The speaker during the Wednesday forum on October 14, 2009 was Ms. Melanie Nyhof, a doctoral candidate from Pittsburgh University, and the moderator was Roy Alan Brango Tolentino, an ICRS-Yogya student. Ms. Nyhof presented her paper entitled “Allah’s shape is like the sky: Children’s Understanding of God)

In the discussion, she examined the foundation of religious and supernatural concepts which should not be taken for granted; it must be organized in cognition. The focus of Ms. Nyhof’s research was on Indonesian children’s development in examining the concept of God; children with Moslem and Catholic background. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, she accounted and narrated the concept of God according to Indonesian children based on age, psychology, culture and religion. Ms. Nyhof stated that most researches related to children’s development on the concept of God are based on Christianity.

The opening Wednesday Forum which was attended by about 30 participants for this semester held on September 9, 2009 was marked with a presentation entitled “Evolution and Creation in the Muslim World: Ambiguities in the Moslem World”? delivered by Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir who is the director of CRCS.

The main argument presented by Dr. Bagir was the Theory of Evolution that has not been considered important in the world’s religious agenda, and the opposition to Darwin’s Theory which emphasizes on the issue of Creation in the holy book, either Qur’an or Bible. Dr. Bagir also argued that the interpretation of other anti-evolutionism is also part of the politics of identity now. Anti-evolutionism movement is spreading in many countries and in many religious communities, such as Hindus, Jews and Christians all over the world like in Latin America, Northern Europe, Australia, even in Asia such as Asian Indian, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

Christians must relate to non-Christians with love and respect, engage in a humbler dialogue, and recognize the truth and holiness imparted by the Holy Spirit to all religions. This was one of the viewpoints mentioned by Mega Hidayati during the Wednesday Forum held on June 3, 2009. The title of her presentation was “A Muslim View of Inter-Christian Dialogue.”

Based on her experience doing sandwich program at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, Mega saw that in Christianity there are many different views. For instance, in the evangelical debate, there are two dominant and different views which are exclusivism and inclusivism. She said that the exclusivists position Jesus Christ more as above all beliefs, while the inclusivists, including pluralists, deny the unique divinity or authority above everything.

Wednesday Forum this week provides a topic “A New Trans-yanic Buddhism in the Making?” that will be articulated by the speaker, Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne. We invite you to join this forum. Some information about the forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm (free lunch)
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne

Abstract:

This paper examines the impact of globalization on religion. The particular emphasis in this study is on Buddhism, which has been confined to its localities for centuries and now has started traveling. Due to extensive physical encounters among various Buddhist traditions naturally there have been many interchanges of ideas, practices, techniques, methods and even ideas. It appears that a trans-yanic Buddhism, which goes beyond the traditional categories such as Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, is in the making.

When we talk about Islamic state, there are many interpretations related to that concept. According to Salem Ghandour, the guest speaker during the weekly Wednesday Forum on April 13, 2009, the ideas with regard to Islamic state in reference to the Qur’an and Hadith are narrow-minded. The Prophet Muhammad himself during his time did not claim of establishing an Islamic state. This narrow-mindedness is greatly influenced by Arabic countries, especially by the imams from al-Azhar in Egypt.

To show the differences between interpretations, Salem begun the forum by asking “what Islamic state is”? to two participants. The first participant answered that Islamic state is a state that holds Islamic law in its system. Substantially, Indonesia is an Islamic state, he said. The second participant emphasized more on governance that dominates pluralism under authority of Islamic state.

The conflict in Poso has caused segregation within its society which will be indicated with the existence of territories or boundaries based on certain religions. In relation with the segregation, Izak Y. M. Lattu, a CRCS alumnus who is currently working at Satya Wacana Christian University, said that the existence of the Youth Center in Poso is effective in building openness and peaceful relationship among the Poso youth. Through its implementation, positive impacts are expected to happen in the near future. Since its establishment, one of its positive impacts is bridging the segregation.