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As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows
by Tony Blair
Reposted from:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tony-blair-as-the-world-becomes-smaller-the-need-to-understand-each-others-faith-grows-846964.html
Why is faith still so important in the modern world? How has it confounded the many thinkers and commentators who, for the past 200 years and more, have predicted that religion would wither away and die? Why, on the contrary, is faith still flourishing?
The fact is, however much some people may dislike it, that faith still matters to billions of people around the world. Even in the West, which in many places now has only a tenuous connection with its religious traditions, millions of people still believe. In most other parts of the world, religions are growing. Faith provides a structure for people's lives, values to guide their behaviour and aspirations and ideals which endow their existence with meaning. It is a force which in countless different ways motivates people to do good, though sometimes, it is true, motivates them to do great harm.
So we shall not fully understand what drives countless individuals and the many different communities they make up if we do not understand religion in its various manifestations.
And this matters. It matters all the more in the world today, a world driven increasingly by the forces of globalisation. Under the momentum of globalisation, the world is opening up and countries and cultures are coming closer together at an astonishing speed. In the 21st century the world is becoming ever more interdependent. Large communities of different nations and faiths now live cheek by jowl, whereas before oceans and continents separated them and individuals could go a lifetime without encountering anyone of another faith or tradition.
For me this has a number of important implications. First, it is vitally important that we all have a better and deeper understanding of the different religions, their values and their mindsets. Any politician, any major business leader, any community leader needs to understand such an important influence for so many millions of people. Without that understanding, we shall make decisions that are misguided or plain wrong. And if different communities fail to comprehend one another better, that leads to misunderstanding, suspicion, and distrust.
Just one up-to-the-minute example. Gallup's rolling poll on religious attitudes shows that most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe that most Muslims don't. Most Muslims want better relations too but think most Christians don't. Projects such as The Independent's Great Religions campaign can be of great help in this regard by raising the level of religious literacy.
Secondly, given faith's power to move people and to motivate them, it can either play a positive or a negative role. With globalisation pushing people closer together, peaceful coexistence becomes essential. And not just coexistence but active co-operation. If faith becomes a countervailing force pulling people and communities apart, it becomes destructive.
But if it becomes a means of peaceful coexistence, teaching people to live with a diverse religious ecology, to respect "the other", to search for common values while respecting differences, then faith becomes an important power for making the 21st century work more humanely and the one shared creation a better place for all its inhabitants.
Thirdly, religious faith potentially has a crucial part to play in shaping the values that can help to guide the modern world. It can and should be seen as a force for progress and betterment. But there is a risk that it either falls prey to extremist and exclusionist tendencies which are latent within each religion, or that faith is seen mainly as an interesting relic, part of the past but with little or nothing to say to the present and the future. But, in fact, faiths can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation, help to shape the values of the changing set of economic and power relationships of the 21st century, and underpin the responses of individuals and communities to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation creates.
That is why I believe that those who wish to exclude the voices of faith from the public square are so profoundly wrong. I am not arguing for a theocracy, nor that specific religious views should always prevail. But if societies do not draw on the wisdom of the religious traditions, then their debates on their future will be impoverished and ignore what is important to millions of their citizens.
So for all these reasons, and because as a person of faith I believe in its power in individual lives, I have set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. The foundation will work with the three Abrahamic faiths and Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
The foundation will not be primarily concerned with interfaith dialogue as such. There are many excellent organisations already deeply engaged in that; we do not want to duplicate what they do so well. Nor do we want to engage in doctrinal inquiries or try to subsume all faiths into a world faith of the lowest common denominator.
But we want to highlight faith in action. We want to facilitate greater opportunities for people of different faiths to work more closely together or work in areas where they may not have worked together before. And we want to grow greater understanding between faiths through shared action and encounter. We shall focus in the first phase on the following areas.
We aim to educate. So we are working with Yale University's Schools of Divinity and of Management to design a new course on faith and globalisation. It will run over three years initially and I will lead a series of seminars. It will be designed so that it can be spun off to other universities in different parts of the world, and I hope that its lessons will help to inform the thinking of politicians, business leaders and other opinion formers.
We shall also focus on schools. We are going to use new and interactive media to engage young people of different faiths. We want to produce material that teaches young people what it really feels like to be a member of another faith and captures their imaginations. In some countries there is a deficit of good and interesting material, and in others no material at all on any religion except that of the majority. We hope to help make good those deficits.
We intend to mobilise a greater interfaith effort in pursuit of the UN's millennium development goals. As a first step we will work with partner organisations to bring together people of different faiths to help to eradicate deaths from malaria, a scourge that kills 3,000 children a day. We intend to help to mobilise people of different faiths in countries affected to bring this about and, in the West, to mobilise young people of different faiths to come together to act as ambassadors for this initiative.
We believe that interfaith interaction can benefit from a physical structure as a focus for learning, discussion and contemplation. We are therefore backing the proposal of the Coexist Foundation to establish Abraham House in the heart of London. This will be a spectacular space in which exploration in depth can take place.
