Monday, June 25, 2007

Something Interesting Between Posts

While we're waiting on a new post (I hear that one is in the works), check out this article.

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/is-religion-man-made/

I don't want to contaminate anybody's reading of the article, so I'll wait to chime in after you've all read it.

Enjoy.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

No Room for One God, Much Less Two

Since this blog has gone unused for a bit, I thought that I’d start it up will a little pot-stirring...

The cover story in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy promises “21 Solutions to Save the World.” The issues covered by their assembled group of experts ranges from access to life-saving drugs for the developing world to gender equality and global warming.
One topic that I found especially interesting was the problem of religious extremism addressed by R. Scott Appleby, the director of the Joan B Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and professor of history at Notre Dame. He claims that “too many of today’s threats are rooted in religion. We need an alliance that can separate good from evil.” The “alliance” of which he speaks is a Muslim-Catholic “religious offensive that doesn’t give offense.”
He claims that these religions are not “inevitable obstructionists to progress” and that “those who insist so are trapped in their own tired stereotypes.”
I beg to differ.
Let’s consider the cases of the United States and Iran. The United States and Iran are led by men whose religious beliefs have an obvious affect their respective foreign policy agendas. I believe that, especially in the case of these two men, their religions have, indeed, been at the very least an obstruction to progress. I will go even further and say that these two men personify the very worst that their religions have to offer, thereby making those of us governed by them “trapped” not by our stereotypes, but by the literal interpretation of their dogmatic religions.
George Bush has withheld funding from the U.N. because it doesn’t promote abstinence in Africa, lent his ear to “my family-values” evangelicals regarding environmental policies, national defense and foreign policy, education reform, judicial and cabinet appointments, and nearly every other significant decision made during his administration. The shoot-from-the-hips style for which he has come to be known and will surely be remembered is but a symptom of the black-and-white world in which he pretends to live. (Orthodox religions are chock-full of black-and-white, with-us-or-against-us principles.)
My goal here is to make a point and initiate a conversation, not to beleaguer or obscure my point, so I’ll make the point as briefly as I can and stop.
Though people certainly do immeasurable amounts of good on behalf of their religious beliefs and obligations, political leaders, by and large, do not. If we continue to live in a world where our political leaders are able to act unopposed on behalf of their religions, we may not have much of a world left before long.
Though I rarely use “Turkey” and “progressive” in the same sentence, I must say that I quite impressed by the hundreds of thousands of people who protested the recent nomination of an Islamic moderate for president. They prize their secular state nearly as much as Israel and the thousands protesting today appreciate their religious one.
So, back to my point, I believe that nothing short of an absolute absence of religion from politics and policy will bring about the kind of rational decision-making that is desperately needed both domestically and internationally. A Catholic-Muslim alliance would do nothing but obscure an already complicated problem. Obviously my preference is just as utopian as an effective Catholic-Muslim alliance would likely be, but a boy can dream can’t he?

Friday, April 13, 2007

And We're Off......

Religion is an amazingly broad and complex topic. As one of the two traditionally taboo topics to discuss in mixed company (politics), it is also incredibly personal and potentially divisive. It gains its potential for being divisive partially because this very personal topic has played a significant role in geopolitics, social policies, class and race divisions, domestic politics, and, for many, one's "eternal situation."
My goal for All Things God is to provide a forum where well-intentioned people can openly examine history, current events, and any other religious or secular topics through the lens of religion. I suppose the ultimate goal would be to shed light on the fundamental questions that help understand the "origin and purpose of our existence." I expect that the forum will evolve to some extent over time, but I do hope that the spirit of open-mindedness and honest dialogue remain prominent.

With that said, let the discussion begin.....