We feel that every denomination, para-church organization, religious group,
and religious web site should consider creating a statement of belief or faith and
displaying it prominently. This is particularly important among
Christian groups
who may use the term "Christian" to refer to only the
Roman Catholic Church, or only to Evangelical Protestantism,
or to the full range of Christian denominations and beliefs, or to some other
subset of the religion. Quite often, when we visit a Christian web site for the
first time, we have to search around among its articles to find out exactly what
Christian belief system they follow and promote on their web site.
That said, the following is our attempt at a statement of belief. Please be
sure to read the footnotes at the bottom of the essay because they include some
important qualifications and exceptions.
In the inherent worth of every person. People are worthy of respect,
support, and caring simply because they are human. Unfortunately, we have not
reached a consensus on when human life, in the form of an ovum and
spermatozoon, becomes a human person. On this matter, our lack of agreement
mirrors that of society at large.
In working towards a culture that is relatively free of discrimination
on the basis of gender, race, sexual orientation,
gender identity, religion, national origin, physical
disability, age, body shape, etc.
In the sanctity of the human person. We oppose the use of torture and
cruel or unusual punishment including the death
penalty. 1
In the importance of democracy within religious, political and other
structures.
That the systems of truth that we have studied on the topics of morals, ethics, and religious
belief are often considered absolute within various
religions and secular belief systems. However,
they are obviously relative because they vary greatly by culture, by religion, and over time. 3
In the generally positive influence that most religions have had on
their followers and on society. 4
In the importance of individual believers determining evil influences
and policies that currently exist within their chosen faith group, and strongly advocate for their
correction. If change is impossible, they should consider withholding financial
support or leaving the group.
In the importance of education. We believe that people are not truly
educated unless they have studied the world's major religions and
ethical systems. They need to learn of both the good and evil impacts that each
has
had on society.
5
About accuracy in our essays:
We will attempt to overcome our biases on each topic that we describe, by
explaining each point of view carefully, respectfully and objectively. To this
end, we have many of our essays reviewed by persons familiar with the issues who
represent all sides of each topic. We encourage readers to
Email us about
any errors that they find. We do not regard any essay as fixed or complete.
We believe that our website is unique among religious websites in that it
contains an errata page where we record errors that
have been detected and corrected from among our 5,078 essays
and menus (as of 2009-NOV-17).
We abandoned use of the traditional AD/BC notation for identifying years.
After a long debate, we made the decision to use the religiously neutral
CE/BCE notation which we feel is less offensive to
non-Christians.
However, like the rest of North American society, we have not been able to reach a consensus about when human
life, in the form of a spermatozoon and an ovum, becomes a
human person deserving civil rights.
However we have not been able to reach a consensus about the age at
which an individual should fully enjoy these freedoms. We also recognize
that some of these freedoms should have limits. For example, we do not feel
that, in most cases, parents should be allowed to let their children die if
medical treatment will give a sick child a chance to live. We do not feel that individuals should
be free to advocate genocide or falsely yell "fire" in a crowded theatre.
We have been frequently criticized for our lack of belief in absolute morality.
Exceptions are:
A handful of
destructive cults
which have endangered the lives of their members.
Those faith groups who actively promote discrimination and
oppression on the basis of
race, gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, and similar grounds.
They need to obtain a balanced understand of the positive and negative
contributions of religion: the religious sources that inspired Gandhi,
Albert Schweitzer, and Mother Teresa to commit their life to serving a hurting
humanity. They need to learn of the impressive contributions that religions have
made to the pursuit of philosophical and scientific truth, the alleviation of
human suffering, the improvement of political systems, the provision of
educational opportunities -- the list is almost endless. But they also need to learn the shadow
side of religion: how religious beliefs have contributed to hatred,
intolerance, unjustified discrimination, and suffering as well as:
Mass murders and
genocides in such places as Nazi Germany, Bosnia, East Timor,
Kosovo,
Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Sudan and countless other countries.