Natural Religion: A None's Journey of Religious Discovery

Davis Baird's grandfather, Earl Clement Davis (1876-1953), was a Unitarian minister from 1905 to 1953. Baird was born a year after his grandfather died and never knew him. But he inherited a trunk of his manuscripts. He grew up without any religion; today he would be called a none--one with no religious affiliation or church membership. This book shares his discovery of his grandfather's approach to religion. His grandfather denied any supernatural sources for, or elements of, religion; he was an enthusiastic advocate for science. He vigorously argued against all authoritarian forms of governance--religious and civil. He believed in human divinity, the power of humans to develop and pursue ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness to make the world better. The living God for his grandfather was a God that lives in humans--has lived in humans for millennia--striving to create a reality of truth, beauty, and goodness, of justice for all, of a heaven on earth. This is what Baird calls natural religion.