Our Shared Humanity
"I would rather have questions that can’t be answered, than answers that can’t be questioned."
Richard Feynman
Basic questions:
Young children sometimes ask very perceptive questions. One of our daughters, Wendy when aged seven, questioned my wife, Maria:
“Mummy, if you’d married someone other than daddy, would I be me?” What had made Wendy who she was? She had had no control over her inherited DNA, also how she was being brought up. But she was increasingly making her own choices, which also played a big part in making her - her.
Taking this further, what has made me (Howard Grace) – me? To what extent, for all of us, have our upbringings and choices affected our impact on wider society. Along the way, we’ve accumulated all sorts of biases, some conscious, but mostly unconscious. Have these led to developing a sense that our group and lifestyle are normal, and the world would be a better place if others believed, lived and did things as we do? Or have our hearts grown more towards valuing diversity - and of our shared humanity?
This eBooklet will initially focus on the spiritual basis of this shared humanity and consider a widely inclusive perspective. It will then draw upon my experiences and reflections from six decades of commitment to Initiatives of Change (IofC), formerly known as MRA. Also, more recently, Quakers.
A Changing perspective:
We live in an increasingly interconnected world. As many people travel to, and live in lands which are way beyond their places of birth, our cultures intermix. The internet also enables us to reach into and absorb the life experiences of people in distant lands, often instantly. This gives us a much-enhanced perspective on the diversity of ways in which our world views and spiritual beliefs have developed. Where is this mushrooming cross-pollination leading us?
IofC centre. Caux, Switzerland
There generally seems to be a resonance with aspects of spirituality such as compassion, integrity and transformed hearts, whatever differences people may have regarding beliefs about the source of these.
On a religious front, this is one aspect that has been evident in Interfaith developments. With other groups, IofC has almost unconsciously been one of the pioneering bodies in this partnership. Might the next step forward be to foster the vital link between well-motivated ‘believers’ and ‘non-believers’?
Rather than write a ‘one piece’, lengthy eBooklet, this exploration will be divided up into a number of sections where the reader can immediately focus on aspects which may be of particularly interest. The first piece recounts my own initial path which led to atheism. Further sections branch into wider experiences and overviews. Each section will be one page. The reader will have many other perspectives which will, I hope, be triggered by whatever parts you may choose to read of what lies below.
The sections are:
Like Desmond Tutu (referred to in sections: An inspiring friendship and The totality of our shared humanity), Letlapa Mphahlele (referred to in section An even wider inclusivity), is also from South Africa. A couple of years ago, Letlapa wrote a reflection in ‘Progressive Voices’, the magazine of the UK Progressive Christianity Network . It concluded:
Beyond prejudices we inherited from our forebears, across the fences and walls we erect around ourselves, across doctrines and dogmas we uphold, perhaps it helps to acknowledge that there's a thread that runs through all the ideologies and all the schools of thought: common humanity. And if we recognise humanity in others, no matter how different from us they look and dress and talk and worship, we'll be nourishing and watering the roots of our own humanity. Is this a vision that can unite atheists like myself with a variety of religious believers where we come together for a greater ‘Yes’ - the reality of a shared humanity?
These sections above relate to the experiences of a great variety of people, from many different belief systems and world views. The title of this eBooklet is, ‘Our Shared Humanity’. It points to our human experience as being the basis of our commonality rather than beliefs about where this originates.
Our world faces many serious challenges. It is easy to get disheartened. I’m much aware that what this piece outlines only scratches the surface of the much-needed quest for an inclusive spiritual purpose that all can buy into. My hope is that others will take forward and greatly improve on explorations touched upon in this piece in a way that fosters our shared humanity. By engaging together in such a venture, we may find that our different perspectives are not a problem. They are an asset.
It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
Your comments and experiences are welcome!