Dr. Bahar Davary
Assistant professor of Religious Studies at
University of San Diego

Is Religion Killing Us?
Wednesday October 26, 2005

With the Enlightenment science replaced religion as the ultimate source of knowledge. Feuerbach reasoned that deities are projections, objectifications of people's fears and desires. Freud called religion a collective fantasy, a
"universal obsessional neurosis" and Marx called it "the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world . the opium of the people." With Fundamentalism on the rise, religion, and specifically
monotheistic religions are regarded as sources of violence. Others maintain that religion is a source of harmony, unity and love. Can we get rid of religion? Would that lead to a more peaceful, equitable, progressive society?

Dr. Bahar Davary is assistant professor of Religious Studies at University of San Diego. She has received her undergraduate and M.A. in History of Religion from University of Tehran and her Ph.D. in Comparative
Religion from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. In the past ten years she has taught at Hobart and William Smith colleges, Geneva, NY and at
her Alma Mater. Her courses include: World Religions, Islamic Mysticism: The Inward Dance, Religion and Resistance: Revolutionary Approaches to Islam and
Christianity, Ecology and the Sacred, Islam and Gender, Islam and the West and Who Rules: Politics and Government in Islam.

Special Program(s):

In the first segment of the meeting, We will have a highly talented 12-years old Santoor student, Mr. Navid Moein, plays santoor for 15-minutes.

Also in this program, there will be a factual presentation on the Proposition 78 which is in the November ballot.