Sources used for this story include: “Rai… Heaven: Where Rocks Go Wandering,” by Tim Cahill (National Geographic). The world still holds many wonders that science—so far— cannot explain. As you learn about the three mysteries described, see if you can hypothesize any scientific...

From Christian scripture, John 6:1-19, New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1990). A large crowd kept following [Jesus], because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples....

As a child, Joseph Priestley noticed something that would influence the rest of his life: If you keep a bug in a jar for too long, it will die. At the time Joseph Priestley didn’t understand why that was true—nobody did. No one really studied the air; it was something everyone took for granted.

In 1927 a Roman Catholic priest and scientist Georges Lemaitre proposed what later became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, based on work by Edwin Hubble who theorized and then proved that the Universe was getting bigger and bigger. Many scientists have discovered other...

A retelling of a Hawaiian legend. The god Maui was the smallest but smartest of his brothers, who often made fun of him because he couldn’t fish very well. Sometimes Maui would go out on a boat with his brothers, distract them when they had a fish on the line, and steal it from them, claiming it...

Rev. Jan Taddeo: "Unitarian Universalists step out into the unknown all the time." Read More...

In what form did the spirit appear to you today, the blossom of a flower, the tug of a child’s hand, the silent twinkling stars, an old woman smiling at the bus stop, a lover’s ­gentle hug, a presence so close to your soul you ­could almost touch it, words of truth formed unbidden in your...

Of course I want the truth, but here’s the rub: Truth doesn’t sit around still as a rock, it breathes and flows and turns inside out. Ever seen a lion in a cage? He paces and glowers. That must be how God feels locked in our little religions. Look how big the sky is, the deep distances between...

You bring yourself before the sacred, before the holy, before what is ultimate and bigger than your lone life bigger than your worries bigger than your money problems bigger than the fight you had with your sister and your aches and pains bigger, even, than your whole being, your self who is part...

Go forth Because we are always going forth from somewhere Going from our homes, our childhoods Going from our cities and countries Going from innocence to experience to enlightenment Going into mystery and questions Going into the desert Getting to the other side....

A cold grey sky, a cold grey sea And a cold grey mist that is chilling me; A light that burns on the harbor bar With the dull dim glow of a distant star....

Our Subaru Forester was sliding sideways down Interstate 80 at fifty miles per hour. My wife, Nan, had gingerly switched to the left-hand lane to avoid a truck that was overturned on the right shoulder, but no amount of experience, skill, or caution could overcome our car’s mass and momentum on a...