Richard Norman argues in New Humanist magazine that new wave atheism is aggressively antagonistic to religion but it’s more fruitful to find common ground. He writes:
Humanism is more than atheism, it is about putting humanist beliefs and values into practice and trying to make the world a better place. And that is impossible unless we’re prepared to cooperate with others who share those values, including those for whom the values are inseparable from a religious commitment. Continue reading
Posted in Humanists working with others
The Comombus Dispatch reports on a new project at Ohio University that aims to teach students how to have open, reasonable discussions about difficult questions of faith. The University is one of 27 colleges and universities receiving a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation through the Difficult Dialogues Initiative, a project coordinated by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
The project aims to face up to the difficult topics that are too often glossed over or shied away from: Continue reading
Rabbi Tony Bayfield head of the Movement for Reform Judaism has written in a letter of support for charity Tolerance International UK that “the only salvation [from religious extemism] is for the silent majority, both religious and secular, to cease to be silent and for the moderates to demonstrate that moderation is not the same as acquiescence. ” Continue reading
Posted in Extremism, Humanist, Humanists working with others, Jewish
The good news as reported by Ekklesia is that in England “after a number of requests from teaching unions and civic bodies, including the Christian think-tank Ekklesia and the British Humanist Association, the UK Department of Children, Schools, and Families has issued guidance for teachers uncertain whether and how to discuss creationism – which is rejected by both scientists and theologians as lacking factual and theoretical value.
A statement on Teachernet, a government website, states that “Creationism and intelligent design are not part of the National Curriculum for science” and describes “intelligent design” as “a creationist belief” that “is sometimes erroneously advanced as scientific theory but has no underpinning scientific principles or explanations supporting it and it is not accepted by the international scientific community.”
Not only is it good news that creationism is being clearly put in its place but it is also a demonstation of how religious and non-religious bodies can work together on common causes. Archbishop of canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has also described creationism as “a category mistake” in religious thought.
The bad news is that in Northern Ireland the Department of Education has said the teaching of alternative theories was a matter for schools. Continue reading
Posted in Christian, Education, Humanist, Humanists working with others, Science
The Boston Globe’s cover story the Nonbelievers reports that “an increasing number of young people in America – and adults around the world – don’t believe in God. Greg Epstein, who advises fellow atheists and agnostics at Harvard University, wants to create a kind of church for those who reject religion.”
In describing the growing confidence and popularity of atheism and humanism in the USA, the report includes encouraging signs such as Lori Lipman Brown, director of the the Secular Coalition for America who says “When I’m on right-wing radio or Christian radio, I no longer hear people say as much that I’m immoral or liable to commit murder,” she says. “Now, it seems, they acknowledge it’s possible that I could be a good person.”
It also quotes Epstein’s belief – shared by the O Project – in the importance of looking to build links with religious compatriots, a belief that has seen him criticised by fellow atheists and humanists.
“On his blog at Harvard, Epstein wrote that he hopes atheists avoid vilifying believers as they have disparaged atheists. “I don’t even have a problem with all the people who are blogging about me right now and slamming me as some kind of representative of ‘appeasement,’ ” he wrote. “We want to be treated as equals? Let’s raise hell about it, fine, but perhaps think twice about slamming me so hard as some kind of Uncle Tom (I definitely heard that one on a few blogs) if I want to speak for myself, and for the millions of atheists and Humanists out there who actually *like* and care deeply about a lot of religious people and don’t feel the need to hurt their feelings in addition to disagreeing with them.”
Taken from MixTogether.org, this is a personal account of what Ruba experienced as a British Sikh 19 yr old girl falling for a British, white atheist lad. Please forgive my ‘bullet form’ style account, but I still find it difficult talking about what happened. Apologies if you find it difficult to follow but I found it to be the easiest and briefest way to record my story.
The sikh upbringing: life pretty much planned out. School, then college.. then uni… then a job.. then an arranged marriage.. then children.. then a house… then looking after the inlaws. “It’s the way us Indians do things.. god will reward you for doing the right thing.”
Uni- met someone.. needed affection- hadn’t realised how unhappy I was until we connected so strongly.
Lived for the moment.. never considered the long term effect or possibilities… our love grew stronger without even realising it…
Fell pregnant… emotional turmoil Continue reading
Posted in Atheist, Humanists working with others, Sikh
In Sarasota County, Florida, authorities are investigating an arson that destroyed a Muslim family’s home as a hate crime.
The blaze happened on July 6. The Sejfovics, who moved from Bosnia in 2001, were out of town on holday and returned to find their home completely destroyed and spray-painted with anti-Muslim graffiti.
Several agencies, including the FBI, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are investigating the fire.
Members of the Unitarian-Universalist Church – the church that sponsored the family in 2001 – are standing by the family and vetting correspondence and phone calls. Others who have offfered theire suppport are a local rabbi and a Humanist Jewish Congregation, a couple of American-Islamist Groups, as well as many, many outraged individuals. Condolences and a reward have been offered; a fund is in the process of being set up.
