Parliament of Worlds Religion 2004 Barcelona

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 131

Program Descriptions Friday, July 9, 2004
INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
The Islamic View of Human Cloning Malik Khan
132, English Lecture
Human cloning, therapeutic stem cell research and other emerging scientific discoveries are in need of reflection and commentary from our religious and spiritual traditions. Using the principles of Islamic jurisprudence to extrapolate from prohibitions and permissions of Islamic law covering related situations from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.S.), this presentation attempts to arrive at morally and logically consistent guidelines to govern the emerging field of human cloning and other technologically aided methods of human reproduction. Finally, this presentation will investigate situations that justify therapeutic stem cell research.
Dr. Malik Sardar Khan was born April 8, 1943, in the city of Quetta of what was then British India but what would soon become Pakistan. Since 1978 Dr. Khan has played a key role in World Muslim Congress, the first Islamic NGO to achieve Class A observer status at the United Nations. Since 1988 Dr. Khan has been World Muslim Congress' Councillor for the Americas and Permanent U.N. Representative. Served WMC for thity years. In 1990 he co-founded, along with the then-head of Muslim World League, Dr. Abdullah bin Omar Nasseef, the World Council of Muslim Communities.
The Zen Garden: A Paradise
Gabriela Vargas Anguita
Room 134, Spanish/English Lecture
Lecture, with a visual support and PowerPoint, about the artistic and symbolic language of the Zen garden. This presentation will highlight the spiritual principles and the relationship that the person establishes with the garden. The speaker will present the garden as a way of understanding Buddhist illumination: the image contributes to understanding the principles and the spiritual values of Buddhism as well as the non-dual relationship with reality.
Dr. in Fine Arts on the Zen gardens, Gabriela Vargas Anguita has been a professor in different universities as well as a professor of yoga since 1974.
Mahatma Gandhi and Religious Pluralism S.S. Rama Rao Pappu
E. C. G. Sudarshan
V.V. Raman Christopher Chapple Ela Gandhi
K.L. Seshagiri Rao
Auditorium (3155), Spanish/English/Catalan Panel Discussion
130 Parliament of the World's Religions 2004
The speakers in this panel will explicate and examine Mahatma Gandhi's conception of Religious Pluralism. Gandhi said that "after long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true; all religions have some error in them; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives." Discussions and papers in this panel will center around: similarities and differences between modern formulations of religious pluralism and Gandhi's own conception; Gandhi's religious pluralism and Jaina theory of Anekantavada; Vedantic roots of Gandhi's religious pluralism; Gandhi's practice of religious pluralism; and implications and importance of Gandhian religious pluralism to religious tolerance and religious harmony.
S.S. Rama Rao Pappu is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and an Affiliate of the Department of Comparative Religion at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, U.S.A. He is an Associate Editor (Philosophy) of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism and is the author/editor of Gandhi and America's Educational Future.
E.C.G. Sudarshan is Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the Univerity of Texas Austin. He has published over 500 papers in physics and Indian religions and philosophies. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of The Encyclopedia of Hinduism.
V.V. Raman is a Professor Emeritus of Physics and Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and is the author of several books, including Scientific Prerspective, Glimpses of Ancient Science and Scientists, and Varieties of Science History. He is also an Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Hinduism.
Dr. Christopher Chapple a Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Asian-Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. His books include Karma and Creativity, Non-Violence to Animals, and Earth and Self in Asian raditions.
Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, was a vigorous non-violent opponent of apartheid, and a member of South African Parliament for nearly nine years. She is currently Editor of Satyagraha, Secretary of the Gandhi Development Trust, Vice President of WCRP South Africa, and a Member of the Commission. on Religious Affairs of the African National Congress.
Dr. Rao was born in Mulbagal, India, in 1929. He is fluent in several modern Indian languages and has an expert knowledge of Sanskrit. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Mysore and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the comparative study of world religions. His numerous publications include World Problems and Human Responsibility: Gandhian Perspectives, ed. with Henry Thompson (New York, 1988) and ""Hinduism and World Community," in World Faiths Insight (London, January 1984).
The Tibetan Book of the Life and Death Sogyal Rimpoche
Multiuse (1800), Spanish/English/Catalan Lecture
Reknowned Buddhist scholar and spiritual teacher, Lama Sogyal Rimpoche, will offer a presentation on the Tibetan Book