"I will donate one pound to the International Red Cross for each of the 26 Anglican bishops sitting in the House of Lords who completes the Sober Survey but only if 999 others will do the same."
— J Christie (联系)
签名截止期限至: 2010年05月01日
已经有77人签署, 还需要922人
国家与地区: 英国
详细内容:
If 999 others make the same pledge and all the bishops agree to participate by completing the Sober Survey - a survey of beliefs, ethics and reason - we will raise 26,000 pounds for the International Red Cross (each pledger donating 26 pounds).
The House of Lords permanently reserves 26 seats for bishops of the established Church of England. It is surely important that the public know what the bishops believe, since they enjoy a privileged position from which to have their voices heard. Moreover, Dr. Rowan Williams (the Archbishop of Canterbury), has said that he believes political leaders should talk more openly about their beliefs [1]. What better example could he set than to participate himself, and encourage his 25 colleagues to do the same.
This pledge is hosted at PledgeBank, with a sister site offering further information at http://www.lordinthelords.org. The Sober Survey lives at http://www.sobersurvey.org. Its 10 questions are:
1. Do chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor?
2. Did the earth exist 100,000 years ago?
3. Is a long and happy life available to those without religious faith?
4. Are prayers responded to?
5. How do you explain the diversity of life on earth?
6. Can one be moral/ethical without a belief in God?
7. Do you support blood donation and transfusion?
8. Who made man? Who made God?
9. What will happen to you after your death?
10. Does a supernatural intelligence take an interest in your daily activities?
--
[1] Interview with Daily Telegraph (11 Dec 2009) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...)
J Christie,祈愿者,有以下人员签名支持:
支持这个祈愿的签名者也支持了这样一些祈愿……
Also, since the potential respondents are sitting members of the house of lords, would it not be more appropriate to question them about the role of the church in government and disestablishmentarianism? For example:
"Do you think that a religious order should have a voice in deciding laws for a secular society?"
and
"Should all rules laid out in the bible be implemented in law? If not, should any? If so, on what basis do you discriminate which rules are to be taken literally and which are not?"
I just pulled those off the top of my head, but I think given time I could come up with a better list of ten questions quite easily.
How about do you actually believe it is possible for a man to be dead for three days and come back to life ?
Bravo-Zulu to the pledge author - Good Job!
1. yes
2. yes
3. yes - of course
4. only if someone (human) can hear them and really likes you
5. evolution
6. absolutely
7. it saved the life of a close relative, so absolutely
8. (a) no one (the beauty) (b) Homo sapiens
9. I will make insects and fungus very happy
10. I hope not - I don't want to be scrutinized by an uninvited peeping tom
I concur strongly with the remarks of H.F and Kev and others.
I would subscribe to this campaign if the questions were more carefully framed and especially more appropriate for the times we live in when Christianity is no longer the dominant faith.
So we have to define “faith” and whose “faith”. We also have to ask if there can there be such a thing as acceptable faith and un-acceptable faith.
And who decides; and on what basis.
Do we exclude the kind of faith that persuades people to go out into the streets carrying banners “Death to the unbeliever”, “Behead those who defame Islam”, “To hell with Democracy”?
If so, on what grounds? Faith is faith.
Even on their own terms the questions suggested will present little trouble to House of Lords incumbents.
For example; most mainstream Christians will find it easy to accept Darwin and agree that we do indeed share ancestors with the apes.
I am not the person to design the questionnaire; we need someone of the calibre of Richard Dawkins.
But whatever we do let’s not go off half cock.