Finally, we will help organisations that aim to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religion. Where people of faith combat such extremism they should be supported.
In a shrinking world we must be global citizens as well as citizens of our own countries. And this means that we must know more about the dynamics of the world's great faiths, must be prepared to learn from their stores of wisdom, must be willing to trust those of other faiths and to work so that they will trust us.
If people of different faiths can coexist in mutual respect, then so much the better for our world.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tony-blair-as-the-world-becomes-smaller-the-need-to-understand-each-others-faith-grows-846964.html
Why is faith still so important in the modern world? How has it confounded the many thinkers and commentators who, for the past 200 years and more, have predicted that religion would wither away and die? Why, on the contrary, is faith still flourishing?
The fact is, however much some people may dislike it, that faith still matters to billions of people around the world. Even in the West, which in many places now has only a tenuous connection with its religious traditions, millions of people still believe. In most other parts of the world, religions are growing. Faith provides a structure for people's lives, values to guide their behaviour and aspirations and ideals which endow their existence with meaning. It is a force which in countless different ways motivates people to do good, though sometimes, it is true, motivates them to do great harm.
So we shall not fully understand what drives countless individuals and the many different communities they make up if we do not understand religion in its various manifestations.
And this matters. It matters all the more in the world today, a world driven increasingly by the forces of globalisation. Under the momentum of globalisation, the world is opening up and countries and cultures are coming closer together at an astonishing speed. In the 21st century the world is becoming ever more interdependent. Large communities of different nations and faiths now live cheek by jowl, whereas before oceans and continents separated them and individuals could go a lifetime without encountering anyone of another faith or tradition.
For me this has a number of important implications. First, it is vitally important that we all have a better and deeper understanding of the different religions, their values and their mindsets. Any politician, any major business leader, any community leader needs to understand such an important influence for so many millions of people. Without that understanding, we shall make decisions that are misguided or plain wrong. And if different communities fail to comprehend one another better, that leads to misunderstanding, suspicion, and distrust.
Just one up-to-the-minute example. Gallup's rolling poll on religious attitudes shows that most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe that most Muslims don't. Most Muslims want better relations too but think most Christians don't. Projects such as The Independent's Great Religions campaign can be of great help in this regard by raising the level of religious literacy.
Secondly, given faith's power to move people and to motivate them, it can either play a positive or a negative role. With globalisation pushing people closer together, peaceful coexistence becomes essential. And not just coexistence but active co-operation. If faith becomes a countervailing force pulling people and communities apart, it becomes destructive.
But if it becomes a means of peaceful coexistence, teaching people to live with a diverse religious ecology, to respect "the other", to search for common values while respecting differences, then faith becomes an important power for making the 21st century work more humanely and the one shared creation a better place for all its inhabitants.
Thirdly, religious faith potentially has a crucial part to play in shaping the values that can help to guide the modern world. It can and should be seen as a force for progress and betterment. But there is a risk that it either falls prey to extremist and exclusionist tendencies which are latent within each religion, or that faith is seen mainly as an interesting relic, part of the past but with little or nothing to say to the present and the future. But, in fact, faiths can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation, help to shape the values of the changing set of economic and power relationships of the 21st century, and underpin the responses of individuals and communities to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation creates.
That is why I believe that those who wish to exclude the voices of faith from the public square are so profoundly wrong. I am not arguing for a theocracy, nor that specific religious views should always prevail. But if societies do not draw on the wisdom of the religious traditions, then their debates on their future will be impoverished and ignore what is important to millions of their citizens.
So for all these reasons, and because as a person of faith I believe in its power in individual lives, I have set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. The foundation will work with the three Abrahamic faiths and Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
The foundation will not be primarily concerned with interfaith dialogue as such. There are many excellent organisations already deeply engaged in that; we do not want to duplicate what they do so well. Nor do we want to engage in doctrinal inquiries or try to subsume all faiths into a world faith of the lowest common denominator.
But we want to highlight faith in action. We want to facilitate greater opportunities for people of different faiths to work more closely together or work in areas where they may not have worked together before. And we want to grow greater understanding between faiths through shared action and encounter. We shall focus in the first phase on the following areas.
We aim to educate. So we are working with Yale University's Schools of Divinity and of Management to design a new course on faith and globalisation. It will run over three years initially and I will lead a series of seminars. It will be designed so that it can be spun off to other universities in different parts of the world, and I hope that its lessons will help to inform the thinking of politicians, business leaders and other opinion formers.
We shall also focus on schools. We are going to use new and interactive media to engage young people of different faiths. We want to produce material that teaches young people what it really feels like to be a member of another faith and captures their imaginations. In some countries there is a deficit of good and interesting material, and in others no material at all on any religion except that of the majority. We hope to help make good those deficits.