Anyone can to submit a 1000-word paper to the E-Conference on Mixedness and Mixing (deadline 13 August, criteria is on the website) or just get involved in the online debates and discussions over the three days.
You can register now at www.mixedness.org.uk
We also have a MySpace profile and an event page on Facebook
I have an article published in Catalyst today – “Faith no More?” - looking at inter-faith dialogue and calling for non-religious groups to be included.
Catalyst is a magazine at the forefront of new thinking on race relations and racial equality today, both in Britain and abroad.
The 21st Century Network is a London-based group “for those who believe that we need to develop a new form of humanism that includes people of all religions and none but who embrace humanistic values as the basis of their actions. These are values of global compassion, personal self-discovery, shared development, planetary concern and a love of community.”
The group was established by Francis Sealey who has been involved with politics and local communities since his teens and his formative years. He says “there is a desperate need to redefine humanism in the 21st century. Humanism grew up out of the 18th Century Enlightenment and pitted secularism against religion. The secular and humanist world was considered rational and the religious one both superstitious and irrational. However today both the secularist and the religious person can be irrational in the blind faith they hold. The religious fundamentalist wants to impose a blind faith on all and the fundamental secularist imposes an economic global doctrine or asserts the primacy of science in all things.
Natural Allies
As time has moved on many people of faith have taken on a rational and humanistic perspective and applied this to the world whilst keeping their faith private. And many secularists have realised that these people of faith are their natural allies in the battle against fundamentalists whether religious or secular. It is this realignment of humanist forces that is needed in the 21st century world.
Gaining Perspective
Also many traditional humanists, like their religious opponents, assert that somehow humans are superior to all other forms of life and matter in our universe and in doing so, they have thus taken on an arrogance that is slowly destroying our planet. Somehow humanism also needs to be redefined so that it places humanity somehow in harmony with the cosmos we live in rather than separating it as something distinct. It is this humility of humanism that needs to be asserted rather than its dominance.”
You can see them on the Meet Up website or read their blog
Chris Duggan comments in the Guardian that “In a world dominated by Middle East conflicts, it is more urgent than ever that words and creeds emerge from the trenches and dare to divest themselves of the armour that is designed to shore up a reassuring sense of identity, under the guise of religious faith. This process has always been a central concern of the mystical tradition of all the world religions: those who penetrate to the heart of their faith invite their coreligionists to go beyond words and concepts to a level of experience that escapes definition. It is at this point that the dialogue with atheism and agnosticism begins. Ibn Arabi, a hugely important thinker from medieval Andalusia, where Christian, Jewish and Muslim ideas freely cross-fertilised, preferred al-Haq to any of the other 99 names of God in the Islamic tradition. If this is translated as “the Truth”, it sounds like a metaphysical entity. If it is translated as “the Real”, or just “reality”, transcendence is brought down to earth, where it belongs.
This can spark a train of thought about just what we mean by God, and whether all that believers attach to that loaded word is really the preserve of theism. Is it too much to argue that to speak of God is idolatrous? To avoid the word completely may be impractical for believers, but to hesitate to name what is beyond words is a good discipline. The Jews have long insisted that the letters YHWH that denote God should not be pronounced. I find substituting the word “life” for “God” in religious texts very illuminating.
It is tempting to think that the mystic’s “cloud of unknowing” is some transcendental, floaty experience that has nothing to do with the unknowing of the agnostic. And yet the position of the atheist or the agnostic, rejecting any notion of God as a concept that can be defined, has much to teach religious people who think they have the source of everything sussed. So does the inquiring scepticism of a scientist approaching nature with an open mind.”
Posted in Beliefs, Interfaith/ Dialogue
The final report of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion was published today setting out the steps that need to be taken to build strong, cohesive and integrated communities.
The independent Commission chaired by Darra Singh (pictured) was established by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and tasked with considering what local and practical action is needed to overcome the barriers to integration and cohesion. Over the past year they have visited towns and cities across the country gathering evidence on how communities themselves are taking action in response to their own circumstances and particular cohesion challenges.
The Commission’s report, Our Shared Future puts forward a wide-ranging set of recommendations for practical action to address cohesion and integration issues at a local level, along with suggestions for a national framework to support these.
Some of the key areas covered by the report include how the government promotes and supports English language speaking, developing a new role for local authorities with strengthened support from national government and how it puts a renewed focus on citizenship. It recommends that unless there is a clear business and equalities case, single group funding should not be promoted. In exceptional cases where such funding is awarded the provider should demonstrate clearly how its policies will promote community integration and cohesion.
It also contains a number of messages about the importance of both faith communities and local government developing and deepening inter faith programmes. Encouragingly it also calls for “a more constructive conversation between those who are religious and those who are not”.
It also states that “there is a case to be made for a review of some aspects of the way Government, both central and local, supports, consults and engages with faith-based bodies. These might include: grant giving (and appropriate guidelines for this); issues linked to contracts for the delivery of public services; and forms of engagement with non-religious belief groups, such as Humanists. There are also wider debates to be held about the role of faith in society more generally.”
The British Humanist Association has welcomed parts of it, but warned that there are important omissions and some flaws in some of the recommendations made.
