Discussion will be around the article ‘Interfaith talks need to go beyond tea and samosas written by Lord Indarjit Singh and published in the Times on the 22nd July
The topics will be introduced by Laurie Burrow.
For more background to this meeting you might find it interesting to listen to this podcast by Scott Atran
Notes for the meeting
The meeting shared the philosophical parable of Blind Men and the Elephant – an ancient parable used as a warning for people that promote absolute truth or exclusive religious claims. The simple reason is that our sensory perceptions and life experiences can lead to limited access and overreaching misinterpretations. How can a person with a limited touch of truth turn that into the one and only version of all reality? (Quoted from All About Philosophy)
See here for Johm Saxe’s version
The RIFF meeting shared texts from their own faith and from other faiths that offered particular insight to their foundation beliefs. Frances Deegan’s poem “Don’t tell me about your god” was read together with other texts shown below:
Quaker Faith and Practice A&Q 17
“Do you respect that of God in everyone though it my be expressed in unfamiliar ways or be difficult to discern?”
Offered by Laurie Burrow
‘All Men are Brothers’ - Life and Thought of Mahatma Gandhi
"Everyone has faith in God though everyone does not know it. For everyone has faith in himself and that multiplied to the nth degree is God. The sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean."
Offered by Laurie Burrow
From the Sikh faith (as quoted by Lord Singh):
“God is not interested in religious labels but in how we serve our fellow human beings.”
Offered by Brian Davies
From my Christian faith:
Summarising the Law and the Prophets, Jesus said:
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
Ultimately Jesus expresses this even more briefly:
“I give you a new commandment: you must love one another.” (John 13:14). Because this is the way we show our love for God. “Anyone who says, I love God, and hates his brother, is a liar.” (1 John 4:20).
Offered by Brian Davies