We intend to mobilise a greater interfaith effort in pursuit of the UN's millennium development goals. As a first step we will work with partner organisations to bring together people of different faiths to help to eradicate deaths from malaria, a scourge that kills 3,000 children a day. We intend to help to mobilise people of different faiths in countries affected to bring this about and, in the West, to mobilise young people of different faiths to come together to act as ambassadors for this initiative.
We believe that interfaith interaction can benefit from a physical structure as a focus for learning, discussion and contemplation. We are therefore backing the proposal of the Coexist Foundation to establish Abraham House in the heart of London. This will be a spectacular space in which exploration in depth can take place.
Finally, we will help organisations that aim to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religion. Where people of faith combat such extremism they should be supported.
In a shrinking world we must be global citizens as well as citizens of our own countries. And this means that we must know more about the dynamics of the world's great faiths, must be prepared to learn from their stores of wisdom, must be willing to trust those of other faiths and to work so that they will trust us.
If people of different faiths can coexist in mutual respect, then so much the better for our world.
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Posted: Saturday, June 14, 2008 | PermalinkComments 1 - 50 of 121 |
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #192808 by agn on June 14, 2008 at 2:07 am
Sheer drivel.Faith is to eradicate deaths from malaria???
I thought science was a better option..
Other Comments by agn
3. Comment #192810 by mordacious1 on June 14, 2008 at 2:10 am
Is this writtin by Tony Blair, or Tomy Blair? Did he have to change his name?edit: I know it's Tony, just noticed the mispelling and thought it might be a good idea for him to change his name. How about Gregg Bush?
[edit] Oh sure Josh, correct the spelling of his name, so that my post looks more stupid than it originaly was.
Other Comments by mordacious1
4. Comment #192811 by Monosilabbiq on June 14, 2008 at 2:13 am
Poor old Tony. I don't think his smoke and mirrors political philosophy is going to suddenly make the religious start to love each other. Not a hope in hell.Keep all religions out of civilisation's moral compass. Even if Tony has shopped around and chosen his own particular sect of christianity, he hasn't shown much moral backbone in how he publicised that choice.
Other Comments by Monosilabbiq
5. Comment #192812 by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy on June 14, 2008 at 2:14 am
You know, for the first half dozen paragraphs I was actualy thinking that this might be a well thought out, well written statement. Not necessarily one I'd agree with, but certainly not one I'd jump all over.But then he writes this pathetic pile of drivel:
"Thirdly, religious faith potentially has a crucial part to play in shaping the values that can help to guide the modern world. But there is a risk that it either falls prey to extremist and exclusionist tendencies which are latent within each religion, or that faith is seen mainly as an interesting relic, part of the past but with little or nothing to say to the present and the future. But, in fact, faiths can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation, help to shape the values of the changing set of economic and power relationships of the 21st century, and underpin the responses of individuals and communities to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation creates."
No you dim witted dullard, religion has absolutely nothing beneficial to say about how the values we should hold and has zero to say about the now and the future. The values we hold today as a society were formed in SPITE of traditional religious values, and we still fight every day to overcome those bigotted values of a bunch of desert goatherders who dies thousands of years ago.
From here the whole thing rapidly shot down hill.
Other Comments by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy
6. Comment #192813 by JemyM on June 14, 2008 at 2:17 am
First Commandment: "You shall have no other god before me."First Pillar: "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."
Yeah, theese religions are really great for teamwork, aren't they?
Religions enforce "we and them" concepts like nothing else. They are, in their core, tribal concepts, weaving the sense of "our kind" as opposite to "them". Calling the own group "family" makes them consider themselves separate species from the rest of humanity, our own blood. All rituals are meant to strengthen the symbols as more important than individuals or humanity itself.
The only unifying element of humanity itself today is recognizing humanity. Not the Bible, the Cross, the Quaran etc. That is our foundation, where as the rest is conflict by design. Humans can coexist, tribal religions that inheritly seeks world domination cannot.
Other Comments by JemyM
7. Comment #192816 by Logicel on June 14, 2008 at 2:23 am
Spoken like a truly addicted faith-head in all his dysfunctional horror.Instead of having disparate dysfunctional faith groups, let's just have one big, gigantic one and pretend its bogus underpinnings of belief without evidence will allow positive and effective functioning.
You mix separate piles of crap together, you get a mountain of crap, Mr. Blair. And Mr. Blair, you are a disgrace to your intelligence, your education, and the good fortune of living in a Western democracy.
Other Comments by Logicel
8. Comment #192819 by suffolkthinker on June 14, 2008 at 2:35 am
For someone who subscribes to an absolutist faith this is hypocritical nonsense. Either he believes the Catholic doctrine he recently converted too and believes everyone else is going to burn in hell for eternity or his conversion was lip service to keep his wife happy.Or perhaps he believes he needs to better understand other faiths so it's easier to convert them?
