RELATED ORGANIZATIONS

Religious Naturalism Interest Group of IRAS IRAS-RN is an ‘Interest Group’ of The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. The group usually holds a workshop at the annual IRAS conference ( 2009 IRAS Conference  ). One of the goals of IRAS is to explore ways that science can help religions state their doctrines in ways accessible to all peoples regardless of their culture. Thus the RN interest group explores ways that Religious Naturalism can meet that goal. IRAS itself contains many viewpoints including theistic viewpoints and viewpoints informed by other world religions, and this annual meeting also gives us a great opportunity to learn from all of those viewpoints and consider how to modify our own beliefs to incorporate other viewpoints where appropriate (see the Big Tent comments as well). In IRAS generally and in IRAS-RN as well, there is a scholarly respect for differences in viewpoints that range from theistic to atheistic, creative to pragmatic, and idealistic to realistic, as well as for differences that may arise from the differences between science and religion. We are not only willing but eager to step outside our own beliefs and listen to other perspectives, all the while searching for the consilience of religious viewpoints which we believe is now critical to the future of humanity. IRAS-RN includes scientists, theologians, and philosophers as well as many other disciplines and laypeople, a very remarkable and unusual amalgamation. Such a composite is needed today to address the historic conflicts between the physical and metaphysical aspects of human thinking. It is a union of people that recognizes that humanity needs a more sensible and conciliatory world view. Religious Naturalism is 'an idea whose time has come'. There are emerging numerous other organizations with very similar goals. Some of these are listed on our Links page. The goals of those organizations are not quite the same as ours, but are naturalistic in their fundamental viewpoint. It id hoped that some sort of alliance of efforts could be in our future. This website and two email groups serve as communication tools for IRAS-RN (see below).

ReligiousNaturalism.org This internet administrative group is the information arm of IRAS-RN. It is independent of IRAS and the viewpoints and statements expressed here should in no way be attributed to IRAS. It finances and operates this website as a donated service to the IRAS group. Star Island Sunset

Institute on Religion in an Age of Science IRAS is a 50 year old organization. It co-publishes the well-known Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science the most prestigious forum for the science/religion dialogue. IRAS annual conferences bring together top scientists and religion scholars plus ‘ordinary’ people from virtually all disciplines to butt heads and try to find common ground, and they have found a lot of it . IRAS members receive Zygon as part of their membership and it is available in over 3000 libraries worldwide and most university libraries. You do not need to be a member to attend IRAS conferences, but you do have to be a member of IRAS to participate in on-line Religious Naturalism interest group. IRAS-RN caters to a slightly more academic audience than an independent religiousnaturalism yahoo group. IRAS-RN welcomes critiques of Religious Naturalism, as part of the polite but sometimes feisty conversational tone that has evolved at IRAS.

Unitarian Univeralist Religious Naturalists There are ongoing efforts to form a group of Religious Naturalists within the Unitarian Universalist Association based on their seventh principle of Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The Unitarian Univeralist Religious Naturalists (UURN) was formed in 2004 in order to create a community for those Religious Naturalists scatted through their congregations. Their literature states “We find our source of meaning within the natural world, where humans are understood to be emergent from and hence a part of Nature. Our religious quest is informed and guided by the deepening and evolving understandings fostered by scientific inquiry and by the mindful understandings inherent in our human traditions, including art, literature, philosophy, and the religions of the world”. Their website is at: http://www.uurn.org/

Email Groups There are two active emails groups discussing Religious Naturalism. The religious-naturalism Yahoo group is open to all but requires acceptance by a monitor. It gets lively at times but politely so. The other is the IRAS-RN Interest Group which requires membership in IRAS. It is a bit more scholarly and specific to the interests of the group. Both are intellectually stimulating with interesting insights into the evolving paradigm of RN. If you would like to join the IRAS -RN listserv, you first must join IRAS  (membership page) and then send an email to ELaurenson@mwe.com . Once it is confirmed that you are an IRAS member, you will be added to the list. You will receive a confirming email that includes instructions for posting etc. By joining the IRAS-RN listserv, you are also de facto be joining the IRAS-RN Interest Group.