New Delhi, Oct 31 Vice President Hamid Ansari inaugurated a national conference on the Theme "The Interfaith Movement - Where Do We Go From Here" today.

Speaking at the conference organised by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) here, Ansari said the interfaith dialogue is critical to our health as a society. Its success would lie in widening the ambit of its adherents, and their acceptance of it as an imperative necessity.

Ansari pointed out that the faith has been defined as belief in the trustworthiness of an idea. The basis of this belief may be physical or metaphysical. Either way, it leads firstly to a conviction that something is, secondly to a determination to accomplish objectives associated with this conviction and thirdly to a sense of satisfaction linked to the achievement of the preceding two.

He opined that given the richness of human experience in space and time, the manifestations of faith have been equally diverse. In most of these, the endeavour is to relate human existence to an ultimate point of reference that is an infinite or absolute essentiality existing by the necessity of its own nature. One consequence of this is the emergence of similarities as well as divergences of perceptions.

He said that social life also has a political dimension. A sociologist who studied the impact of religion upon the political sphere concluded that the impact of politics on religion or faith could take the shape of religiously relevant political action, or politically conditioned religious action. In such a framework, the potential of contestation becomes unavoidable.

"Given the richness of human experience in space and time, the manifestations of faith have been equally diverse. In most of these, the endeavour is to relate human existence to an ultimate point of reference that is an infinite or absolute essentiality existing by the necessity of its own nature," he added. (ANI)