Other Comments by suffolkthinker
9. Comment #192820 by Logicel on June 14, 2008 at 2:35 am
....And this means that we must know more about the dynamics of the world's great faiths, must be prepared to learn from their stores of wisdom,...______
that little phrase, stores of wisdom, got my imagination going, and I can visualize in the great global market, the world's main streets dotted with little religious stores selling such delicious wares as infibulation, Catholic guilt, obsessive compulsive disorder aka Orthodox Judaism, etc. Oh, wait a minute, we got that already in the form of mosques, churches, and synagogues.
Sounds likes Mr. Blair wants to stake out a place for religious beliefs in the global marketplace. Oh, how very spiritual of you, Mr. Blair.
Other Comments by Logicel
10. Comment #192822 by Doctor Dee on June 14, 2008 at 2:39 am
Blair is a perfect illustration of the delusional religious mindset. He's reported in today's Guardian as believing that the only reason the Labour government is unpopular is high food and fuel prices. Could you get a more perfect example of wilful blindness to evidence? Other Comments by Doctor Dee
11. Comment #192824 by Logicel on June 14, 2008 at 2:41 am
But we want to highlight faith in action.___
Whose faith? Which of the zillions of conflicting perspectives in the great unwashed masses of non-evidential beliefs will be the top dog?
How will this active substance be measured, tested, evaluated?
With intelligent people like you Mr. Blair, we don't need any stupid ones.
Other Comments by Logicel
12. Comment #192825 by notsobad on June 14, 2008 at 2:41 am
Each other's? People don't even understand their own....world's great faiths, must be prepared to learn from their stores of wisdom...
What wisdom would that be? My god has bigger balls than your god? Infidels and women really are unequal?
Dogmas can't coexist peacefully is the largest wisdom I see here.
Other Comments by notsobad
13. Comment #192829 by Doctor Dee on June 14, 2008 at 2:47 am
The name "Tony Blair Faith Foundation" is a telling (as well as an ugly) one. Compare it with the "Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science". This isn't a foundation for faith which bears Blair's name: it's about Tony Blair's faith, not anyone else's. The idea that (for instance) Christianity and Islam are part of some harmonious whole is a characteristically Blairish trope. He believes it, nobody else does. Delusion piled on delusion. Other Comments by Doctor Dee
14. Comment #192830 by 8teist on June 14, 2008 at 2:47 am
This is a joke......right?FFS he can`t even spell his own name.
Other Comments by 8teist
15. Comment #192833 by the great teapot on June 14, 2008 at 2:56 am
comment 1928307teist
"FFS he can't even spell his own name"
Cast the beam from your own eyes first.
Other Comments by the great teapot
16. Comment #192834 by rod-the-farmer on June 14, 2008 at 3:00 am
Good grief. What bafflegab. And this guy was in charge ? Did he display this sort of nonsense when running for office ? The reason religion is such a problem today, and has NOT died out by now, is that improvements in health care has allowed the birthrate to climb dramatically in parts of the world where education is not provided to the children. Thus they grow up inculcated in the religion of their parents, rather than the education thereof. If we truly want to eradicate religion, or at least minimise the effects, we have to teach children to think rationally. THAT is why the fundies of all flavours want to control the schools. They understand full well if you keep women ignorant, they remain as baby factories, and the boys become inflexible men. Allow just a tiny bit of real science to enter young minds, and your control slips away. Other Comments by rod-the-farmer
17. Comment #192837 by Logicel on June 14, 2008 at 3:09 am
The amount of straw that can be generated from the enormous straw bogey man of globalisation as an compelling basis for upping the ante in peddling their non-evidential wares is not enough to cover the stench emanating from the Augean pile of steaming sh*t generated in this Mission Statement promoting an approach that can't be identified, tested, applied, and evaluated in any standardized and parsimonious manner. Blair's approach is shockingly in opposition to the smart and clever one of perfect practice via structured learning. Just repeating the same old mistakes over and over again via religion will not make perfect behavior, while Science's life blood is perfect practice.
Yes, Mr. Blair, should be quaking in his little religious booties, because globalisation is a powerful force in disseminating freer trade, better standards of living, human rights, etc., all achievements that make faith shrivel and dry up.
Other Comments by Logicel
18. Comment #192838 by Corylus on June 14, 2008 at 3:10 am
Whenever I see these 'let's all worship together' pleas from religious moderates I am simultaneously impressed with the effort and infuriated by the missed opportunities. But if it becomes a means of peaceful coexistence, teaching people to live with a diverse religious ecology, to respect "the other", to search for common values while respecting differences, then faith becomes an important power for making the 21st century work more humanely and the one shared creation a better place for all its inhabitants.By using the term 'other' he is underlining and supporting the very differences he seeks to overcome. He has to do this, of course, because if religious differences are human, (as opposed to divine) constructions, then his own beliefs have no legitimacy at all.
Radical thought: The 'other' is a human invention. Ditch it.
