that's gotta be difficult on the worship Chair. And a minister is good for the services,
counseling,, ceremony, and growth. And so, I go along, and will keep my fingers crossed that we'll be able to talk him or her into going extra easy when it comes to the spirits.
|
