TruthBook Religious News Blog

25 Jun 2008

Witnesses for creative peacemaking from member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Burundi, Brazil, Greece and the United States will travel to Germany, 27 June - 4 July, for an exchange of experiences in overcoming violence.

The visit is part of a "living letters" process whereby teams of people from different parts of the world offer personal and practical support and inspiration to one another.

The peace building efforts of churches in Germany are legion, say observers. They train youth in nonviolent ways to handle conflicts. They encourage Christians to welcome strangers and to get to know their neighbours of other faiths. They keep alive the memories of victims of war and persecution and work for reconciliation.

These and other activities will be in the spotlight during the WCC delegation's visit. The visitors, who like their hosts are engaged in the churches' Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) in their part of the world (see list below), bring along prayers and greetings from their own churches.

While these encounters lend themselves to an exchange of good ideas and mutual encouragement, they are also intended to kick-start the reflection on the ecumenical declaration on just peace to be adopted at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011.

The Living Letters blog on the DOV website will provide with regular updates on the 27 June to 4 July visit of the ecumenical team. Two team members will share their impressions, personal reflections, observations, experiences and photos. http://www.overcomingviolence.org/

The visit is hosted by the German ecumenical organization ACK (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland).

Labels: Germany, peace, peacemaking, World Council of Churches

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World Peace Forum opens in Indonesia focusing on eliminating violence

2008-06-25 00:26:46

JAKARTA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- About 200 leaders in religion, politics and business all over the world including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended the 2nd World Peace Forum opening ceremony here on Tuesday night, to discuss how to achieve global peace.

"Indonesia has demonstrated its democracy with diversified culture and religion in recent years. Though we know how impossible it is to realize true peace in the world, we have to socialize the culture of mutual respect, tolerance, peace, harmony and anti-violence to the younger generation, because they are the leaders of tomorrow," said Susilo in his speech.

The prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, foreign minister of the UK and other politicians conveyed their written messages for the forum by representatives or through video.

The three-day forum, co-hosted by Muhammadiyah (Indonesia's second largest Islamic organization), the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations (CDCC) and the Cheng Ho Multi Culture Trust, is aiming to find solutions to address facets of religious violence at national and global levels.

The conference was founded in 2006 by Muhammadiyah to involve religious and political leaders in addressing world problems.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Labels: CDCC, Cheng Ho Multi Culture Trust, Indonesia, Mu Xuequan, Muhammadiyah, peace, politics, religion

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

God, Up Close And Personal

by Steve Lipman

The idea that God is a “person with whom people can have a relationship” seems right out of Evangelical Christianity.

Yet a new study of religion in America finds that a full quarter of Jews believe in such a personal relationship.

Is that figure high or low, and is it good for the Jews?

It’s lower than the percentage of such believers in the country’s other major faith groups, according to a major survey of religious beliefs released this week. But it’s probably on the rise, and it’s good if Jews with such a personal belief become active in synagogues and other Jewish organizations, says a spokesman for a prominent outreach organization.

It may be bad, however, if personal piety comes at the expense of connections with the wider Jewish community, says a representative for another national Jewish organization.

The release of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life holds few surprises about American Jewry, showing the American Jewish community on the liberal — nearly secular — end of the spectrum on such issues as the importance of religion in one’s life, frequency of attending religious services and divine authorship of Scripture. (Pew interviewed some 36,000 people nationwide during the spring and summer of 2007. The Jewish sample was 682.)

Twenty-five percent of Jews in the Pew study said they believe in a personal God; 50 percent said God is “an impersonal force.” The Protestant figure for a personal God was 72 percent; Catholic, 60; Muslim, 41.

People who develop a sense of personal spirituality, in any faith, often tend to disassociate from communal life ...

Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenbaum, associate director of the National Jewish Outreach Program, says he does not share those fears. “I don’t think the broader Jewish community will suffer if Jews develop a personal relationship with God. It brings them closer — they need a community.”

And, the rabbi says, the concept of a personal relationship with God has roots in the Torah. “It was a Jewish idea before it was a Christian idea. We believe that every Jew prays directly to God.”

Labels: Christianity, God, Jewish, Jews, personality, prayer, Steve Lipman

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Americans believe in miracles, heaven, power of prayer: report

Americans believe in miracles, heaven, power of prayer: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Around three-quarters of Americans believe in miracles, more Americans believe in heaven than in hell, and nearly six in 10 pray every day, a report based on a survey of 35,000 US adults showed Monday.

Of those who pray regularly, around a third -- 31 percent -- say God answers their prayers at least once a month, and one in five Americans said they receive direct answers to prayer requests at least once a week, the report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said.

Seventy-four percent of those surveyed for the report, called the US Religious Landscape Survey, said they believed in heaven as a place where people who have led good lives are rewarded, while only around six in 10 believed in hell, where unrepentant evil-doers languish in eternal punishment.

Nearly eight in 10 American adults (79 percent) believe that miracles occur, the survey, conducted between May and August last year, showed.

But perhaps most striking in the report was the near unanimous belief in God, held by more than nine out of 10 Americans.

"While this survey finds that more than nine in 10 Americans believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, it also shows that there are considerable differences in the nature of this belief," Pew research fellow Greg Smith said.

"Six in 10 adults believe God is a person with whom people can have a relationship, but one in four, including about half of Jews and Hindus, see God as an impersonal force," he said.

Oddly, one in five of those who identified themselves as atheists in the survey said they believe in God.