Other Comments by Corylus
19. Comment #192839 by robaylesbury on June 14, 2008 at 3:12 am
Doesn't each faith make exclusive claims as to who has the truth? How exactly can they coexist with any degree of intellectual honesty when they all, deep down, believe that the other side is wrong? Other Comments by robaylesbury
20. Comment #192841 by the great teapot on June 14, 2008 at 3:17 am
Why is faith still flourishing?Is it. Looks like it is dying in my little neck of the woods (the UK).
But keep saying it is flourishing and people will believe you and you may turn the tide. Cute trick.
Other Comments by the great teapot
21. Comment #192845 by robaylesbury on June 14, 2008 at 3:37 am
I don't think that faith is flourishing outiside of the third word, is it?. Even recent Stateside figures appear to suggest that the irreligious are on the increase.
As for why faith persists I think Christopher Hitchens probably nails it. Fear of death, fear of the dark etc
Other Comments by robaylesbury
22. Comment #192850 by icanus on June 14, 2008 at 3:55 am
Good grief. What bafflegab. And this guy was in charge ? Did he display this sort of nonsense when running for office ?
A lot of "sounds nice but doesn't really mean anything when you examine it closely" stuff and liberal padding of the figures, but he stayed very quiet on his religious views until after he stepped down. The most embarrassed I've ever seen him was when he was asked if he had prayed with George Bush.
Blair strikes me as incredibly naive in some areas, religion being the prime example - peacful coexistence when each faction is convinced that the others are not just wrong, but so wrong that they're going to be tortured for eternity along with anyone who listens to what they have to say, seems just a tad optimistic to me.
In a lot of other areas, of course he's a real cut-throat scheming bastard (or 'politician' to use the technical term)
As to faith groups working on issues like malaria, we've seen how that goes, thank you very much:
"Why certainly, you can have the malaria drugs just as soon as you hand over all your condoms so that you can die of AIDS instead."
Other Comments by icanus
23. Comment #192860 by Barry Pearson on June 14, 2008 at 4:52 am
Corylus said: By using the term 'other' he is underlining and supporting the very differences he seeks to overcome. He has to do this, of course, because if religious differences are human, (as opposed to divine) constructions, then his own beliefs have no legitimacy at all. Radical thought: The 'other' is a human invention. Ditch it.I'm trying to address "coexistence" problems at the following page, which I intend to make fit for public consumption by the end of the month:
robaylesbury said: Doesn't each faith make exclusive claims as to who has the truth? How exactly can they coexist with any degree of intellectual honesty when they all, deep down, believe that the other side is wrong?
"Religions are hobbies"
http://www.barrypearson.co.uk/articles/gods/hobby.htm
That page doesn't address whether or not gods exist. Instead, it attempts to analyse where the boundaries of religions' roles should be, using existing well-understood examples that successfully allow lots of disparate communities to coexist.
Obviously, religious people who believe that society has to be changed to align with their fundamentals won't accept this view! But religions won't disappear this century, and we need to think realistically about them. I personally believe that "religions are OK when practised by consenting adults in private", but that sounds too strict to be taken seriously. What about "children"? What does "private" really mean? Isn't this confirmation that atheists intend to wipe out religion? (Perhaps - but let's be serious!)
I believe that by using hobbies as examples, we may be able to identify guidelines for religious practices. This doesn't say anything about private beliefs - but since when has the typical atheist been in favour of censorship of thoughts (rather than actions)? We are people who don't believe anything is monitoring our thoughts, and historically atheists were often at risk from "thought police".
Other Comments by Barry Pearson
24. Comment #192861 by Cartomancer on June 14, 2008 at 4:52 am
That is why I believe that those who wish to exclude the voices of faith from the public square are so profoundly wrong. I am not arguing for a theocracy, nor that specific religious views should always prevail. But if societies do not draw on the wisdom of the religious traditions, then their debates on their future will be impoverished and ignore what is important to millions of their citizens.Well, I disagree profoundly that you positively NEED religious traditions to come up with pearls of wisdom that can benefit society. In fact most religious wisdom (at least the kind the rest of us would call wise) is generally either self-evident or stolen from secular philosophy anyway. But that aside, Blair has it completely wrong: if we want to draw on the wisdom that religious traditions have to offer then the method we must use to do so is not faith but reason. With faith all we do is cling blindly and irrationally to whatever we have inherited, be it good or bad. Faith has no intrinsic mechanism for discerning the wisdom from the foolishness, and when you're working with this kind of material, there's an awful lot of foolishness indeed. Reason, on the other hand, gives us a basis for knowing that genital mutilation, homophobia, gynephobia, willful unscientific archaism, executing those who disagree with you and so forth are unwise, but compassion, tolerance, turning the other cheek and their like are beneficial.
But, were I to extend a perhaps unwarranted generosity towards Blair, I might say that, in his own deeply misguided way, some of his aims are not entirely different from those of our own dear Richard Dawkins. Both, I think, are concerned about the negative impact of religious conflict in the world, and therefore want to do something about it. Blair's methods are short-sighted and counter-productive however: palliative care at the most, which honours the disease and further entrenches it, where Richard seeks a cure for the condition.
