Religious Institutions on Roosevelt Island

With the ending of the Jewish High Holy days on Saturday night and the start of Jewish calendar year 5768, I thought it useful to provide contact information for the various religious faiths located on Roosevelt Island. The information has been compiled by the Main Street Wire and are believed to be accurate as of September 2006. The link above contains contact information for many other Roosevelt Island organizations as well and is a very valuable resource.

Religious Organizations on Roosevelt Island

• 832 6778 Catholic Parish (St Francis Cabrini) 555 Main Street Fr Peter Miqueli; masses TWT 10, 564 Main; Sa 5, Su 8:15, 11:15, 543 Main
• 917 572 6674 Church of the Good Shepherd (Protestant) 543 Main St C Calderhead, Pastor services Su 10;
• 644 2291 Dayspring Church 851 Main St Pastor Olu Obed; services Su 10; admin@dayspringchurchny.org;
• 832 6778 Good Shepherd Community Center 543 Main St Fr Peter Miqueli (to reserve Community Center)
• 486 5733 Jewish Congregation (RIJC) 548 Main St Ron Meltzer 753-0237; http://nyc10044.com/rijc/
• 223 3113 Quran Society of NY at RI 540 Main St David Glenn

Preparing this post reminded me of a very interesting NY Times article from the 9/18/07 New York Times Science section:

Where do moral rules come from? From reason, some philosophers say. From God, say believers. Seldom considered is a source now being advocated by some biologists, that of evolution.

At first glance, natural selection and the survival of the fittest may seem to reward only the most selfish values. But for animals that live in groups, selfishness must be strictly curbed or there will be no advantage to social living. Could the behaviors evolved by social animals to make societies work be the foundation from which human morality evolved?

In a series of recent articles and a book, “The Happiness Hypothesis,” Jonathan Haidt, a moral psychologist at the University of Virginia, has been constructing a broad evolutionary view of morality that traces its connections both to religion and to politics.

And:

Dr. Haidt believes that religion has played an important role in human evolution by strengthening and extending the cohesion provided by the moral systems. “If we didn’t have religious minds we would not have stepped through the transition to groupishness,” he said. “We’d still be just small bands roving around.”

Religious behavior may be the result of natural selection, in his view, shaped at a time when early human groups were competing with one another. “Those who found ways to bind themselves together were more successful,” he said.

Food for thought.