#AskYourScientist – Education and Discourse Initiative

#AskYourScientist is part of the „WissenMachtStark“ project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs (01.12.2023 bis 31.12.2024).

The increasing religious pluralization of society has been gathering pace for years. There is a multitude of religions and beliefs. Individuals turning away from the official churches does not mean that people are becoming religious. However, as people turn away from the churches, their knowledge of Christian teachings and, in some cases, Jewish ideas is also declining. What used to be part of the general education in Christianity and was acquired in religious education, confirmation classes or communion classes is increasingly lacking today.

Another point is the privatization of religion, i.e. that little is said about people’s own religious beliefs. This leads to less dialogue between people about religion. Individualized religion, in which the individual creates his or her concept of faith, often far removed from traditional interpretations by spiritual leaders, is also becoming increasingly present. In addition, Germany’s religious landscape is also increasingly characterized by the immigration of Muslims from different traditions, as well as Yazidis and Christians from Ukraine or African countries.

#AskYourScientist: Citizens in dialogue with BaFID

New challenges and questions arise, perhaps also uncertainties, misunderstandings, and suspicions. This is where BaFID’s new project in 2024 comes in: We are convinced that religion-related academic disciplines can contribute to society, directly and immediately, by answering their questions in person. The Campania name #AskYourScientist sums it up. We at BaFID reach out to people, whether in real life or online on social media. As a first step, we provide information on Jewish-Christian-Islamic relations and their similarities and differences. In a second step, we encourage people on social media to ask questions about religions, especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What have you always wanted to know? Is there a question that has interested you for a long time, but for which you have not yet found a competent contact person? No question is unwelcome, every request is worthy of our attention. If appropriate, questions are contextualized against the background of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

 

The BaFID team answers questions about religions on Instagram

“How is the term jihad to be understood?“
These and other questions will be discussed on the Instagram channel of the BaFID. As part of the #WissenMachtStark project, questions about religions were collected from all citizens. Surprisingly, BaFID received many questions about the theology degree program, and a gynecologist had questions about women’s health. However, the questions often contained stereotypical ideas about Islam, whereas this was hardly the case with questions about Judaism. Overall, religion as such was delegitimized more frequently. All this and more was answered by the BaFID team and partly published on the BaFID Instagram channel.
There will also be several raffles of BaFID publications here in the coming weeks. Find out more.