Other Comments by Cartomancer
25. Comment #192862 by Steve Zara on June 14, 2008 at 4:56 am
Comment #192861 by CartomancerIndeed. He should listen to speeches by Obama in which he said that faith can't be used as a justification for public statements on matters of significance - reason has to prevail in a democratic society.
Oh, and a late happy birthday!
Other Comments by Steve Zara
26. Comment #192863 by Szkeptik on June 14, 2008 at 4:58 am
Looks like Blair didn't have enough of useless wars in his presidency.Other Comments by Szkeptik
27. Comment #192866 by PaulJ on June 14, 2008 at 5:10 am
The fact is, however much some people may dislike it, that faith still matters to billions of people around the world. Even in the West, which in many places now has only a tenuous connection with its religious traditions, millions of people still believe. In most other parts of the world, religions are growing. Faith provides a structure for people's lives, values to guide their behaviour and aspirations and ideals which endow their existence with meaning. It is a force which in countless different ways motivates people to do good, though sometimes, it is true, motivates them to do great harm.None of this makes your belief true, Tony.
First, it is vitally important that we all have a better and deeper understanding of the different religions, their values and their mindsets. Any politician, any major business leader, any community leader needs to understand such an important influence for so many millions of people. Without that understanding, we shall make decisions that are misguided or plain wrong.This is simplistic. The wrongness or misguidedness of decisions is not a function of the decision-makers' understanding of religions. In some cases it will be a result of affording religion a disproportionate amount of respect.
If faith becomes a countervailing force pulling people and communities apart, it becomes destructive.What do you mean, "If"?
But, in fact, faiths can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation, help to shape the values of the changing set of economic and power relationships of the 21st century, and underpin the responses of individuals and communities to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation creates.This is wishful thinking. It would be very nice, I'm sure, if faiths could actually do these things, but in general they don't. Far better to ditch the superstition and employ a bit of rationality in an effort to achieve them.
...I have set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.Sounds like a pop group. Middle-of-the-road, saccharine-enriched covers of 60's favourites - Tony, you'll be playing lead guitar, right?
We shall also focus on schools. We are going to use new and interactive media to engage young people of different faiths. We want to produce material that teaches young people what it really feels like to be a member of another faith and captures their imaginations. In some countries there is a deficit of good and interesting material, and in others no material at all on any religion except that of the majority. We hope to help make good those deficits.Now this could be useful, if done properly. Comparative religion without indoctrination is a worthwhile subject.
Finally, we will help organisations that aim to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religion. Where people of faith combat such extremism they should be supported.But will you support people of no faith who combat extremism?
If people of different faiths can coexist in mutual respect, then so much the better for our world.How about some respect for humanists and atheists?
Other Comments by PaulJ
28. Comment #192868 by Jack Rawlinson on June 14, 2008 at 5:13 am
Wind your neck in, Bliar, you faith-addled war criminal has-been. You're a goddamned fool, man. Other Comments by Jack Rawlinson
29. Comment #192869 by Vinelectric on June 14, 2008 at 5:13 am
agn
Faith is to eradicate deaths from malaria???
No,no,no,no,no... he said bring people of different faiths together into a project to eradicate Malaria. That's fair enough by my standards.
Other Comments by Vinelectric
30. Comment #192872 by keith on June 14, 2008 at 5:22 am
Szkeptik,We don't have presidents. We have kings and queens and Prime Ministers.
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31. Comment #192873 by Barry Pearson on June 14, 2008 at 5:22 am
Cartomancer said: But that aside, Blair has it completely wrong: if we want to draw on the wisdom that religious traditions have to offer then the method we must use to do so is not faith but reason.Of course he has it completely wrong - he is Tony Blair!
If religious people have anything to offer on a topic, it isn't because it is religion per se. It is because they may have relevant expertise that they can support (as you say) with evidence and reason. The president of the flower arranging society shouldn't automatically be given authority in the urban planning department, but may well have a useful contribution to make. This would be because s/he is a motivated citizen who can show that flowers can make a socially useful contribution to urban satisfaction. This may correlate with being the president, but it is the genuine expertise that is important.
According to the World Christian Database, in the contemporary world some ten thousand religions are currently practised. Most of these don't resemble Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. The core beliefs of these religions are incompatible, and with easy global communications it is probably impossible to say or do anything of significance that is not objectionable to members of at least one religion.
How can we really hope "to understand each other's faith" as Blair states? Do the train spotters have to understand the photographers in order to coexist with them? Perhaps it helps when trying to resolve specific conflicts, but the onus has to be on the religious people to accept that they can't expect everyone outside their particular faith to understand them, let alone obey their rules.
