My ninth and final panel discussion that I attended was titled "Thinking about Religion in Today's World." There were three panelists.
The following short biographies were taken from the LA Times Festival of Books website:
Reza Aslan, an acclaimed writer and scholar, is the founder of AslanMedia.com, an online journal for news about the Middle East and the world. His first book, “No god but God,” has been translated into 13 languages. Other titles include “Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East” and his most recent, “Zealot.”
Tom Bissell is the author of eight previous books, most recently “The Disaster Artist” and has been awarded the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He writes frequently for Harper’s Magazine and The New Yorker. “Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of Twelve” is just out.
Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar, noted speaker and best-selling author of 11 books, including “The Age of American Unreason” and “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.” Her new book is “Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion."
My observation:
So in my posts on the various LA Times Festival of Books panels I attended, I've tried to keep my opinion to the side, but for this one I'll at least give my observation. One might want to call this the equivalent of the Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier Thrilla in Manila fight. You're not supposed to talk about religion and politics, right? In this panel, they were throwing verbal punches at each other for the full hour discussion.
The following are my notes from the panel discussion. There are potential misinterpretations to what I heard so take that into consideration.
Jacoby. People under 30 are more secular today. It means that they don't have an understanding of Western history. We need to educate people on the role that religion played in American history.
Atheism is a pejorative for us. There are more atheist than will admit that they are atheist. Are they really "nones" or just won't admit they are atheist?
Ideas have consequences. How is it not possible to have antagonism when religious people impose their views on everyone around them. Their ideas have consequences. Constitution doesn't say anything about religion influencing others, but it does stand against imposing beliefs. This is the only country where one can believe as one wishes. The beauty of this country is that the majority can be Christian, but the government isn't.
The problem is that the American government only talks about Christians being killed, but doesn't say anything about free thinkers and Muslims (who don't agree with ISIS) who are being killed.
To the extent where life is awful, the afterlife has an appeal for the poor and uneducated -- they're not stupid, just poor and uneducated.
Humanism is the ethics of this world. Religion was a way to explain the world before science could. The science of this world is physics.
You can't predict if young "nones" will return to church when they have children. What will happen to those raised by "nones," that's the question?
Bissell. Even the religious are illiterate about their religion. This is especially evident since evangelicals are voting for Trump. Faith is based on untestable assumptions.
There is a problem when religion turns to fundamentalism. He was initially hostel to literalists.
There was early fan fiction of apostles in the early church.
Religious impulse can be a beautiful and dangerous thing -- to engage with the imaginary.
Religious fanatics got pushed out of Europe to America. The Christian role in US politics is only recent, the last 30 years. In the late 70s/early 80s right wing Christians and Jews joined forces. Fundamentalist Christians got aggressive.
Why can faith be the only thing that can speak out after tragedy?
Aslan. Issue of identity: 71% of Americans view themselves as Christian. They are making a statement about who they are. National identity means they are American. Flag and cross.
Secularism isn't on the rise. "Nones" is on the rise. The "nones" refuse to mark the box as atheist of agnostic. Only 3% of Americans atheist and 4% are agnostic. "Nones" refuse to identify with a specific religious faith.
Ludicrous to think that faith didn't have an impact on America. There are protections in constitution. Sometimes these protections do fail when the majority believes one way.
Religious identity is on the rise. Not religion, but identity of religion over nationality. We shouldn't be surprised that cobbled together nation-states are falling apart and people are identifying with there religion. This is why we need to become more literate as people identify this way.
Faith vs religion. Religion can be based on parents, but faith is far more mystical. Belief that there is an afterlife is ingrained in our DNA and is not just a wish fulfillment.
My Final Thought:
That wraps up the various panel discussions I attended at the LA Times Festival of Books. I will be eagerly awaiting for next year's edition.
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