Atheists are leading the charge for interfaith cooperation. If that sounds contradictory, allow me to confirm: I just saw it with my own eyes.
Last weekend, more than 200 college students and 100 faculty and staff from across the United States converged in Washington, D.C. for five days of interfaith training. Students and campus staff participated in two consecutive Interfaith Leadership Institutes, planned and run by the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), where they received intensive training that prepared them to take the lead in a national movement for interfaith cooperation and social action.
The Interfaith Leadership Institutes, co-hosted by the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, consisted of a series of trainings, speeches and events intended to equip hundreds of student leaders and campus allies with the vision, knowledge and skills necessary to lead interfaith and community service initiatives on their campuses. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships hosted a session for each institute, and then participants spent two days at Georgetown being trained and equipped.
I was honored to join these students and their staff and faculty allies as a speaker and volunteer IFYC Alumni Coach for the institutes. I was amazed by the enthusiasm and compassion modeled by everyone I met, but as a secular humanist and interfaith activist, the number of nonreligious participants present is perhaps what excited me the most.
Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus Organizing at the Secular Student Alliance, was one of the student allies in attendance. Liddell believes the institutes were a watershed moment for nonreligious participation in the interfaith movement.
"This institute changed perspectives for both theists and nontheists," said Liddell. "Hearing repeated language specifically including nonbelievers -- such as 'people of all religions and no religion' -- made it clear that atheists and other secular worldviews are welcome and needed at the interfaith table. Likewise, having nontheists represented helped religious attendees really understand that nontheists want to be involved and are willing and eager to be included."
As an Alumni Coach, I am working with 20 other IFYC alumni to serve as mentors to the institutes' budding student leaders. One of the students I am mentoring is Michael Anderson, a junior at McKendree University. Anderson sees interfaith work as a pragmatic necessity. "We're all just human beings, and we have to come to a conclusion on how to live together," said Anderson.
Vlad Chituc, a junior at Yale University, was also there to learn more about interfaith leadership. Chituc was surprised and impressed by how welcoming the institute was to atheists and other nonreligious individuals. "I found that the entire conversation stemmed around people saying, 'We really want to include nonreligious people; how the hell do we do that?' Now I don't know why I was expecting the discussion to focus more on whether or not we should even be involved in the movement," Chituc said.
Chelsea Link, a junior at Harvard University, said that she believes that her humanist values require her to find common ground with religious people. "When I found humanism, I felt like many humanists and atheists were detached from religious communities, and many were antagonistic toward the religious," Link said. "Meanwhile, at interfaith events, I didn't see much of an invitation for atheists or humanists. The religious and nonreligious don't know how to deal with each other; I'd like to see more reaching out from both sides. We shouldn't be afraid of each other!"
Adam Garner, a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, agreed with her. "I want to make the world a better place through service and I want to fight religious intolerance. The IFYC, and especially our Interfaith in Action group here on campus, allows me to accomplish both goals in one fell swoop."
I have been working for several years now as a secular humanist promoting interfaith and nonreligious understanding, so I was honored to receive an invitation to share my story and my message at a reception following the White House session, hosted by the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation in celebration of the launch of the Interfaith Leadership Institutes. Speaking before a group of policy and philanthropic professionals, I explained that there are many atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nonreligious individuals like Anderson, Chituc, Link, Garner, Liddell and others at the institutes who wish to seek understanding, respect and collaboration with their religious neighbors.
After my speech, I got the opportunity to talk with many of the policy and philanthropic professionals at the reception, and they affirmed my belief that the nonreligious are an essential asset in this movement. President Obama has spoken frequently of the role that the nonreligious play in American pluralism, so I was both pleased and unsurprised to hear that those involved in the current administration's efforts to ensure interfaith cooperation agreed.
The IFYC Interfaith Leadership Institutes proved that the interfaith movement has hit a critical mass. The student-led, national Better Together" campaign is at the forefront of an emerging societal shift toward inter-religious tolerance and cooperation. Including the nonreligious only strengthens these efforts. Atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and the like have a vital stake in ensuring that America's promise of pluralism is realized, and it is exhilarating to see more of us decide that collaboration is more important than division.
"Some of the best interfaith leaders I know are not people of faith, but their understanding of secular humanism inspires them to create bridges of cooperation between people from different backgrounds," said IFYC Founder and President Eboo Patel. "They recognize that religious tolerance is a 'public good,' which benefits everybody, including the nonreligious. They also recognize that perhaps the greatest interfaith divide in our society is between 'believers' and 'nonbelievers,' and that they have a special role to play in bridging that divide. And from what I have experienced myself, I believe that as well."
