Terrorism, culture wars, climate-change denial, religiously fueled wars – together, they pose an existential threat to civilization, and all spring from the same source: Old Time Religion. If civilization is to survive, it's high time for people of good faith to reform the religions of the world. So argues this startling new book from Huffington Post science and religion writer Clay Farris Naff.
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, he writes, the main dividing line today is not between the Judeo-Christian religions of the West and various sects of Islam in the East, but between Mainstream Religion and Old Time Religion all over the world. Regardless of label, he says, people everywhere seek the same things from mainstream religion: a sense of community, moral guidance, and the comforts of ritual and tradition. By contrast, Old Time Religion, in Islam, Christianity, or any faith, is dogmatic, authoritarian, sexually repressive, tribalistic, politically charged, and bent on domination.
Quoting the noted religion scholar Philip Jenkins, Naff writes, “religion has become 'the prime animating and destructive force in human affairs.' Not all religion and not only religion, but surely Old Time Religion. “We are tantalizingly close to achieving the age-old dream of a just and peaceful world. Unfortunately, we are just as close to seeing that dream go over the falls.”
Old Time Religion is driving young people away from mainstream religion in droves, and at the same time driving civilization to the brink of disaster, Naff argues. To counter this perilous trend and allow global civilization to make a “safe landing,” he offers a new paradigm for reform. Free Faith, he says, is not a religion but a set of rational, science-compatible principles that can empower people to make positive change in whatever tradition they happen to find themselves. “Free God Now is an appeal,” he writes, “It is a plea to you to look into your heart and free God from the prison of ancient theology.”
If mainstream religion can be reformed, revitalized, and clearly differentiated from Old Time Religion, Naff argues, then people of good faith can make alliances across a wide spectrum, from atheist to liberal believer to traditionalist, united in opposition to the unhinged, violent, reactionary right so prominent in religion today.
Clay Farris Naff, an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, scholar, and science writer, has lived in and reported from predominately Muslim and Buddhist countries, as well as the Judeo-Christian West. In addition to his Huffington Post essays on science and religion, he has written for Scientific American, Newsweek, the Humanist, Metanexus, and Earth Magazine, among others, and has reported for National Public Radio. He frequently speaks at colleges and churches, and other organizations.
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, he writes, the main dividing line today is not between the Judeo-Christian religions of the West and various sects of Islam in the East, but between Mainstream Religion and Old Time Religion all over the world. Regardless of label, he says, people everywhere seek the same things from mainstream religion: a sense of community, moral guidance, and the comforts of ritual and tradition. By contrast, Old Time Religion, in Islam, Christianity, or any faith, is dogmatic, authoritarian, sexually repressive, tribalistic, politically charged, and bent on domination.
Quoting the noted religion scholar Philip Jenkins, Naff writes, “religion has become 'the prime animating and destructive force in human affairs.' Not all religion and not only religion, but surely Old Time Religion. “We are tantalizingly close to achieving the age-old dream of a just and peaceful world. Unfortunately, we are just as close to seeing that dream go over the falls.”
Old Time Religion is driving young people away from mainstream religion in droves, and at the same time driving civilization to the brink of disaster, Naff argues. To counter this perilous trend and allow global civilization to make a “safe landing,” he offers a new paradigm for reform. Free Faith, he says, is not a religion but a set of rational, science-compatible principles that can empower people to make positive change in whatever tradition they happen to find themselves. “Free God Now is an appeal,” he writes, “It is a plea to you to look into your heart and free God from the prison of ancient theology.”
If mainstream religion can be reformed, revitalized, and clearly differentiated from Old Time Religion, Naff argues, then people of good faith can make alliances across a wide spectrum, from atheist to liberal believer to traditionalist, united in opposition to the unhinged, violent, reactionary right so prominent in religion today.
Clay Farris Naff, an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, scholar, and science writer, has lived in and reported from predominately Muslim and Buddhist countries, as well as the Judeo-Christian West. In addition to his Huffington Post essays on science and religion, he has written for Scientific American, Newsweek, the Humanist, Metanexus, and Earth Magazine, among others, and has reported for National Public Radio. He frequently speaks at colleges and churches, and other organizations.
