TruthBook Religious News Blog

According to a 2003 study commissioned by the American Academy of Religion, the number of courses on religion offered at accredited colleges and universities across the United States and Canada increased by 9 percent from 1997 to 2000. Yearly enrollment in religion studies classes during that period increased 15 percent to an estimated 685,000 students, including 46,000 who chose religion as their major. That amounts to a 26 percent increase in religion majors in just three years.

"Religion as a field in academia is relatively new compared to English or literature," said Kyle Cole, director of college programs for the AAR. "We're seeing an increase in the public's interest in religion, not just individually, but across society."

At Rutgers, the public university in the most densely populated state in the country, that interest has ballooned over the years. Founded in 1972, the Department of Religion enrolled 1,074 students in its classes for 1981. Enrollment this year is more than three times greater, filling classes on such topics as the Old and New Testament, Buddhism, Islam and the most popular: Hindu philosophy. In 2004, 29 religion majors and 54 minors graduated, up from 12 majors and 14 minors in 1996.

Gary Rendsburg, chairman of the Department of Jewish studies at Rutgers, believes this trend can be traced to generational differences and ever-changing community demographics.

"Our students' parents and grandparents grew up in a world of the melting pot," Rendsburg said. "They tended not to talk about religion, even hid their religious history. And the country's vast majority were Christians. In the '70s came the rise of ethnic consciousness, first from African-American communities and the women's movement before they generated spinoffs. It became cool to be black, so it became cool to be Jewish — OK to be ethnic."

Universities slowly began merging programs around ethnic lines. Six years ago, the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers partly emerged from the Hebraic Studies Department, which focused exclusively on the Hebrew language and its literature. Rendsburg's current department also involves history, philosophy and religion.

"Today, in New Jersey, probably the most multicultural state in the country, neighbors are less likely to be Christian. That stirs our students to know a little about our neighbors. Who are these people?"

In the four years since 9/11, that question's relevance has swelled and accelerated the growth of religion studies enrollment, particularly in classes related to Islam.

Rendsburg, though, pointed out that while a good percentage of students in his department are not Jewish, the majority fall into two subcategories depending on their Jewish upbringing.

"There are those who have not been exposed to the riches of Judaism and get to college where they can study it at an adult level that they haven't been able to in the first 18 years of life," he said. "Then you get students who have been to Jewish day schools for 12 years and may have been exposed to Judaism through a particular lens and have a wealth of knowledge but not presented through a historical/critical perspective like we do."

"No society exists in a vacuum," Rendsburg said. "We are all influenced by our neighbors in some way."

Obayashi agrees on the need to enhance traditional religious education with a broader, more strict academic discipline.

"What students have been brought up with at home, in churches and synagogues are often challenged by historical studies," he said. "Tradition often distorts things. Tradition has a way of streamlining ancient memories."

Such knowledge, Obayashi said, "shouldn't undermine people's beliefs — it should strengthen and enrich them."

Both Obayashi and Rendsburg agree that world religions, if properly taught, belong as a part of a well-rounded public education.

"Students come to college with a 12th-grade knowledge of math, English and science, and they come often with a second- or third-grade education of their own religion," Rendsburg said. "I think world religion should be taught in public schools."

Obayashi explained that there shouldn't be any controversy if the teaching is sound.

"It's not professing religion," he said of the department's teaching philosophy. "We do not employ this confessional approach. We study religion just as anthropologists study different cultures. We're not trying to indoctrinate anybody."

Rendsburg said: "If I'm presenting material from the Bible, I'm not going to have a theological debate over divine origin versus human origin. The academic approach takes a more hands-off look."

"Up to the 1950s, all religion majors pursued careers in clergy or teaching or social work," Obayashi said. "After the 1960s, the horizon opened up and religion grads went into all sorts of professions. Society at large has come to decide religion major is just as good as a sociology or psychology major. They are malleable, can be molded into anything."

By RICK HARRISON
STAFF WRITER
Home News Tribune Online
rharrison@thnt.com

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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Templeton Prize for Religion Writing goes to German Journalist

The John Templeton prize for "European Religion Writer of the Year 2004" has been awarded to Dresden freelance journalist Dr Thomas Gaertner for his articles on the life of the local church in the German city.

Dr Tomas Gaertner accepted the prize, which acclaims the work of journalists who write about religion in the secular press with “accuracy, impartiality and with an ecumenical spirit”, at an award ceremony in the historical Church of the Three Kings in Dresden on 21 September.

The Dresden journalist was awarded the prize for his entry which included three articles published in the daily newspaper “Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten”.

“The articles he has submitted, although local in focus, address the broad issues of the place of religion in a highly secularised part of Europe, Eastern Germany,” said judges according to a Conference of European Churches press release, who administer the award on behalf of the John Templeton Foundation.

