Welcome to the Year of Faith. This is a project in which three very different people are going to follow the practices and beliefs of twelve religions, one each month, for one year. We are going to live by the same customs and rules that have been shared by millions of other adherents all over the world for thousands of years. We will read their sacred texts, share in their prayers and meditations, and celebrate their holy days. We will do our utmost to live our lives as the religion suggests, as well as discuss the philosophical and practical aspects of each belief as we experience it in our lives.
I dreamt up the idea of following twelve different religions for one year back in 2005, and was originally going to be experiencing it solo during 2006. However the project started on rocky ground as I was going through some personal issues at the time as well as a heavy scholastic workload. I managed to get through the first month, but put the project on hiatus during February. I was unable to give the Year of Faith the attention or dedication that I felt was required so eventually I just cancelled it all together. But as this year began drawing to a close a few of my friends expressed interest in the project and I tentatively began exploring the possibility of doing it once more. To my surprise there was still a lot of interest and support and even people willing to go through the Year of Faith with me. Now here we are, three people ready to try to live twelve different kinds of lives in one year.
Specifics…
We will be taking turns researching each religion and laying out what the practices and beliefs are going to be. We try to meet every week to discuss our research and discuss each religion.
We will have books and selections each month that we will hopefully be able to finish before the month is up. Our readings for the month will probably begin a few days before each month starts in order to give us a better idea of what we shall be doing. Each religion has central, sacred texts but some would take more than a month to get through, so in these cases we will be reading important selections as well as secondary resources.
We will be practicing and believing based on what we have read and discovered. We will be attending church/synagogue/mosque/temple when appropriate, and will be interviewing priests/monks/rabbis/etc. as well as fellow laity to enrich and realize our research. When it comes to being required to believe in God/Allah/YHWH/Brahman I realize there are some problems. It is difficult to have faith in something you never believed in or perhaps never thought possible to discover. But the Year of Faith isn’t about acting like we have faith in God, but trying to discover whether or not we can, why we didn’t before, and why people do have faith. We will surely be presented with new arguments and new cases for the existence God, and may even have personal experiences that shift our perspectives.
On certain months there are one or more holy days which we will be taking part in with the rest of our new communities. We will do our best to document them and reflect on their significance.
Some religions require dietary restrictions, so our diets will change to match. Some also posit shedding oneself of the importance of material possessions, so during these times we may be hard to contact as some of us may be putting our cell phones and computers in storage.
Andrew, our resident photographer, will also be posting photos relevant to each month on the photos page. You will be able to see photos taken during the holy days we celebrate, as well as of the people and places we visit.
The Website…
We will be documenting our pilgrimage using this website thoughtfully designed by Andrew and Sara. We will make a point of posting during the first and last days of each month to give an account of each religion and what we shall be doing, as well as a summary of what happened and what we took away from that religion. Between those times we will be sharing our thoughts and personal experience as they unravel, using this space as a kind of journal to document the Year of Faith, as well as to explore discussions, debates, and current events relevant to each religion.
On months where attachment to unnecessary material items is considered taboo, this may be done through an intermediary, so posts may become a bit more sporadic. We ask you to please be patient as we each have either full time jobs or are full time students, so we may not have the time to be able to share with you as much as we would like. In the meantime feel free to contact us or post comments and questions.
Also, the the image in the banner above will be changed every month to reflect the current religion.
What the Year of Faith is…
Now that the introductions are all in order, let us get down to why we are doing this. We each have our own reasons, which you can discover through our profiles, but there are some fundamentals to the project that I feel are worth laying down.
The Year of Faith is mostly about learning. It is a chance for us to learn about religions and concepts we are unfamiliar with, a chance for us to live outside of our own perspectives and our own culture. Think of it as an experiment to see what religion is really all about, to better understand concepts like God and faith, a chance to see how religion affects us and our societies, a way to see past our stereotypes and unsound assumptions.
Each of the participants are agnostic, atheist, or somewhere in between. Most of us don’t have a very religious background or practice any specific religion, so this is a chance to see what life could be like had we been raised with a certain religion. The Year of Faith is a chance for us to go out and get involved in religious communities, and perhaps to shed light on why some people become religious while others do not. It is an opportunity to unravel the animosity many religions have with each other, to understand what each religion has in common as well as what keeps them separate.
What the Year of Faith is not…
We are not looking to become completely divorced from who we already are—our practices and interpretations of each religion may differ depending on our background. We are not out to become the most faithful, fundamental, conservative, or liberal believer, we are just trying to see what our lives would be like and how the world would look following different, specific doctrines. We will be very aware that our roles only last a month, and we will not expect ourselves to be as devout or knowledgeable as those who have followed their religion for their entire lives, but we will try to be as faithful as possible.
We are not here to belittle or attack any of these religions. We are not doing this to mock anyone’s beliefs, we are genuinely curious and we want to know more about them. If you find what we are doing to be offensive and/or disrespectful in any way, please let us know. We do not wish to be offensive, and we will be sure to treat each religion, and each issue, fairly. However, we are not blind to prejudice or contradictions. Many of these religions include ideas that can lend themselves to racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted interpretations, and there are religious sects and movements that have taken those interpretations to heart. As I remarked above, we will not be replacing all of our considered convictions, so we will still have a sense of what we find to be morally outrageous and reprehensible. If we see or hear something we disagree with or that does not make sense to us, we will say so and we will be discussing the matter. Just because we are being respectful does not mean we will shy away from debate or sit on the fence when confronted with controversial issues.