On WEDNESDAY, November 15, at 7:00 pm, in Sussman Theater (Olmsted Center), Muhammad Faruque, the Inayat & Ishrat Malik Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati, and author of Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing (Michigan, 2021), will speak on “Immortality through AI? Transhumanism, Human Nature, and Islamic Philosophy.” Muhammad U. Faruque is Assistant Professor […]

On Sunday, November 5, from 1:00-3:30 pm, the Des Moines Zen Center (6901 SW 14th St, Des Moines) will be hosting an open-house, including a reception and tours of the center. Members of the “teacher rotation group” will lead small groups around the building to view the space and see the zendo, library, dokusan room,

On Saturday, October 21, from 5:30-7:30pm, the Hindu Cultural and Educational Center (1940 E Army Post Road, Des Moines) will be hosting a celebration of the annual festival of Navaratri (for the Hindu goddess Durga) that includes bhajan singing and dancing. Join the local Bhutanese Hindu community for a bhajan celebration as part of a Navaratri celebration,

On Thursday, October 19 at 7:00 pm in Sussman Theater (Olmsted Center), Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Patterson University and author of Your Digital Afterlives: Computational Theories of Life after Death (Palgrave, 2014), will speak on “Transhumanism vs. Christianity.” Eric Steinhart grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. He received his BS in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania

 On Saturday, September 9, from 2:00 – 4:30 pm, the Muslim Community Organization (aka Masjid an-Noor) at 1117 42nd Street, Des Moines will be hosting an open-house that includes tours of the mosque and ethnic food and booths.  Below please find a flyer for the event.

On Thursday, September 14 at 7:00 pm in Sussman Theater (Olmsted Center), Robert Geraci, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College and author of Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science (Lexington, 2018) and Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality (Oxford, 2012), will speak on “Saffron Singularity: The Global Circulation

On Saturday April 1 at 7:30 pm, Ezan Islamic and Education Center (6206 Douglas Ave, Des Moines) is hosting an iftar dinner for the public.   This Bosnian Muslim community will first break the fast (with dates and water) and pray, after which we will all enjoy a sumptuous feast. For this mosque, women and

In 2023, Meet My Religious Neighbor returned to a partnership between The Comparison Project and CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, with each partner planning one event. Click below to find out more about each event and see pics. SPRING 2023 SERIES -> 2/19: Roads to Religion (Drake University)

On Sunday, December 4, members of the local Soka Gakkai International community (which practices Japanese Nichiren Buddhism) will visit to Drake University to speak about their religious faith and show how they practice it. The event, which will take place in the second-floor “Reading Room” in Cowles Library from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, will feature an introduction to Buddhism

In Fall 2022 (Oct. 28-30, the Iowa Interfaith Conference was hosted by Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Participating schools visited the Tristate Islamic Center, a Catholic Worker Farm, Native American burial mounds, a Greek Orthodox church, and a non-denominational church. Students also engaged in interfaith learning, discussion, exchange, and engagement on Loras’s campus. Those who