The judges added that Mr Gaertner “tells his stories with objectivity, permitting readers to draw their own conclusions rather than imposing judgements upon them”.

Click Here to read complete article.

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Faith, reason can co-exist, professor says

HARRISBURG, Pa. - An expert witness who has sharply criticized the teaching of the "intelligent design" theory of life's origins testified yesterday that faith and reason are compatible.

Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller returned to the stand for the second day of a landmark trial to determine whether a school district should require students to hear about intelligent design.

The theory implies that life on Earth was the product of an unidentified intelligent force, and Darwin's theory of natural selection cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life.

Miller, who testified on Monday that intelligent design was not accepted by scientists, was asked by a school attorney whether faith and reason are compatible.

"I believe not only that they are compatible but that they are complimentary," said Miller, who earlier told the court he was a practicing Roman Catholic.

Miller, whose cross-examination was to resume Tuesday morning, said the policy undermines scientific education by raising false doubts about evolutionary theory.

"It's the first movement to try to drive a wedge between students and the scientific process," he said.

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Monday, September 26, 2005

7 ways to spirituality in the workplace

You are a spiritual being, even at work! Use your intuitive awareness and natural empathy and kindness in the workplace and you will be amazed by the way that others respond. Show them that their contribution is important...

Spirituality is not something we should practice only when it suits us according to time and place.It should be cherished and cultivated wherever we go. And since we spend most of our time in the workplace, it is imperative that we take our spiritual values with us even where we work. These values are creativity, communication, respect, vision, partnership, energy and flexibility. All these seven are related, and all are important.

By spirituality,we mean expressing more humanity; it has no religious component or preference. This interpretation is important since each person has their own beliefs, which should be respected.

1. Be creative

Creativity includes the use of colour, laughter and freedom to enhance productivity. Creativity is fun. When people enjoy what they do, they work much harder.

Creativity includes conscious efforts to see things differently, to break out of habits and outdated beliefs to find new ways of thinking, doing and being.

Suppression of creativity leads to violence - people are naturally creative. When they are forced to crush their creativity, its energy force turns to destructive release - their inherent humanity must express itself!

2. Communicate

Communication, communication, communication! This is the vehicle that allows people to work together. In our society, our learning process is based on learning to communicate with teachers and parents.

So when we come to the real world, this social conditioning leads us to resort to subterfuge - trying to figure out how to beat the system,gain extra favours, say the “popular” thing or to keep our views to ourselves rather than “rock the boat.”

We should change this mindset and express what we feel about without fear and let others know where we stand. It doesn’t matter your views should match your superiors. Your peers will respect you as a man with principles.

3. Respect your colleagues

Respect of self and of others includes: respect for the environment; other people’s personal privacy, their physical space and belongings; different viewpoints, philosophies, religion, gender, lifestyle, ethnic origin, physical ability, beliefs and personality.

When we learn to respect our peers, we accept their differences. We can learn to use those differences for our mutual benefit. For example, the person who can sit all day in front of a computer and be productive can help the person who works best by talking and moving around. Both functions are important. Rather than criticising the other for being different, we can learn how different people see the world. Lack of respect and acceptance lead to conflict and hostility.

4. Have a vision

Vision means seeing beyond the obvious - seeing the unseen. It is a trait used to describe leaders and entrepreneurs. Where does vision come from? For some people, it is an inborn trait. They have always seen things that others cannot see. And, having seen the vision, they head straight for it ! They follow their vision in spite of obstacles or non-believers.

5. Learn to be a partner

Partnership encompasses individual responsibility and trust that other people will perform according to their commitments for the good of the team and partners. Partnership accepts that different people have different viewpoints and beliefs; those differences are used as positive aspects for broadening the team experience.

Partnership encourages the female and male aspects of ourselves to work together, without either one over-ruling or dominating the other. Lack of partnership leads to isolation and unhealthy competition.

6. Be energetic

Very positive energy forces are released when people feel creative, have the freedom to express their opinions, and feel respect from their management and their peers. The opposite energy force creates hostile workplace situations.

Your contribution to the collective positive energy is using your own creativity, communicating well, having respect for others, adapting to changing situations, working well with others and enjoying what you do. Your contribution to the collective negative energy is withholding your talents, communicating without respect, fighting and arguing with others, resisting changes, creating tension with others and hating what you do.

7.Be flexible

Flexibility includes the ability to adapt to changing situations and allowing one’s own beliefs and habits to change as needed. Learning to see trends and prepare for them is one way of learning flexibility. Another is to learn about ourselves, our own strengths and our weaknesses.

Then, work to operate from our strength, allowing others to help us with our weaknesses.

