Along with the history, the philosophy, and the people of Religious Naturalism, people often ask about the structure, the institutions, and the organizational aspects of Religious Naturalism.
In general the current answer is that there is no separate Religious Naturalism organization, and certainly no institutions. Any semblance of structure is, in fact, pretty minimal. There is a little structure, however, so this page will explain what exists, and muse a bit about future possibilities.
There are actually four aspects to the current structure. Perhaps the most dynamic is an on-line yahoogroup, cited on the Links page. You are welcome to join that discussion if you subscribe to the tenets of Religious Naturalism as outlined here (and also there). If you are antagonistic to Religious Naturalism or just curious, other options will be mentioned in a moment.
Another vibrant "home" for Religious Naturalism is within IRAS, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, which has approved Religious Naturalism as one of its "Interest Groups." IRAS is a wonderful organization that is now 50 years old. It co-publishes the well-known Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, clearly the most prestigious formal forum for the science/religion dialogue (and until recently the only peer-reviewed journal in the arena). IRAS also hosts annual conferences at Star Island, New Hampshire, which have for 50 years brought together top scientists (including several Nobel Prize winners) and Religion Scholars (plus ordinary people from virtually all disciplines) to butt heads and try to find common ground — and a lot of it has been found. You don't have to be a member of IRAS to read Zygon (it is in most university libraries, either in hard copy or on line), nor do you have to be a member to attend Star Island (unless the conference fills up by the members-only deadline early in March, which it usually doesn't), but you DO have to be a member to participate in IRAS's on-line Religious Naturalism group, which caters to a slightly more academic interest than the yahoogroup conversations. The IRAS-RN group also welcomes critiques of Religious Naturalism, as part of the polite but sometimes feisty conversational ethic that has grown up around IRAS over these 50 years.
[By the way, IRAS sponsors another public on-line discussion of science/religion issues, and Religious Naturalism often gets discussed there. That it the yahoogroup called LDG-net. Anyone is welcome there whatever their position on Religious Naturalism. You can sign up for that group by going to www. IRAS.org and following the link.]
This website is the third part of the current structure of Religious Naturalism, and we should mention a fourth part, namely the many books and articles about Religious Naturalism. A separate page, a Bibliography of those, is now under construction.
The future structure of Religious Naturalism remains to be seen. One of our group plans to originate a not-for-profit corporation soon, partly so that contributions to the expenses of this website and other initiatives will be tax-deductible. But that hasn't happened yet. (A separate page of current needs — also now under construction — will highlight the need for a volunteer CPA to file the relevant tax forms).
There is another potential "home" for Religious Naturalism that has been discussed from time to time. Just as Methodism began as the "Methodist Society" of the Church of England, it has been suggested that a "Society of Religious Naturalism" would be a logical society within Unitarian Universalism (which already has many analogous societies). A work group was formed to explore this possibility, but the members of that group are currently frying other fish. But that could be a very satisfactory home for Religious Naturalism, though by no means its only home.
Other than these components, Religious Naturalism has no structure that we are aware of . But since Religious Naturalism is "an idea whose time has come," we would not be surprised to learn of other organizations with very similar goals. In fact we know of some such organizations (listed on our Links page), and while the goals and aims of those organizations are not quite the same as ours, perhaps some sort of cooperative efforts could be in our future. That is only one of many exciting directions Religious Naturalism could take in the future.
Oh, I never mentioned what your option is if you are curious about Religious Naturalism but do not want to join any of the discussions above. Feel free to write the Content Editor of this site, or any of the persons on the List of Religious Naturalists who have listed their e-mail address. We cannot guarantee an exhaustive exchange, but hopefully we can guarantee enough of an exchange that you can decide whether or not you want to be more directly involved. Reading one or two of the books in the Bibliography (still under construction) will also help to satisfy your curiosity.
This page last updated 17 February 2004.