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The Circle of Reason

The Circle Maker Group Bible Study by Mark Batterson


220px-Circleofreason_Logo_2013The Circle of Reason, noted by The Pluralism Project at Harvard as a “promising practice,” is a Twin CitiesMinnesota-based international society of theistsatheistsconservatives, and liberals who espouse the social philosophy of “pluralistic rationalism,” which the society describes as “communal commitment to the basic methodological tenets of a reasoning lifestyle (reality’s acceptance, assumption’s denial, and emotion’s mastery) without regard to our theological, ethical, or political worldviews.” According to the society, pluralistic rationalism (also called methodological rationalism and “plurationalism“) is practiced through encouraging “reasoning thinking, behavior and communication in all people irrespective of their disparate beliefs, backgrounds, and current ideological or tribal affiliations,” and through discouraging “denials of reality, unquestioned assumptions (potentially false realities), and emotive arguments or actions (dissociation from reality),” including discouraging “ad hominem insults” (asserted to be an immoral form of argumentation for “seeking to irrationally persuade by evoking emotionality”).

Practices of the pluralistic rationalist society have included organizing the theist+atheist “Secular Bible Study” for reasoning dialogues on the historical context, societal impact and cultural relevance of the Bible and religion, and “Ancient Greek Peripatetic“-style nature walks combined with “transcultural, transbelief reasoning dialogue” on current social issues; organizing and moderating “Assumptions on the [Minnesota Same-Sex] Marriage Amendment: A Reasoning Forum” for theists, atheists, conservatives & liberals; defending a Catholiclegislator shunned by his archdiocese for refusing to defund reproductive health clinics; and presenting an address on plurationalism, “Be Sane — Be VERY Sane!” to the “Rally to Restore Sanity Minnesota” at the State Capitol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralistic_Rationalism

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