BUILDING SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE

Verbally recognise the value of individuals in all you do

• Get to know the people with whom you work and know what is important to them
• State your personal ethics and your beliefs clearly
• Support causes outside the business
• Encourage leaders to use value-based discretion in making decisions
• Demonstrate your own self-knowledge and spirituality in all your actions
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Indiatimes

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Scholar envisions the study of spirituality as a cultural force

It took an Orthodox Jew, a former Sufi dervish, a Tibetan Buddhist yogi and a friend of the Dalai Lama to persuade Florida International University to start a center for the study of spirituality. It just so happened it was one person: Nathan Katz, a mystical polymath and an early pioneer in spiritual fusion.

Katz, the founder of FIU's religion department, started the Center for the Study of Spirituality to explore territory most academics wouldn't touch: the vast (and somewhat oxymoronic) field of ''secular spirituality.''

So what exactly is secular spirituality, and why should scholars, doctors, businessmen and educators take notice?

''It has to do with the mind-body connection, with some transcendent or higher level of consciousness that has an impact on your daily life,'' said Katz, who officially launched the center when the Dalai Lama visited South Florida a year ago.

In other words, it's spirituality that applies to almost everything: meditating to lower blood pressure, treating attention deficit disorder with Tai Chi, quelling anxiety through yoga and using prayer to improve concentration at work.

Through public seminars, workshops and, eventually, a graduate level certificate program, Katz hopes to drive the synthesis of spiritual practice and worldly pursuits like health, finance and the arts. Currently, the center operates on an annual budget of $50,000 to $100,000 from grants and other private sources. Katz said he hopes that with more money, they will soon add a research component and for-credit classes.

It's a vision that might be too edgy for some.

''A lot of people think it's just kooky. I mean a lot,'' said Katz. ``I'm interested in the study of spirituality as a very powerful cultural force that's global, that we need to understand. Some colleagues can't see the difference between that interest, which is what the center is about, and simply bringing in a bunch of preachers and having a circus: Here's a Buddhist, here's a Hindu, here's a Jew.''

Still, many of Katz's colleagues have come to share his view of spirituality -- that it can't be confined to religious texts or to temples, churches and mosques.

''In the academic setting, our emphasis tends to be just that: academic. At the center we emphasize the integration of spirituality into our everyday life,'' said Daniel Alvarez, a professor of world religions at FIU and a fellow at the center. ``Dr. Katz has made that part of his signature.''

SURGING INTEREST

Interest in spirituality has surged in recent years both on college campuses and more broadly within American culture, scholars and religious leaders say. Pop culture has become increasingly spirit-saturated since stars like Madonna and Britney Spears have made yoga and Kabbalah hip, the Dalai Lama has posed for Microsoft ads and TV shows such as Joan of Arcadia have cast a spotlight on mysticism. A 2003 survey of spirituality and higher education conducted by the University of California in Los Angeles found that 74 percent of college students rely on spiritual beliefs for guidance.

Universities, however, have been slow to acknowledge the trend.

''There continues to be a considerable amount of bias against studying religion and spirituality,'' said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University and a director at Duke's Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. ``When you think that most medical care came out of the church and that many of the behavioral sciences come out of religion, it's surprising that this area is not being widely studied.''

Several universities, including Indiana State, George Washington University, the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota, have started centers to integrate spirituality and health. None, however, have construed spirituality as broadly as the FIU center, Koenig said.

''People are finding a role for spirituality in education, in health, in the arts,'' said FIU president Modesto Maidique. ``Nathan is one of those faculty members that has a wide breadth of knowledge.''

Katz said the idea for the center came from the teachings of the 14th Dalai Lama, perhaps the most recognized religious figure in the Western world after the pope. Katz first met the Dalai Lama in 1973. They met a number of times thereafter, including in 1990 during a Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in Dharamsala, India, where the exiled Tibetan leader maintains his government. Katz later invited the renowned Buddhist monk to speak at FIU. The subject of his 1999 talk became Katz's mission.

'Before he went on, he smiled and arched his eyebrows and said, `What should I talk about?' 5,000 people were waiting,'' Katz recalled. 'I said, `You're at a university, why don't you talk about our American education system?' So he went on stage and said, 'Your American universities do a wonderful job of training the intellect, the brain, but you don't do a good job of training the heart.' ''

For Katz, who has no problem playing spiritual chameleon, the real rift in religion today lies not between faiths, but between liberals and traditionalists. Katz says the piety divide can turn members of a single faith against one another, causing conservatives to dismiss less literal interpretations of the faith as heresy, and liberals to regard orthodox observance as fundamentalists.

''It's much harder for a Reform Jew to talk to an Orthodox Jew than it is for him to talk to an Episcopalian,'' Katz said. ``I wish the center could play some tiny role in getting them to appreciate one another. That's the divide in the world today.''

BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@herald.com

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

100-Minute Bible

The Sermon on the Mount - as retold in the 100-Minute Bible:

Much of Jesus’ teaching was brought together when, seated on a hillside, he spoke to his disciples about life in the kingdom of God. He taught that true happiness comes from having the right attitudes. Those who are humble, concerned about the world’s sinfulness, gentle, devoted to goodness, merciful, single-minded in God’s service, and peace-lovers will be blessed by God. Those of his followers who are persecuted in this world should rejoice, because they will have a rich reward in the next.

Jesus emphasised that he had not come to destroy the moral demands of the Jewish Law but to fulfil them. He taught that it is not enough not to commit murder; the anger which can lead to murder must be set aside too. It is not enough not to commit adultery; lustful thoughts must be set aside too. It is not enough to keep only our solemn promises; we should always mean what we say.

The Jewish Law taught that retaliation should be proportionate to the harm done - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - but Jesus taught that we should love our enemies and that we should return good for evil, turning the other cheek when others attack us.

He went on to say that ostentatious piety and charitable giving are wrong; both piety and giving should be between ourselves and God. No-one can serve two masters; it is impossible to serve both God and money. God knows what people’s needs are and will supply them, in the same way as he provides food for birds and glorious clothing for flowers; we should not be anxious but should trust him. We should not judge others; for we shall be judged to the degree we judge. It is difficult to find the way to the kingdom of heaven and there will be those who will try to mislead us. We should assess others by the moral and spiritual quality of their lives.

He summarised the whole moral teaching of the Old Testament in the command to treat others as you would like them to treat you.

Jesus said that anyone who acts on his words is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. When storms came the house stood firm. But anyone who does not act on his words is like a man who built his house on sand. When storms came the house fell, and the ensuing devastation was great.

~ Matthew 5 - 7

---

The 100-Minute Bible is a new way of looking at the Bible. It is published with the hope that it will enable people who are not familiar with the Bible to understand something of the book that is the basis of the Christian faith.

The 100-Minute Bible picks out the principle stories of the life and ministry of its central character, Jesus Christ. The social and theological context of these stories is provided by outlining the ups and downs of the history of his nation, the Jews. It then proceeds to record the story of the growth of Christianity during the first century; firstly amongst the Jews themselves; then amongst the other peoples living in Israel and then throughout the eastern Mediterranean, even as far as Rome.

The 100-Minute Bible is primarily intended for people who have an interest in Christianity but not the time (nor tenacity!) to read the whole Bible. As the title indicates most people will only take 100 minutes to read it, making it ideal for an upcoming rail or aeroplane journey.

Launch date 21st September, Canterbury Cathedral

http://www.the100-minutepress.com/

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?

I am more afraid that we are really rats in a trap. Or, worse still, rats in a laboratory. Someone said, I believe, ‘God always geometrizes.’ Supposing the truth were ‘God always vivisects’?—C. S. Lewis

With disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, people invariably ask, “Why did God let this happen?” All sorts of answers have been offered. For example, a Jewish rabbi said that God was punishing the U.S. for its support of the recent Gaza evacuation. And a Middle Eastern cleric argued that God is judging the U.S. for the Iraqi war and the killing of innocent civilians.

Then there’s the theory that since New Orleans was leveled two days before the annual “Southern Decadence” festival was to begin that God was bringing judgment on the city for allowing the supposedly gay festival. As the director of Repent America stated, “Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city.”

But all this begs the question. First of all, who are these people to be speaking for God? Moreover, why would those who had absolutely nothing to do with the destructive actions in the Middle East, for instance, suffer? After all, government officials who have perpetrated the crimes that God supposedly is persecuting the country for were left untouched. Is God simply a cosmic sadist or a monster who visits mayhem, destruction and death on innocent people?

The more likely answer is that weather catastrophes are merely the work of natural cycles. Weather stations track hurricanes and predict when and where they will land. And we cannot forget that while nature is awesome and beautiful, it acts, at times, as our enemy as well.

That aside, natural disasters have wreaked havoc on the planet since its beginning. But it must not be forgotten that all the pain people have had to endure has not come by way of so-called acts of God. People hurting people accounts for at least four-fifths of all the sufferings of humanity. It was men, not God, who produced the wars, the bombs, the guns, whips, racks, prisons, torture and so on. It was men, not God, who flew planes into the World Trade Center. It is men who pollute and destroy the ecological environment, thus helping to create more adverse weather patterns. And it is because of human avarice and human stupidity, not the workings of nature, that we have poverty and suffering.

Indeed, what led to the pain and suffering in places such as New Orleans was the failure of people in positions of leadership to prepare adequately for something that was naturally going to happen. For whatever reasons, the federal, state and local governments had not prepared New Orleans for a level 5 hurricane. Since the city of New Orleans sits in a bowl, the lack of a fortified levy that could withstand a level 5 hurricane spelled disaster.