Needless to say, Blair appears to ignore one major category of people in the world - people of no faith! We are part of the solution - but Blair, the Pope, and other highly religious people see us as at best irrelevant, or else part of the problem. That is why the "Out Campaign" is important.
Other Comments by Barry Pearson
32. Comment #192876 by Peacebeuponme on June 14, 2008 at 5:31 am
Gallup's rolling poll on religious attitudes shows that most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe that most Muslims don't. Most Muslims want better relations too but think most Christians don't.Yeah, and most atheists know how we could all get along.
Other Comments by Peacebeuponme
33. Comment #192879 by alexmzk on June 14, 2008 at 5:44 am
i could respect this if it was emphasising strong links between different countries, or even different cultures, but the idea of using exclusively religious groups to work together is narrow-minded and adverse to the clearly noble goal Mr Blair believes he is aiming for.it's like he's planning a blockbuster film with a cast comprised entirely of young children, old people and animals.
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34. Comment #192881 by SPS on June 14, 2008 at 5:56 am
If the issue is maintaining tolerance among religions, the trouble is differences and unknowns when translated into religion become absolute certainties, when peace can require an attitude of 'let's wait and see/let's find out', and honestly answering and challenging the question 'how do we know?'. It would seem that the goal of diversity in coexistence may necessitate religion's removal from the equation.Other Comments by SPS
35. Comment #192882 by the great teapot on June 14, 2008 at 6:09 am
I prefered his shock and awe period.Other Comments by the great teapot
36. Comment #192884 by BryanEvans on June 14, 2008 at 6:12 am
There will always be moderate, well meaning and tolerent people in all the big three monotheistic religions. Great if everyone was like that. But of course they are not. To think otherwise is just plain ignorant. It's a nice idea to promote inter-faith tolerence, acceptance and understanding, but the way I see it is that people of faith would have to distance themselves from their own doctrine, relax their own core-beliefs as dictated by their particular scripture in order to let the enemy in. This is of course, in direct contradiction to their rule of faith, which clearly teaches out-group hostility and, I imagine would create cognitive dissonance in those who attempt to build bridges who are too weak to fully encapsulate the original and undiluted form of their absolutist belief system. It just simply wont work. Let's suffocate this preoccupation with the supernatural and instead educate our children about the real world, as illuminated by science and keep religion in it's place as an interesting, but primitive artifact, a relic of the past.Other Comments by BryanEvans
37. Comment #192885 by Apathy personified on June 14, 2008 at 6:12 am
Ladies and Gentlemen, i give you....Tony Blair!!! (audience descends into wild clapping and fauning of the international hero).Can't he do a Major and disappear from the public eye?
As always Cardinal Blair tries to be everything to everyone, the friend of all, but it ends up as a shallow lip service and he comes across as empty and nothing to everyone - if faith could cure the worlds problems, why didn't it do so along time ago when more people (statistically) had faith?
Other Comments by Apathy personified
38. Comment #192889 by epeeist on June 14, 2008 at 6:29 am
Comment #192808 by agn Faith is to eradicate deaths from malaria???Oh absolutely. Of course it is only doing this so the policies of Tony's new best friend can contribute to their death by HIV and AIDS.
Other Comments by epeeist
39. Comment #192890 by irate_atheist on June 14, 2008 at 6:32 am
Tony Blair - you're a first-class fucktard. Please feel free to have some interfaith dialogue with the Taliban. On a one-to-one basis, as it were. Hell, I'll subsidise your (one-way) ticket if you like. (I know how much you resent having to pay for anything out of your own pocket). Other Comments by irate_atheist
40. Comment #192891 by GodMyArse on June 14, 2008 at 6:32 am
What an empty article. It simply seems to be advocating using faith in one of the traditional ways: to manipulate the masses and anaesthetise us against the forces controlling our lives. I have to admit I didn't make it all the way through as it is mostly stating the bleeding obvious, don't kill each other etc. This guy hasn't changed at all. For all his fancy words his speeches etc never amount to much more than trying to avert any awkward questions by saying nothing much.Other Comments by GodMyArse
41. Comment #192892 by epeeist on June 14, 2008 at 6:33 am
Comment #192834 by rod-the-farmerGood grief. What bafflegab. And this guy was in charge ? Did he display this sort of nonsense when running for office ?Not when he was running for office.
Once he was in office, then yes. Google some of the antics he and Cherie got up to with Cherie's life style advisor Carole Caplin.
Other Comments by epeeist
42. Comment #192896 by the great teapot on June 14, 2008 at 6:43 am
I remember seeing footage of Carole Caplin's place.There were Tony and Cherie Blair pictures almost wall to wall. A real "Alan Patridge" moment.
Alan ,bless his fictional socks, when confronted with a similar scenario had the sense to run like hell, the Blairs probably think people having their pictures on every wall only right and proper.
Other Comments by the great teapot
43. Comment #192898 by Pattern Seeker on June 14, 2008 at 6:53 am
Mr. Bliar said-"As the world becomes smaller..."