With more than 300 students and staff equipped to make interfaith cooperation through social action a reality on their campuses and in their communities, they now know that the nonreligious will be there working and engaging in dialogue alongside them for the public good.
When I first started doing interfaith work, I didn't see many other nonreligious people involved. Now we're impossible to miss.
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Dan Jighter: Agreed. Note there is a point to having a conversation.
"If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to, Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing, Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing, Then why does evil exit?
If He is neither able nor willing, Then why call Him God?"
This quote has been repeated all over but it's simple common sense can't be denied. Maybe neither side can say 100% for sure but logic is on the side of atheism. Simple examination of what god is supposed to be, under the light of the world we live in every day suggests that god is unlikely.
I think what is more important is that both communities work to exist side by side for some greater good. When it comes to helping your fellow man, the result is more important than the source. I wish this group the best of luck.
If you think it is more important to work side by side and such, why do you place your agenda first in your response?
...and, how do you know if it is truly God's word.
Uncertainty
They say that someday
....................we'll have a theory of everything
That will explain
....................all things in this universe mysterious:
Well, I can only say
....................good luck with that.
It is not only
....................the face of the One
That we see
....................through a darkened glass,
Our minds are weak
....................and thoroughly muddled,
A box of jumbled
....................and contradictory thoughts,
Surrounded by legions
...................of uncertainty and doubt,
Unable to rend
...................the final veil.
Our vaunted reasoning
...................and logic break down
When confronted with
...................the reality of existance,
With the essential
...................zero point essence
That lies behind
...................all of creation.
Our judgement and
...................our vision are clouded
In all things
...................but this one,
Only in love
...................is there clarity.
http://www.atheistrev.com/2009/07/can-atheists-participate-in-interfaith.html
look at what a christian want in its interfaith dialog. A rather boring monologue as always with the coins in the side of the theist.
It's a great way to waste ones time...... faith organizations have more to do with having and controlling power...... than getting along with each other.
Does one believe that intelligent extraterrestrial life has visited Earth? I'm sure there are some theists who believe this and some who don't. For those who don't...how you feel about those who do, is how I feel about theists. If you do believe in extraterrestrial visitors, maybe there's something else you don't believe in that a decent number of people do...Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, whatever. Perform the same exercise.
I think most people who do this exercise will find that they don't hate the people who believe in extraterrestrial visitors. They don't want them jailed or converted. They just don't care. Your content to let them be. If there are three or four of them together talking about an abduction, you might just choose to wander off to another conversation.
Now, skew the scenario a little. The "believers" now want to try and convert everyone. They accuse you of being immoral and un-American for not believing in extraterrestrial visitors. Now, how do you feel about them?
I dare-say I could do without any of them, because there are plenty of other issues that could stand to be addressed in the world without having to deal with people who are so completely irrational.
I would consider myself quite religious but I am not a fundamentalist. I am Eastern Orthodox. I find the fundamentalists just as wacky as you do. In my tradition we would never go around telling people they are sinners and damned and speak to people only because we want to convert them. That is not our theology. I would speak to people because we are both human beings. But in any case, none of that matters. Because the question is not what you think of those people, but rather, don't you also consider yourself a person motivated by love? One who would enter into dialogue with others because talking with others, even those who see the world in a really different way makes us see ourselves if they honestly want to dialogue? I am really curious about this from the perspective of world view. What I cited, and not the fundamentalist craziness that you want to force onto all Christians, would motivate me to want to talk with you. What would motivate you to want to talk to me? I mean, from the framework of your ethics and world view?
Consider a child raised in an environment devoid of the mention of god(s). Is that child's lack of faith equivalent to faith? Suppose one day a missionary shows up and begins preaching the Good News. The child rightly assumes the missionary is deranged. Does the child's natural atheism suddenly change in some way? Nonsense. Simply being exposed to the notion of god(s) is not enough to lend the concept special credibility. Just as with any other fiction - whether we hear about it from others or make it up ourselves - we are free to discard the god-concept any time we wish. The burden of proof is always on the claimant.
This is just a twist on the old ontological argument : apparently, as soon as the idea of god(s) appears in our minds, it becomes impossible to not believe in god(s).
Sorry, but I'm not buying it.
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