Nonetheless, there remains much suffering that is not manmade. The question is why there is suffering of any kind. And why would a so-called “good” God allow suffering? Indeed, if there is a good God, according to theologian C. S. Lewis, then he is no less formidable than a cosmic monster. And the more we believe, as traditional Christians do, that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is little hope in avoiding the pains of life. “A cruel man might be bribed—might grow tired of his vile sport,” writes C. S. Lewis in his book A Grief Observed, “might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless.”

Thus, if there is a good God, then pain and suffering are necessary. Indeed, if they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. And how do I (or anyone, for that matter) expect to escape the same? After all, God, according to Christian tradition, had his own son killed.

Likewise, disasters such as Katrina also show us that, in an age of cosmic alienation, we really do not understand God. “What reason have we, except our own desperate wishes, to believe that God is, by any standard we can conceive, ‘good’?” wrote Lewis. “Doesn’t all the prima facie evidence suggest exactly the opposite?”

Applying the word good to God is meaningless. Obviously, what God considers good—at least by the standards of some theologians—is radically different from our perception. In fact, maybe we are so intellectually and morally depraved that we cannot fathom what a good God is.

Clearly, we live lives that are a house of cards. The only way to make us realize the fact is to knock our illusionary houses down. And it only takes one blow for our house to collapse.

We are not the commanders of our fate. We are not gods. We are frail, vulnerable beings hoping (and praying) that somehow we can communicate to that one who made us and determines our future. So many questions remain. But as C. S. Lewis recognized: “When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of ‘No answer.’ It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, ‘Peace, child; you don’t understand.’”

by John W. Whitehead
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute and author of the award-winning Grasping for the Wind.
He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.

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The impasse between science and religion

Sometimes people find themselves in conflict over the relationship between science and religion. Recently, for instance, scientists detected an explosion at the edge of space that occurred several billion years ago. If that is true, what of the proclamation by some that God only created the universe several thousand years ago? Although some resolve this impasse by claiming that God created with the appearance of age, “Why,” I ask, “would God, who is Truth, be so deceptive?”

I tend to believe that the resolution is beyond my capacity to understand and that I can only see bits and pieces of the puzzle.

I can know some things from science, and I can know other things from God’s revelation (in a general way from nature and in a specific way from scripture). If I want to send a probe to Saturn, then, I don’t look in the Bible to find out how to do it. If I want to learn about my eternal life, I don’t ask someone researching polymer-bonding properties.
That brings me to the practice of clinical psychology. Here is where the two domains of science and religion seem to meet, because the subject is the human soul. The Greek root of our word “psychology” is translated as “soul”. Thus, clinical psychology concerns ways of working with troubled souls. Huh?! Isn’t that the world of religion? Who has the better grip on troubled souls? Should someone trained in the Bible be counselling, or should someone trained in the science of mind be counselling? Suddenly, we are back at the impasse between science and religion.

One approach to this impasse is the route of biblical counselling. According to this perspective, human beings are so filled with error that left on their own they will never grasp the situation truthfully. They are deceived and need the divine perspective that is able to correct their thinking and behaviour. Thus, the Biblical counsellor dispenses relevant scripture as a physician might prescribe antibiotics. If people do what the Bible says, they will get better.

Another approach states that there is no absolute truth in any given situation but that everything depends on how the people involved are making it up – what they believe influences how they think and behave, so all one needs to do is challenge irrational beliefs and replace faulty thinking. In this approach there is no God outside the situation, and there is no perspective that matters aside from that of the people themselves. If people change what they believe and think, they will get better.

It seems quite clear those two approaches do nothing but reinforce the split between science and religion.

How can it be that God created something that actually exists, giving human beings dominion over it; yet, human beings are not supposed to probe and strive to investigate and understand the very creation that has been given them? Further, what happens when people do investigate?

They generate a body of knowledge, which is incomplete and always growing but which is worth something at the same time. Conversely, how can we really grasp the nature of any given situation if we disregard the presence of God in and with it or if we lose sight of the fact that God is supremely concerned with our individual and specific experience?

Real people are really complex. They come with problems that mix physical, mental and spiritual factors and they need counsellors that can address all these realms with an informed integration between science and religion. Real people do not need remedies that leave out the ultimate questions filling in the blanks on significance. Real people do not need simplistic religiosity whistled in the dark or pressed upon them with stark authority. Most people loosely hold a vague belief in God and a tentative trust in science. They respond well to a person who can get real with them about both.

By Dr. Philip Brownell
Dr. Philip Brownell, M.Div., Psy.D., is a psychologist at Ashton Associates (295-0999).
E-mails can be sent to crossroads@g-gej.org

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Religious scholar Huston Smith talks about Christianity and why religion matters today

Why did you decide to write a book on Christianity?

