Insights on the Evolution of Religions and Interreligious Dialogue:

This paper covers many topics relating to the evolution of religions, their interactions (both negative and positive) with each other, and the challenge of finding unity amidst the diversity of the world’s diverse cultural and religious traditions – past, present, and future. Topics covered include: religion as a force for war or peace; a spectrum of possible perspectives within all religions; changing male-female images of divinity in different religions over time; mythology as a link between our outer lives in the world and the inner life of the spirit; how scriptures of all religions support the “golden rule” as well as “peace”; principles for conducting interreligious / interfaith dialogue between peoples of different faiths; the first versus second axial age of the world’s religions; key interfaith organizations and some of their declarations; how to create an interfaith organization within one’s own local community; progress in interfaith dialogue replacing interreligious conflict and war; increasing numbers of people encountering other religions in their spiritual journeys; alternative scenarios (worst case, best case, and most probable case) on the future of religions and their interfaith interactions; and final conclusions