User:Jrincayc/UU and WP

Wikipedia and Unitarian Universalism are rather similar in beliefs. Davidson Loehr's restatement of the UU principles[1] sound distinctly familiar to my Wikipedian ears:

• We know we’re a part of life and that we owe something back to the world for the gift of life.
• We know that we are supposed to live in such a way that, when we look back on it, we can be proud, and can make those we care about proud.
• We know we are to try and make this world a little bit better because we passed through it.
• We believe that truth, justice, and compassion are required of us. We believe that love is better than hatred, understanding is better than prejudice, peace is better than war.
• We believe if there is ever to be a better world, you, I and those whose beliefs differ from ours will have to help each other build it.
• We know that each religion says these things differently, but we also know that down deep they are all saying that we are sacred people who need to treat everybody else as though they were sacred, too.

Don't take my comparison too seriously, or too lightly:

• We know we’re a part of life and that we owe something back to the world for the gift of life.

We are not just passive consumers of Wikipedia. We are the creators of Wikipedia. We recieve the gifts of others contributions to Wikipedia and we in return give the gifts of our contributions.

• We know that we are supposed to live in such a way that, when we look back on it, we can be proud, and can make those we care about proud.

We should make edits that we can be proud of, and those who we respect should be able to be proud of the edits as well.

• We know we are to try and make this world a little bit better because we passed through it.

Wikipedia should be better for our interactions with it.

• We believe that truth, justice, and compassion are required of us. We believe that love is better than hatred, understanding is better than prejudice, peace is better than war.

Creating truth is an ultimate goal of Wikipedia. We should strive to make Wikipedia as true as possible for as many people as possible. Wikipedia is not just a collection of bits on a disk. It is a community of people as well, and we should be compassionate and just in our dealings with them. Flame wars and personal attacks should be avoided. We should seek to understand what others are trying to say.

• We believe if there is ever to be a better world, you, I and those whose beliefs differ from ours will have to help each other build it.

Not everyone has the same views as us. We still have to work with them to create articles. To those that wish to build wikipedia we should help them combine our beliefs and theirs. To those that do not wish to build wikipedia at this time, we should be just with them and we should gently explain why we must correct their contributions. We can not stop a person with force without creating an enemy, If we change them with understanding we may create a friend.

• We know that each religion says these things differently, but we also know that down deep they are all saying that we are sacred people who need to treat everybody else as though they were sacred, too.

We are all people (except for the bots). We should treat people as people, with feelings and desires and should try our best to bring out their best natures and our best natures.

UUism is certainly not required, and being a UU does not obligate one to be a Wikipedian. But I believe that the religion does have things to say about how one should go about being both a UU and a Wikipedian.