The challenge of establishing unity in diversity was among the topics explored at the annual conference of the Association for Baha'i Studies (English-Speaking Europe), held in Dublin over the weekend 2-3 July.
Dr. Iarfhlaith Watson, a lecturer in sociology at University College Dublin, said sociologists have been looking at this issue since their discipline began.
“As humanity experiences its collective coming of age, the challenge is to find a way of holding people together -- not so tightly that pathological consequences ensue nor too loosely that they become lost,”
Among the guests at the conference was Dr. Sheikh Shaheed Satardien, a Muslim cleric from the Dublin Inter-Faith Roundtable. Dr. Satardien and his colleagues recently organized a conference entitled “Towards a New Religious Model for Global Peace,” which aimed to bring together scholars, religious leaders, and commentators from the worlds of media and politics.
“Virtually all faiths oppose war and yet many of the world's conflicts contain religious elements,” said Dr. Satardien. “Ireland is becoming the world in microcosm with new races, creeds, and cultures arriving on a daily basis. Potentially this country is a macro-laboratory for examining and testing strategies to promote peace that may have relevance on the global stage.”
Dr. Satardien said he is very taken by the vision of peace and global justice found in the Baha'i teachings. “I think the presentations at this conference should be heard by all people -- from academics to the man in the street -- to help them understand more about what the Baha'is are doing and how these teachings can be applied.”
Dr. Masoud Afnan, a specialist in infertility at the Birmingham Women's Hospital, England, explored the concept of the soul in the world's religions and the implications such concepts have on the ethics of contemporary fertility treatments and research. “The differing ideas about when the soul associates itself with the new life in the womb has major implications on how the religions view such treatments, and how governments develop laws and policies,” Dr. Afnan said.
Among other presentations was an overview of the forces of history from the “big bang” through to the emergence of global civilization by Dr. Nahal Mavaddat, an academic from Birmingham. Dr. Mavaddat said that millions of years of evolution have brought us to the point where human life, at the apex of the evolutionary process on this planet, is emerging towards its fulfillment -- global consciousness and the recognition of the oneness of humanity.
Lawrence Staudt, chairman of the Irish Renewable Energy Council, explored the notion of the natural world being an expression of the will of God.
Talks included presentations from Baha'is who came from a range of countries including Ireland, England, Scotland, the United States, Germany, Norway, and Malaysia. The Association was formed to foster the intellectual life of the Baha'i community and to assist Baha'is in the application of their teachings to the challenges of modern-day society.
Source: Bahá'í World News Service
Some of the participants at the Association for Baha'i Studies (English-Speaking Europe) conference in Dublin
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