A religious discussion was held last night from 6 to 9 at the University Center. Marty Rosen, director of library services was the facilitator of this event, while Jazmin Oliver, chair of honors program student advisory board oversaw it.
Among the speakers representing their beliefs were Bryan Baise, professor of philosophy at Boyce College and a Christian, Unitarian Barb Friedland, director Lifespan Religious Exploration, Baha’i Faith Rita Butler, Baha’i Center of Louisville, Heba Awadallah, Pharmacist and a Muslim, and Dr. Mike Hagan, faculty at University of Louisville.
Baise said Christianity is not merely just concerned with salvation.
“It is also concerned with how we live, specifically how we may be able to use salvation brought to us to bring Shalom, wholeness, and peace to those around us.”
In general Friedland said that the Unitarian belief is to support a never ending process of personal discovery guided by reason and religion laws and honoring diversity, rather than seeking a revealed truth handed down to them.
“We don’t claim that we have all the answers,” Friedland said.
Awadallah said that she describes the religion of Islam as a religion of forgiveness and peace. The message that she gets from the Koran is that Allah will forgive every sin except believing in other gods.
“I am human and humans commit sin,” Awadallah said.
Butler said Baha’i’s believe the crucial need in humanity is to find a unified vision of the nature and purpose of life and the future of society.
“The title of Baha’i law means, Glory of God,” Butler said. “We believe that there is an eternal soul that is eternally good. The purpose of life is to balance spiritually and draw closer to God.”
If needing to have freedom in your life then one needs to be both choice less and aware at the same time Hagan said. Truth is something that is being created.
“If you are on a path toward truth all that you will find is a gravestone,” Hagan said. “In other words, if there’s a path to truth it’s a stagnant object.”
Madison Morris, biology, said she listened while comparing and contrasting different ideas of the five different groups and understanding slightly better what each division generally perceives the world as truth.
“I like learning about other religions and seeing how others perceive things,” Morris said. “Then you can understand a little bit more as to what general train of thought people within this group typically come from because of the paradigms they’ve been taught.”
Brandon Hoffman, political science, said he attended because of the educational and the curiosity aspects.
“Í would identify with Christianity for the most part,” Hoffman said. “My eyes are being opened to other aspects of religions. I would always recommend something like this, even if they don’t have questions. It’s a good experience to have and to be exposed to.”
Awadallah said that the one common thread that could be found in all of these religions is,“The common good.”