The report is covered in the Guardian (“Racial strife more likely in country villages than big towns, says report”) and the Telegraph (“Violence’ warning over immigration“)
The second of a series of interviews with peopel already engaged in religious-humanist dialogue is published on the O Project’s site. The O Project’s Hamish MacPherson (far left) speaks to Marilyn Mason (near left) about her experience as a humanist on Kingston’s Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education.
The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) reports that “In the scorching heat of North India’s summer, Mr. Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Radical Humanist, and Director of the Social Development Foundation started off on a 22-day Land Dignity and Freedom march…along with colleagues from the UP Land Alliance, Ambedkarite groups and Dalit community representatives .”
“Hunger and starvation deaths have been stalking the marginalised communities in the eastern parts of India’s most populous state Uttar-Pradesh for the last ten years. Every year people in the region die from Malaria and Japanese Encephalitis (brain fever); they have severe health problems because of severe nutritional deficiency and non existent health care.
The media and the sections of society which could make a difference have largely ignored the plight of these marginalised and dispossessed communities desperately looking for help, assistance and human solidarity. In this context, the Social Development Foundation, an IHEU Member organisation based in New Delhi, has taken a bold step to draw the world’s attention to the plight of these marginalised and the outcastes in Indian society.”
The Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes in the Times that the recent surge of atheist books are a protest against the failings of religion that cannot simply be ignored.
“Atheism does not come from nowhere. Agnosticism and indifference do; people drift, religion ceases to inspire, there are other things to do. Atheism is different. It is a form of protest. Something goes badly wrong in religious life, and people feel moved to write books saying, essentially, “Not in my name”. When that happens, mere apologetics is not enough….
Secularisation, the great movement of the European mind that began in the 17th century, did not begin because people stopped believing in God. The movement’s intellectual heroes, Newton and Descartes, believed in God very much indeed.
What they lost faith in was the ability of religious people to live peaceably together….
As then, so now. Sunni and Shia fight in the Middle East, as do Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir, Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka, and Muslims and Jews in Israel. Two things have happened in our postmodern, post-Cold War constellation. Religion, often as the outer clothing of ethnicity, has returned to the political arena. And religions still do not know how to live together in peace.
…That’s when people start writing books about atheism and they become bestsellers. For the great strength of religion is that it creates communities, and its great weakness is that it divides communities. The two go hand in hand. For every “us” there is a “them”, and the stronger the togetherness within, the deeper the estrangement without. What binds also separates. It always did.
The real battle, and it applies to secular and religious alike, is: can we love, not hate, the people not like us? We are tribal animals. We are hardwired for conflict. Sociobiologists call this genetic coding, Christians, original sin, Jews, the evil inclination. The belief that unites us is that instinct is not the final word. Selfish genes can produce selfless people. Is that miracle or mere chance? Loving creator or blind watchmaker? That is an important question. But the urgent one is: can we, believer and nonbeliever, join hands to become agents for peace against those who seek to globalise war?”
The first of a series of interviews with peopel already engaged in religious-humanist dialogue is published on this site. The O Project’s Hamish MacPherson (far left) speaks to Pastor Mike Clawson (near left) about how he has used the internet in his dialogue with atheists.
On 27 May churches across America will be marking first ‘Pluralism Sunday’. The initiative of a number of groups in the US, Christians taking part will dedicate their worship to a celebration of religious diversity. Organisers say it will help Christians grow closer to God and deeper in compassion, as they understand their own traditions better, through a greater awareness of the world’s religions.
Perhaps this is an opportunity for humansts and other atheists to ask participating churches that their beliefs be considered as party of the diversity of perspectives to be celebrated. Read article by Christian Think Tank Ekklesia
Matt Cherry (pictured) – executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies - writes in the Times Union’s Religion section that the American National Day of Prayer excludes not only the non-religious but any person who is not an evangelical Christian.Matt, is also president of the United Nations Non-Governmental Organisations Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief and highlights its inclusive values; supporting “the fundamental right to freedom of conscience for every human being on the planet” and working “to build tolerance and understanding.” values he makes clear are not exclusively religious.
He goes on to suggest that Times Union’s Religion section be renamed the “Religion & Ethics” section.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that amid the rising heat of the latest culture clash between atheists and Chrstians a few people on both sides are finding calmer ways to engage, seeking to build bridges and even learn from one another.“At a conference in Salem, Mass., last Saturday, for example, Christians from several states listened to atheists and neopagans talk about who they are, the origin of their ethics and beliefs, and what challenges they encounter in a society that is predominantly Christian.
“I’ve never understood treating a people group as [the enemy] because their belief system is different,” says Phil Wyman, pastor of The Gathering , a Salem church that sponsored the conference. [pictured above right with Jim Henderson who moderated the discussion]” Read article.
Posted in Christian, Humanists working with others, Pagan
The O Project now has a video on YouTube - “There are Other Voices” - featuring religious and non religious individuals advocating dialogue. Please take a look, post a comment and recommend it to a friend so that we can raise the profile of these ‘other voices.’ Watch the video or read the Friendly Atheist’s post about it.
