If you are concerned about the role of religion in public policy, or the future of religion in the world and in America, check out the front page editorial in today’s Seattle Times newspaper (January 28, 2007, p. D1).
Glen Hiemstra and David Brown make the case that it is time to change the conversation about religion and to recognize the real challenges of a plurastic society.
The Times captured the central theme in this pull-out paragraph.
“We do not need elected leaders who can talk about their faith as much as we need elected leaders who can articulate the truth of our situation: that we are stuggling as a nation to live with religious diversity.”
1 Chris Struble on Jan 30th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I enjoyed your article in the Seattle Times this weekend. The future of religion is a topic I write about a lot on my own blog.
As a humanist, I agree with Sam Harris that traditional religions may be dangerous to human survival. As a Unitarian, I have some hope that religions of the future won’t always be so dangerous. I just don’t think it will be so easy to achieve as you do.
It isn’t just that followers of traditional religions are often intolerant: they live in different realities. They live in old cosmologies that don’t come close to giving meaning to the real universe being revealed by science and modern experience.
I would pose this question: which passages of the Bible are you prepared to remove or amend now that science has revealed the real size and age of the universe? Human evolution? Psychology and neural science? No? Not even those Bible passages supporting genocide, racism, sexism, child abuse, homophobia, and limitless growth? Or that part about going to hell based on belief not conduct? Not so easy, is it?
It isn’t enough for religions to play nice. They have to embrace reality. If religions can do that, there won’t be much left to argue about with each other or anyone else.
2 Sean Sharp on Jan 31st, 2007 at 12:03 am
Dear Mr. Hiemstra,
I read your article in this past Sunday’s Seattle Times with great interest. Thank you for your perspectives. I have been considering what you and your colleague wrote about since then and have some thoughts to share.
First of all, my undergraduate studies were in comparative religions. I studied Hinduism, Islam and Judaism at Fairhaven College, in Bellingham, Washington. I lived in Seattle for a number of years working as a middle and elementary school teacher in both public and private schools. Currently I live and work in Southwest Virginia for a small rural school district as an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher. Basically what I do is help teachers integrate technology use into their curriculum. I moved to this area only two and a half years ago as well, and at times I still feel myself adjusting to the culture out here. It is quite different than the culture of Seattle.
With that being said, I was particularly drawn to your thoughts on education and how we need to help educators learn to talk about different religions in our society and the world today. My question is simply, how do we do this?
Our country is full of different cultures and values and ideas. For example here in Virginia, each school posts two small posters near the front of the school. One is, “In God We Trust,” and the other is the Bill Of Rights. To me these two documents contradict one another, but they are up on the walls of the schools here.
In addition, each morning there is a “moment of silence,” which is a way to allow children and teachers to reflect and, if they so choose, to pray. Out here the predominant religion is evangelical Protestantism and there is a monthly prayer meeting before school in the library at one of the schools in which I work. The religious expression here is very public and very much visible to all. Am I uncomfortable with this? Yes, personally I am as I consider myself to be more of a secular humanist than anything else, but I also see that this religious expression does give meaning to these people’s lives, so who am I to judge?
Still, I think that developing a discussion of tolerance around religion will be one of the great challenges that we face when looking towards the future. I found your article to be the first of what I would call a “post Sam Harris” view of religion today. It gives me hope that somehow we can teach our students about other religions and points of view with acceptance and tolerance, emphasizing that our country will become more diverse in the future. I appreciated that you emphasized that people might be “not religious” as well, which is a piece of the conversation that isn’t happening where I live today.
Another thought that I’ve had on this is that if behaviors start from one’s personal belief system, then how are we to accept those whose actions are violent or prejudicial, especially when they justify those actions because of their religious views. I don’t have a clear answer to that one, but we know that people like that do exist.
Anyhow, thanks for the article. It is one that I will share with others and it gives me hope that perhaps the necessary conversations can be had.