Mustafa Ceric, the grand mufti of Bosnia. Source: BBC

Tim Townsend’s story in the Saturday edition of the Post-Dispatch about the Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Walls annual dinner included a remarkable statement by Mustafa Ceric, the grand mufti of Bosnia, described as “the highest authority for Bosnian Muslims.“

“Humanity is, at the moment, confused,” Ceric is quoted as saying. “People of all beliefs and concepts are claiming now that they possess the whole truth about our destiny. No one possesses the whole truth, but each of us has a bit of it. That’s God leading us toward each other.”

I could not possibly agree with the grand mufti more (except for the God part), and I trust the attendees at the dinner, all of whom are demonstrably interested in finding ways that people of different faiths can coexist in peace, found his remarks especially welcome.

As an atheist, I find I can agree with the lion’s share of moral behavior dictated by faith traditions around the world, and I am often in awe of the sacrifices people of faith make as a result of those dictates (such as Tom and Debbie Ritter, the amazing Missouri couple profiled in Saturday’s Post who adopted 22 abused, neglected and otherwise hard-to-get-adopted kids). I simply disagree with the idea that the moral instruction came from God.

Often, it would seem, the conviction that a directive emanates from divinity renders the convicted inflexibly aligned with policies that may no longer serve to make the world a better place. The idea, for example, that one religion is the sole repository of metaphysical truth and must be spread to every corner of the earth counts as one of those pernicious notions, and it would seem the grand mufti is open to suggestion on that score.

I happen to believe in evolution by natural selection, not only as it relates to species, but also to ideas. Morality is an evolving creature, evidenced by the abolition of slavery, the emergence of women’s rights, the abandonment of human sacrifices and the acceptance of homosexuality in what we like to call enlightened cultures over the past 10,000 years or so.

If we are to make it as a species, we need to make room in our minds for the best ideas to flourish. God sometimes gets in the way.