The Convergence of Virtue

A good phrase by Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, comes to mind here. He said: So long as a child is born, it shows that God hasn’t lost hope in humanity. Now, if I were to view the world from God’s perspective, I’d say that we still haven’t lost hope in humanity. Nor have we lost hope in religiosity. I still believe that religious people are behind many endearing manifestations of humanity. If you look at all the charity work that is done in the name of religion, you’ll see that there’s still no shortage of this kind of thing. I’m living in the United States where there are very many religious people who do good works. The women who work as nurses in leper colonies are still Christian nuns and they do what they do because of their religious beliefs. There are still good and pious souls in the world. You can find hundreds of examples of this kind of moral conduct. Of course very dangerous things have also been done and are being done in the name of religion. [1]

The speaker: Abdulkarim Soroush: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdolkarim_Soroush

I have learned, possibly the hard way, that empathy in human affairs is not a given, nor perhaps are faith in God, charity, courage, and humility, but then where such virtues do exist, they do so in hearts and heads across every divide imaginable.  Whether the religious facet within a culture encourages the development and sustainment of a predominantly virtuous society whose precepts approach the universal would seem part of a question with which we're struggling.

As we pull our heads out of our own geocultural and geophysical sands, we may rediscover more core values held in common than differences

Love of education and a healthy respect for books (and each book a universe)?  If you're here, you have got that.

Recognition of the divine in others?  Perhaps that is more challenging, but one reaches to perceive the experience and position of some other, a labor not entirely of empathy and imagination but of inspiration too.

Secularism provides for an individuated and introspective journey into the eternal backward through cultural and spiritual legacy and forward through the consideration of new ideas and the experience without design of spiritual ecstacy and epiphany.

One day we wake up and we know what we did not the night or hour before.

Jewish American Transcendentalist?

I've had a little bit of fun with "Divine Rational Universal Monotheism" as a catchy seed, but having encountered Catholic anti-Semitic views, pressure to convert from the Lutheran quarter, the appellation of monkey or pig (in Gaza, "donkey" suffices) from the Muslim one, one may be obligated to at minimum recognize attachments to unreconstructed (and both patronizing and divisive) dogma in every fragment of the theokalaedescope.

Reference

1. Amiri, Nooshabeh.  "Some of our Clerics are no Better than the Taliban: Interview with Abdulkarim Soroush."  Paris, April 2009, appearing at dsoroush.com: http://www.drsoroush.com/English/Interviews/E-INT-20090500-SomeOfOurClerics.html

Related Reference

Catholics for a Changing Church: http://www.ccc4vat2.co.uk/site2.2/Newfiles/index.html - an exploring and introspective center for universalized thought.

For that nagging "the Jews killed Christ (God)" message: Guimaraes, Atila Sinke.  "Jewish Sanhedrin Re-Established."  Tradition in Action, Bird's Eye View of the News, December 20, 2004: http://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/060bev12-20-2004.htm

OA&L Related

Oppenheim, James S.  "Islam - One Scholar."  Oppenheim Arts & Letters, November 14, 2008: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2008/11/islam---one-scholar.html

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Do we compete to develop and sustain intensely conflicting institutions, or do we work to sustain a virtuous faith in the Divine and the elevation of mankind universally to an evermore compassionate, empathetic, and ennobled state?

Man certainly has a relationship with the universe, earth, and with nature that would seem as yet unsettled and possibly under-explored; as for the relationship with God, I would think it happier were its discussions and proposals not so often leveraged for the many suspect pleasures known to despots.

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