I've spent the last 50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've apprenticed myself to them and actually practiced each faith.

Now I'm winding down, and I wanted to write one last book on religion. I wanted it to be mine! That's why I wrote it, to honor my own heritage.

The subtitle of your book is "Restoring the Great Tradition." What is the great tradition and why is it important?

By the great tradition I mean the first millennium of Christianity, before all the schisms that splintered the faith. This great tradition is like the trunk of the tree. All Christians, whatever branch they are -- Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and so on -- can agree on this version because those were branches that came out of the trunk.

So you're trying to find common ground between those branches. At the same time, you're pretty critical of both fundamentalist Christians and liberal Christians.

As I say in the book, we are hamstrung between the fundamentalists on the one hand, who are locked into a dogmatic literalism that fails to put Scripture into context, and on the other side, the liberals, who have conceded too much ground to secularism and the scientific method. So I'm a plague on both their houses.

And the scientific method, as you see it, has led to the spread of secularism. Some people might not consider that a problem. Why do you think it is?

When the scientific method came into being, it gave us a new window on the truth; namely, a method by laboratory-controlled experiments to winnow true hypotheses from false ones.

This has yielded many great things -- washing machines, microwaves, a significantly longer life expectancy, to name a few. But those discoveries were so good that we overlooked something. We thought the scientific method was giving us omnicompetence (an understanding of all things). It isn't.

We are physical beings, but we also have a spirit. Science relies on our physical senses, mostly our vision, for its discoveries. But there are some things that our physical senses do not detect. Nobody has ever seen a thought. Nobody has ever seen a feeling. And yet the world of our thoughts and feelings is the primary world in which we live.

One of the many hot-button issues dividing scientists and religious people is the debate over evolution and so-called intelligent design. What's your take on this controversy?

Julius Caesar isn't known as a great philosopher, but he said one thing that was right on. He said, "People believe what they want to believe." And I think to a very large extent that is true. People in the media want to believe that science has all the answers about how we got here. It doesn't. I want to believe in science, too, but I also want to believe in religion. I think both have something to contribute on this subject.

What does each have to contribute, in your view?

Science has given us the fossil record, which shows that it took three and a half billion years for life to evolve to our level. The writer George Will -- I don't agree with his politics, but he said something that was right on. He said that six-day creationism is not only nonsense -- it's nonsense on stilts!

However, you are never going to explain in a laboratory what it is we call the divine spark, which every religion has described. You will never get a sense of our divinity, of the image of God. These things cannot be explained by natural selection or chance mutations. For that you need to turn to religion.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

David Ian Miller, Special to SF Gate

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

CNN Hires Religion Correspondent

The reporter is the first religion reporter at a major network since 2001

CNN is the first major network to hire a religion correspondent since Peggy Wehmeyer left ABC in 2001. Delia Gallagher will provide stories on faith, religion and values for the second place cable network. Analysts say CNN is realizing that news outlets are not addressing a major component of American life. Now the network is promising coverage from a faith point of view. Austin Ruse of C-fam worked with Gallagher in Rome.

"What she brings to it is, I think, a deep knowledge of Catholicism at least, and I'm quite sure that she's conversant in the protestant denominations and at just a high level of professionalism."

But Tim Graham of the Media Research Center says Gallagher will be a minority in network news.

"There is no doubt that when you study religion in the newsroom, you find a lot of people that seldom or never attend religious services. Coverage suffers because of that."

CNN should now have adequate coverage of religious trends, but Ruse wonders if Gallagher will be allowed to report on the cultural battles so important to people of faith.

"Will she cover simply things going on within the churches or will she cover the church in the public square? Great question, I don't know."

CNN viewers will remember Gallagher from the network's coverage of Pope John Paul the Second's funeral.

by Steve Jordahl

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Sun Valley's Buddhist Woodstock showcases U.S. interest in eastern religion

It was a Buddhist Woodstock, Sun Valley-style.

More than 15,000 people, including business leaders, congressmen and former ambassadors, gathered in this mountain resort to listen to the Dalai Lama during a series of speaking engagements commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Celebrities came on million-dollar jets. Schoolchildren came by the busload.

On a high school football field where public events were held, Tibetan and Nepalese immigrants prostrated themselves on the grass to the man they consider the 14th reincarnation of the Buddha, next to Idaho natives just curious to hear what the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize had to say.

From the time Buddhism was formally introduced to the U.S. at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, this 2,500-year-old religion from the Indian subcontinent has been on the march in America. No man has been more important to this than the Dalai Lama, who since his 1959 exile from Chinese-occupied Tibet has transformed Buddhism's perception from an austere eastern religion into what many see as an antidote to 21st-century angst.