I assume as a shitferbrains "Faithhead" he means this quite literally...
Other Comments by Pattern Seeker
44. Comment #192900 by chuckbert on June 14, 2008 at 7:11 am
Seems like a reasonable argument for maintaining comparative religious education in schools: so that we can understand the various bizarre delusional angles that people choose to drive their lives.Beyond that it just places Tony in the camp of religious nutters that we're all worrying about.
Tony, you're part of the problem. Once you realise that you may then become part of the solution.
Other Comments by chuckbert
45. Comment #192902 by EvidenceOnly on June 14, 2008 at 7:26 am
I'm all for comprehensive comparative religion courses for everyone: a short one for those under 12 and a more in-depth one for those under 18.The main benefit is that when everyone learns that all those religions make the same claim that their god is the only god, that they are all extremely jealous of other gods, and that which sky-daddy you believe in mostly depends on where you are born, more people will realize that mankind created all gods in their image of the time.
Teaching everyone about all religions is one of the best cures against ... religion.
Those of us who left religion behind already know that religion is not the moral compass of society but the poison of the world.
It's about time that more people see this reality.
Other Comments by EvidenceOnly
46. Comment #192903 by catskill on June 14, 2008 at 7:36 am
So sad Mr. Blair. You have so much potential to do good and it seems you intend to squander it. What a waste."bring together people of different faiths to help to eradicate deaths from malaria"
Huh? Maybe if they all pray together instead of separately malaria will disappear! Tony you are a genius! This cannot fail!
Other Comments by catskill
47. Comment #192909 by alexmzk on June 14, 2008 at 7:54 am
rod-the-farmer:
Did he display this sort of nonsense when running for office ? ... improvements in health care has allowed the birthrate to climb dramatically in parts of the world where education is not provided to the children.
before Blair was elected, he was running his campaign on the motto "Education, Education, Education".
truly a ripe, rich crop of irony right there.
Other Comments by alexmzk
48. Comment #192911 by jdbartlett on June 14, 2008 at 7:59 am
Steady on there! Sometimes, this forum gets flooded with some disturbingly aggressive groupthink.Yes, we all have an axe to grind against religion and Mr Tony Blair; thanks for pointing that out, I'm sure I would've forgotten otherwise! Absolutely, religion is a dangerous crock. Yes, religion has been used to support xenophobia, racism, slavery, abuse of women, abuse of children, and every imaginable form of oppression and repression. But we cannot wage some "holy war" on religion or stomp it out by preaching atheism! It will not happen that way; the human brain is simply too poorly wired for any amount of education to eradicate superstitious belief itself, or even remove its political relevance. Mr Blair is suggesting another angle: combat religion's exclusionist demands; learn about other belief systems so we're better equipped for the diplomacy globalism demands.
This isn't about respecting religion or putting it on a pedestal. This is about respecting other people, something we are all capable of doing, whether we're atheist, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, etc. Education---in this case education about others' religion and culture---is the only way we can curb religiously-fueled bigotry and hatred. That is what Mr Blair says he is trying to accomplish. I don't know that he's the best spokesman for it, but it's a noble goal.
Steve Zara mentioned Obama's call for secular government. This is the video, and it's a very moving speech:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jg8lCLumByw
Obama doesn't reject or belittle the beliefs of his predominantly Christian audience (of course not, he self-identifies as Christian.) Instead, he uses Bible stories to frame his point that we need secular support for government policies. Imagine if our leaders and diplomats were so well versed in others' culture and religion that they could use applicable religious allegory to help deliver a message, as Obama does in this video. That's a goal worth supporting.
Drop the groupthink and accept it: in the 21st century the world is becoming ever more interdependent. That means we have to get along with people of all religions. Religious memes will continue to spread. If we can find a way to encourage the spread of relatively benign mutations of those memes, we will be able to progress.
Yes, science provided a vaccine for Malaria. That doesn't mean religion can't help spread it.
Other Comments by jdbartlett
49. Comment #192915 by SRWB on June 14, 2008 at 8:21 am
If people of different faiths can coexist in mutual respect, then so much the better for our world.
I see the problem here - why are "different faiths" important? Why can't people just get along and coexist? Aren't "different faiths" part of the problem? Can people really get along with each other, when they all have different invisible hands guiding them from heaven?
Other Comments by SRWB
50. Comment #192922 by Dinah on June 14, 2008 at 9:00 am
Whatever his Faith (or Delusion) Foundation does or doesn't achieve, you can be sure it will provide him with every excuse to fly around the world on a first class ticket, stay in the best hotels, while sucking up to assorted Men in Frocks on a vast expense account. Anything Mr Blair gets involved with is first and foremost about Mr Blair, his own self-importance and self-aggrandisement.Other Comments by Dinah
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1. Comment #192807 by dyak on June 14, 2008 at 2:06 am
Good career move for a war criminal.Other Comments by dyak