Interfaith Understanding

Shouldn’t the strategy be to promote peace through interfaith ignoring and discounting? Seems the more the followers of one particular faith knows about the other, the more animosity is generated. Tell them the other guys are ineffective and not up to anything. Just another falsehood.

I agree that we should promote peace.

However, it is not the things between faiths which form a solid basis for peace, but the things which lie beyond and transcend them. By focusing on what these faiths share, various other out-groups are still being excluded (atheists, agnostics, non-Abrahamic faiths) and peace will not be achieved if the focus is still on our differences; understanding cannot be produced, cannot be achieved by drawing a line in the sand – rather, it can only be produced by erasing the lines which divide us all.

Only when we invoke principles which surmount the inflexible dogmas of unquestioned tradition can the lines of separation truly be removed.

While understanding does not always create peace, and may in some cases actually incite conflict, alcohol consumption never creates sobriety. So I would say that it is a non sequiter.

How about we get rid of religion(s) and focus on the things that actually work, such as authentic spirituality.

A problem seems to be that the inter-faith group excludes ‘secularists’ (I think this is their preferred word, the web site for the foundation doesn’t seem to use atheists, atheism).

David: What exactly do you mean by ‘authentic spirituality’?

Ultimately the goal is to promote peace by eliminating superstition entirely – but my strong sense is that contact between people of different religions moves them both one notch away from fundamentalism and one notch toward atheism. Ask yourself: have you ever heard of a person becoming MORE religious as a result of learning about other faiths they haven’t been exposed to before? No, because they start seeing the common screwinesses. I have no good data to support this and would love to see some, but it explains why religious leaders are typically so opposed to their adherents talking to people outside the faith. Consequently I’m *all for* expanding dialogue between religions.

Okay here is one for the atheists. Check this website out. Now if you all are going to be quiet about this one I am going to truly wonder what you motivations are. Christians are not allowed to do this so why should muslims?

http://islamoncapitolhill.com/Home_Page.html