Religious leaders find ‘common ground’ in opening lecture of First Amendment Days
Katlyn Campbell/Iowa State Daily
Common Ground: Talking About Belief, a panel on freedom of religion and beliefs, featured panelists representing different religions. The panelists consisted of a Hindu, a Christian, a Zen Buddhist, an Atheist and a Jew. Panelists answered questions about their own religions and beliefs at this panel Monday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union. This event was a part of First Amendment Days 2019, which is a week-long celebration of the First Amendment put on by the Iowa State Daily and the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
April 8, 2019
Monday’s lecture, Common Ground: Talking About Belief, served as the opening lecture of First Amendment Days. The lecture, which took place at 5:30 in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, featured members from the Ames community who represented a plethora of beliefs.
Madhav Kiritkumar Pathak, a graduate student in the electrical and computer engineering program, represented the Hindu religion on the panel. Amy Kaleita, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, represented Christianity. Douglas Gentile, a professor in the psychology department, represented the Buddhist religion. Hector Avalos, a professor of philosophy and religious studies, represented atheism and Rabbi Jacobson, a member of the Ames community, represented the Jewish religion on the panel.
The event was an informal, open-ended discussion with the goal of finding common ground, no matter the religion. When asked what they saw as the commonalities between their religions, all parties on the panel had something to offer.
“We all come from different perspectives, so there is no possible way we can tell the same story,” Gentile said. “There is no saying who is right. All of our paths are right. We are simply taking different paths up the same mountain.”
Kaleita and Avalos said there are similarities between all the religions, or a lack thereof, on the panel, agreeing that humans “don’t have all the answers.”
“No matter what you believe, it’s always your opinion. People can’t verify what god is just as they can’t verify what god isn’t,” Avalos said.
Pathak was also able to connect the religions on the panel to Hinduism.
“Hinduism has a lot of common threads with other religions,” Pathak said. “Each of us [carries] out our own ways like a river, but at some point, they all meet together at the ocean.”
This event was part of Iowa State’s First Amendment Days. This year marks the 17th year of celebrating the First Amendment at Iowa State. The week is meant to celebrate the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
First Amendment Days is organized by students and staff at Iowa State and includes a variety of events, such as lectures, street art demonstrations and panel discussions.