"He's shifted the focus, from Tibet, in particular, to worldwide secular issues such as peace and harmony and reconciliation," said Hiroshi Obayashi, chair of the religious studies department at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where the Dalai Lama speaks Sept. 25. "He made worldwide travels, bringing this message. That's attracted sympathy and interest, particularly from the United States. Out of sympathy, gradually, it developed into a cult-like curiosity."

Unlike Western religions, Buddhism doesn't have a monotheistic deity. Its adherents believe there's no such thing as a permanent identity; instead, the human personality and all of reality are constantly changing.

"Your friend, your enemy, your neutral - all are equal," the Dalai Lama said Monday morning to a private audience including U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Alan Blinken, the former U.S. ambassador to Belgium, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. "Genuine compassion is unbiased."

"There are a million people you want to bring happiness to," Kiril Sokoloff said of the event, portions of which were televised on CNN. "The Dalai Lama's way to find happiness is to control your mind and not allow negative thoughts to come in."

There were Catholics, Protestants and atheists in the crowds this week, each of whom was given a "Khata," or traditional Tibetan shawl, on their way into the Wood River High School football stadium. Volunteers wore T-shirts bearing the image of the Dalai Lama. Mary Gin Barron, a teacher from Hailey, hoped to incorporate his message of compassion into a lesson for her 5th graders.

By JOHN MILLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

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MUSHARRAF STRESSES THE NEED FOR AN END TO INTER-FAITH FRICTION

Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf urged world governments to resolve long-standing disputes and ensure a just distribution of economic benefits if they wanted to fight extremism. “It is necessary to urgently resolve conflicts and disputes, especially where these involve friction between different religions and faiths, for example in Palestine and Kashmir,” he told an international conference in New York on Tuesday.

The conference, 'Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace', was co-sponsored by Pakistan, brought together world leaders to explore initiatives for promoting harmony among major faiths.

Musharraf said that specific efforts should be made to bring the benefits of development to societies facing problems of inter-faith friction and extremism. “Such support should aim at poverty eradication and the generation of socio-economic growth and human development,” said Musharraf.

He said Pakistan had been promoting religious and cultural understanding, harmony and cooperation within its border and with other nations. Underlining the need to take a united stance against terrorism, he urged all nations to ban extremist groups and prevent the distribution of hate literature.

“We must prohibit extremist organizations and hate literature and prevent the misuse of places of worship for the promotion of extremist views. We need to ensure that educational institutions do not foster extremism and terrorism,” he said.

The Pakistani president said that religious leaders and scholars from all cultures and faiths should be involved in the interfaith dialogue, “even some of those who hold extremist views and are un-enlightened about the virtues of other faiths, cultures and civilizations”.

Welcoming the United Nation's secretary general Kofi Annan’s initiative for promoting interfaith trust, he suggested that the secretary-general should also create a "United Nations office for interfaith cooperation".

The international community, he said, should adopt and implement a comprehensive strategy for promoting cooperation and understanding among faiths and cultures.

Musharraf also urged governments to “adopt conscious policies forthe protection of religious minorities.”

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New Resource Examines Role of Faith in Mental Health

Harold G. Koenig, M.D., internationally recognized for his groundbreaking research on how religious involvement is associated with better physical health, opens a window on mental health in a new book, just released by Templeton Foundation Press.

In "Faith and Mental Health: Religious Resources for Healing", he provides an unprecedented source of practical information about the relationship between religion and mental health. Using scientific methodology, he explores how religious beliefs and practices are related to coping and positive emotions, as well as the use of religion for psychiatric disorders, substance abuse disorders, and severe mental illness. Based on this research, he offers an evaluation of whether religious faith represents a resource or a liability in terms of mental health.

Dr. Koenig begins by examining the evolution of the relationship between religion and mental health through the centuries. Historically, major religious traditions have related to the mentally ill and emotionally vulnerable in ways that range from positive to fearful to violent. Today there is a growing consensus that religious factors influence the mental health and wellbeing of persons with mental illness. Drawing on hundreds of research studies and clinical trials that examine the effectiveness of religious psychotherapies from Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist perspectives, Dr. Koenig describes the ways that religious faith can contribute to mental health.

He focuses on the role of clergy, religious organizations, and faith communities in caring for those with emotional problems and severe mental illness. He describes five categories of faith-based organizations (FBOs) that deliver mental health services and provides details on their organization and mission, along with examples that illustrate their functions.

Even as faith-based groups strive to support the delivery of mental health services, barriers remain to both research and implementation. Dr. Koenig outlines these obstacles that stand in the way of scientific research on the relationship between religion and mental health: methodological, focus/priority, funding, and attitudinal. He examines ways of overcoming these barriers, suggesting and detailing possible solutions that will require the cooperation between government agencies and private and faith-based groups.

