Coexistence
Posted by Billy on March 5, 2008 under General Atheism
Yesterday, I attended a religious discussion event at my university. In a nutshell, the even creators intended on having a wide variety of religious world views present so that they could split them up where there was one religious view at each table. At each of these tables, there was a mediator present to ask questions on faith and each person answers the question. The whole purpose of the event was to educate others on your religion and to encourage respect of each other's beliefs.
My table had me: the Atheist, a Muslim, two Christians, a Jew, a Catholic and a Pagan. We had quite a variety! Each person had excellent answers to just about every question. I learned a lot from the Jew and the Muslims in particular. The two Christians at the table seemed to be learning a lot from just about everybody. What I particularly liked about this event was the amount of respect I was given while representing the Atheists of the world. I'm so accustomed to being told things like "Oh, well Jesus forgives everybody, even Atheists like you", or "what?!?! you don't believe in God?? Aren't you afraid of going to hell????". But I received nothing of this sort while there. In fact, not only did I receive solid respect, but I also seemed to be enlightening on everything I said.
Turns out, none of them knew hardly anything about what an Atheist is. The very first thing I said was "Alright, let's get this straight now. Atheism is not a religion. Atheists come in very different flavors. The only common belief Atheists share is that they lack the belief of a creator, God, or gods. It's not that they believe there IS no God, but rather, they lack the belief of a God. There are Atheists who believe there is no God, there are Atheists who claim we'll never know and just simply lack the belief."
On the topic of what books our religions followed, one of the Christians asked "So what books to Atheists read, like science books?". I told him jokingly "anything by Richard Dawkins", and nobody got the joke which is a good thing I suppose. It means they are pro-faith, rather than anti-Atheist. I then told him that Atheists don't have a unified book like The New/Old Testaments, Koran or the Kabbalah. Atheism is not a religion. I told him the most common flavors of Atheists are the scientific ones who are heavily into science reading, and the humanist ones who approach things more from a humanist & philosophical way.
On the topic of creation, every person gave their religion's view on how they got here. The Pagan surprisingly claimed to not know, but she thought the Big Bang was some sort of hoax. And EXTRA surprisingly, the rest of the people at the table didn't discredit the Big Bang Theory. In fact, one of the Christians tried explaining it to the Pagan girl, that our universe is expanding constantly and had to come from some single point. I then proceeded to explain to everyone just what a scientific theory IS, and how it's not just some made up hypothesis, that it's a conclusion that all the facts and evidence points to. I also explained that it remains a "theory" because they don't know what caused it. Just to leaves things open so they could relate to it, I even mentioned the possibility that even "God" could've caused the Big Bang and that was his medium for creation. In short, nobody knows. But I told them as religious people, they should never try and compete with science.
Overall, it was a pretty cool experience, with pretty cool religious people. If only all religious people were like them!
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Since I attended that same event, I got the same reaction at my table … to my surprise, in fact, two theists expressed interest in attending our Atheist Student Alliance meetings in the future, not necessarily to join, but to find out more about our worldview.
One of the main reasons why this went smoothly is that the USF Religious Studies Club put on the event and had invited students from a World Religions class to participate … most of the club members (who are religious studies students like myself) and most intro religious studies classes are introduced to Leonard Swidler’s “Dialogue Decalogue,” the “10 commandments” of doing this sort of thing, as you can see from the rules, it sets a template for a non-confrontational learning experience (in contrast with the debate format in which sides attempt to win their given position) …
First Commandment: The primary purpose of dialogue is to change and grow in the perception and understanding of reality and then to act accordingly.
Second Commandment: Interreligious dialogue must be a two-sided project—within each religious community and between religious communities.
Third Commandment: Each participant must come to the dialogue with complete honesty and sincerity.
Fourth Commandment: Each participant must assume a similar complete honesty and sincerity in the other partners.
Fifth Commandment: Each participant must define him/herself. Conversely—the one interpreted must be able to recognize him/herself in the interpretation.
Sixth Commandment: Each participant must come to the dialogue with no hard-and-fast assumptions as to where the points of disagreement are.
Seventh Commandment: Dialogue can take place only between equals, or par cum pari.
Eighth Commandment: Dialogue can take place only on the basis of mutual trust.
Ninth Commandment: Persons entering into interreligious dialogue must be at least minimally self-critical of both themselves and their own religious traditions.
Tenth Commandment: Each participant eventually must attempt to experience the partner’s religion “from within.â€
John
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