My students taught me that everything was personal - history, politics, foreign relations - but this approach creates boundaries as well as connections
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what do we have faith in?Dave Belden, president, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, does not fear the big questions. He revels in kicking them around and trying to find hope in a complex world.
The ban by some Imax cinemas in the United States of films referring to evolution teaches Dave Belden a lesson about the right's distrust and the left's frustration. Read the rest of this post...
Many Chinese people are embracing religion as well as the market, but is their long march leading towards Europe? Read the rest of this post...
A family difference over childrearing makes Dave Belden rethink America’s political future. Read the rest of this post...
The “cooperation-plus-competition” that shapes life on earth, from microbes to the internet, gives Dave Belden optimism about the human future. Read the rest of this post...
The universe is creative and regenerative as well as brutal and finite – just like humans. In this lies a consolation that is open to believer and atheist alike, says Dave Belden. Read the rest of this post...
The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 provoked the first modern discussion about the causes of natural disasters – fate, science, God, or human failure. What lessons does the world need to learn from the Asian tsunami 250 years later? Read the rest of this post...
The tastes of Christmas past, and the religious beliefs at the festival’s core, remain alive in Dave Belden’s memory. Read the rest of this post...
If even reformist Muslims find a chilly welcome in Europe, what hope for dialogue across boundaries of belief? Read the rest of this post...
A revival of the progressive religious tradition could be the key to Democratic recovery in the United States, says Dave Belden. Read the rest of this post...
The left is guilty of political paranoia that drowns reasoned argument. But it is the failures and dangers of Bush’s post-9/11 policy that leave Dave Belden with a clear choice in the presidential election. Read the rest of this post...
Does doubt lead to better judgment – and more just wars – than blind faith? Dave Belden on the difference between Abraham Lincoln and George W Bush. Read the rest of this post...
To create a fairer 21st century world, secular liberals must unite with progressive religious people of all faiths in a common cause, says Dave Belden. Read the rest of this post...
The political message of the Chinese martial-arts epic ‘Hero’ makes Dave Belden worry: is this entertainment a form of totalitarian art? Read the rest of this post...
After almost two years and twenty–nine columns, Dave Belden is still exploring what it means for an agnostic to write about religion. But if the answers remain elusive, the need for dialogue across faith, unbelief and dogma has never been clearer. Read the rest of this post...
The American left fears that government is in the hands of the religious right. The right fear that despite the best efforts of the conservative administration, they cannot reverse the tide of liberal social change. If they ever talked they would find that, unbeknownst to both sides, they are moving together not apart, says Dave Belden. Read the rest of this post...
There are a great many sceptics who will one day be grateful for the legacy of at least one evangelical Christian. Dave Belden continues his dialogue with readers on the value of religion. Read the rest of this post...
Religion need not be the vehicle for a narrow, exclusive conformism. It can be the means for individuals to reconstitute themselves as whole human beings – and thus a route to social progress. Read the rest of this post...
Religion doesn’t have to mean repressive institutionalised mystification, it’s not even about God. It’s a way to organise a community around our core human values, and anyone interested in social change needs it. Read the rest of this post...
Religion can bring hope, respect, salvation. Dave Belden, a non-believer, makes the case. Read the rest of this post...
Images like those of the abuse at Abu Ghraib can destroy our hope for a better future. But democracy only works when images are uncontrolled. Dave Belden sees a chance. Read the rest of this post...
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