A unique combination of both the history and the current research of mental health and religion, along with a thorough examination of faith-based organizations operating in the field, "Faith and Mental Health" is a resource for the healthcare community, including medical school professionals and caregivers; for religious professionals from pastoral counselors to chaplains; and for everyone concerned with the future of mental health care.

Dr. Koenig completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, his medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University Medical Center. Board certified in general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric medicine, he is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He is director and founder of Duke's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health; editor of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, a medical research journal; and editor-in-chief of Science and Theology News, a monthly international newspaper. He has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion.

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What the people of the world are saying

Nearly two-thirds of the world's citizens believe they are not being governed by the will of the people, and fewer than half believe elections are free and fair, according to a global poll by the BBC.

But opinion varies sharply from region to region on whether national elections are free and fair, the study, commissioned by the BBC World Service and conducted by Gallup International, found.

Overall, 65 per cent of respondents worldwide said they did not think they were governed by the will of the people.
* This rose to 75 per cent in the former Soviet Union countries.
* In North America it was 60 per cent.
* More South Africans held the contrary opinion than any other regional group, with 59 per cent maintaining they were governed by the will of the people, and 34 per cent disagreeing.

When all the regions were combined, opinion was almost equally divided on whether national elections were free and fair, 47 per cent saying yes and 48 per cent saying no.

The type of people most trusted by respondents were religious leaders, with 33 per cent saying they trusted them, while military and police leaders and journalists ranked joint second on 26 per cent.

Only 13 per cent said they trusted politicians.

But asked what type of people they would like to give more power to in their country,
* 35 per cent of respondents chose intellectuals, putting them above every other group.
* Religious leaders came next, on 25 per cent,
* followed by military leaders, business leaders and journalists, on 20 per cent.

National identity remained very strong, the poll found. It ranked highest on the list of what people considered most important, at 32 per cent,
* followed by religion (21) and
* local region or city (19).

Interviewees were also asked who had the most influence on the decisions they had taken in their life. A big majority, 61 per cent, said it was their family or a partner; 10 per cent said it was friends.

However, behind the global figures there are wide variations between countries and regions. There is a low level of trust in all types of leaders throughout Europe. Almost a third of people expressed no trust in military, religious, business or political leaders or journalists. The media and journalists are particularly distrusted in Europe.

Japanese people have very little trust in authority figures. Only 1 per cent have faith in military or police leaders, 3 per cent trust religious leaders and 13 per cent business leaders.

Religious leaders are most trusted in Africa (74 per cent, against 33 per cent globally), and in Nigeria 86 per cent would give them more power. In the US, 50 per cent trust them and 40 per cent would give them more power.

The Guardian, Associated Press

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Study: Teenagers are inarticulate about their faith

Sociologist Christian Smith said that in researching for his book "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," he was "surprised" at "how inarticulate most teenagers were about their religious faith."

"They think of themselves as religious and go to church and many will say that their faith is important, but if you go beyond that and ask anything about what they believe, how it is important and what difference does it make, the majority are just really helpless at articulating what they believe or what difference it makes," he said.

Smith, a professor and associate chair of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received a $3.9 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to fund the National Study of Youth and Religion. For nine months in 2002-2003 a national telephone survey was conducted by Smith, coauthor Melinda Lundquist Denton and a team or researchers using a random digit dial methodology that produced a probability sample of all houses with telephones in the U.S.

He said the sample represented "different racial groups, different religious groups, not religious, etc." and by using this method a "nice cross section of all teenagers" was produced.

Smith said the lack of data on teenagers and their religious experience was the catalyst for this study.

"I'm a sociologist of religion with an interest in studying American religion in particular and it was clear to me that there had not been a lot of really good work done on the religious life of teenagers," he said. "There was sort of a hole in what we knew and there had been a fair amount of focus on young adults and Baby Boomers as they age but not much on adolescents."

They discovered similarities in terms of adult and teen females being more religious than their male counterparts and "that young people are not being educated that well in their faith."

"There's almost this sense by congregations and families that they'll [teenagers] pick it up by osmosis, which to some degree they do but there are extreme limits to what osmosis can do," Smith said. "At some point teens need to be more directly instructed."

Smith said the intention of the team was "to create a baseline of knowledge that we thought didn't exist already about young people today." As sociologist "our hopes are that we can put this topic on the radar screen, provide people an informed set of findings that they can think about, and not be too directive about what people should do with it," he said

"I also believe that what we could learn from such a study could be really useful and helpful to lots of different communities, people and institutions that work with or have in their membership teenagers," Smith said. This way "it wouldn't just be an academically interesting thing on a shelf, but that it could be useful and practical in the real world."

Smith said sociologists are interested in understanding how social life works and as sociologist of religion, how the religious dimension of social life works.

He said that revisiting these young people in their environment, with their families, at school, and in peer networks and congregations is a way to obtain that information.

By Daphne Mack
Source: Episcopal News Service.