"But this also shows us the complicated way that people think about their faith. Many people who identify as atheists may not be telling us they don't believe in God, but that they don't like organized religion," he said.

"There is a lot of complexity in American religion," Greene summarized.

The survey also showed that religious affiliation tends to translate into social and political leanings.

"Mormons and members of evangelical churches tend to be more conservative in their political ideology, while Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists tend to be more politically liberal than the population overall," the report says.

As the United States gears up to elect a new president in November, that translates to the simple fact that "there are votes to be had by the Democratic and Republican candidates by making appeals to religious groups," said Greene.

Labels: God, heaven, miracles, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, prayer

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Believers see many paths to heaven

Most Americans believe in God but not dogma

By CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN • USA Today • June 24, 2008

Newly released data from a major survey find that most U.S. adults range far from knowing or caring about the distinctive teachings of their professed faith.

They believe overwhelmingly (92 percent) in God and 58 percent say they pray at least once a day. But when it comes to specific religions they're all over the map, say the latest data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Pew's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey questioned 35,000 Americans, nearly three in 10 of whom profess no religious identity but sometimes go to church. Most evangelicals, whose denominations teach that Jesus is the sole route to salvation, instead say people who have "led good lives" go to heaven. Only one in three Catholics say their church should preserve its traditional beliefs rather than change with the times or adopt modern practices.

Pew released demographic data in February from the survey, conducted in May through August 2007. This new installment focuses on questions about religious beliefs and practices, spiritual experiences, and views on society and politics.

Diversity and complexity

This analysis, based on a questionnaire that never mentions Jesus, portrays a nation of "free-flowing spirituality," said Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo, who finds the declining adherence to dogma "stunning."

When Green and Lugo factor in Pew's February findings that 44 percent of adults say they've switched to another religion or none at all, Lugo said, "You have to wonder: How do you guarantee the integrity of a religious tradition when so many people are coming or going or following ideas that don't match up?"

You can't, said the Rev. Frank Page, of Taylors, S.C., immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Page said people don't know their faith because "Gospel, once clearly preached in virtually every Protestant church, is rarely heard in the 21st century. The number who teach a clear doctrinal Christianity are a minority today. How would people know it when they never hear about how to be saved?"
Individualism vs. church

Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sees in the numbers that Catholics, like everyone else, are shaped by an individualistic culture. "People are trained to trust only their own spiritual experience," he said.

Labels: Americans, Cathy Lynn Grossman, church, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, spirituality, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

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Monday, June 23, 2008

A spiritualized view of childbirth

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

from the June 24, 2008 edition

Is childbirth solely a physical event requiring a medical environment? In the United States today, over 99 percent of all births occur in a hospital setting; 97.5 percent in Britain. Consequently, the dominant view – at least in those countries – leans heavily toward the physical, medical, technological, and human emotion aspects of birth.

But there's more to bringing a child into the world. There's a spiritual dimension that, like the spiritual realities of life itself, needs to be more widely understood – for humanity's health and welfare.

Let's examine some of the common fears that would draw thought toward a strictly material concept of birth and consider how to address them prayerfully.

Pregnancy and childbirth are physical events, involving material growth and development:

When it is clearly understood that all creation has its source in God, the only Creator, then material growth and physicality lose their predominance in thought. Expectant parents can care for their child from the very first, cherishing the child's spiritual individuality and origin. They can also glimpse the fact that they and the child share the same divine Parent, and that this relationship frees them from a false sense of responsibility or fear of the unknown. As God's ideas, we reflect His creative power, but we're not personal creators.

Childbirth is painful and unpredictable:

A curse that traces back to the allegory of Adam and Eve shouldn't continue to haunt women. This verse from Isaiah provides comfort and reassurance: "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God" (66:9). The notion that childbirth is a painful event suggests a separation from divine Love, which knows no pain for its creation. Divine Love rejoices in the constant and harmonious appearing of each idea and would never promote an environment of discomfort.

Childbearing involves two beings, mother and child, who could potentially harm each other:

In the same paragraph on scientific obstetrics, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual birth." Mother and child can witness how divine Life sustains and provides for its ideas. There can be no added strain, no depletion of life. And with the expression of God's creative power comes a natural harmony and order.

The best counsel anyone can hope for rests in the direct relationship to the Creator that all individuals have to nourish and learn from. We are, in St. Paul's memorable words, "all the children of God" (Gal. 3:26).

Adapted from the Christian Science Sentinel.

Labels: Childbirth, Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, spirituality

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Part II of U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

WASHINGTON, June 23

Part II of U.S. Religious Landscape Survey details Americans' religious
beliefs and behaviors as well as their social and political attitudes

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life today released its second report on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which finds that while many Americans are highly religious, most are not dogmatic in their approach to faith. This new analysis examines the diversity of Americans' religious beliefs and practices as well as their social and political attitudes. It follows the first report of the Landscape Survey, which was published in February 2008 and detailed the size, internal changes and demographic characteristics of major religions in the United States.

"The fact that most Americans are not exclusive or dogmatic about their religion is a fascinating finding," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "Most people will be surprised that a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including a majority of evangelical Protestants, say that there isn't just one way to salvation or to interpret the teachings of their own faith."

Based on interviews conducted in English and Spanish with a nationally representative sample of more than 35,000 adults, part two of the Landscape Survey includes a wealth of information on the religious beliefs and practices of the American public. It also explores the social and political attitudes of religious groups, including members of many small religious traditions - such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and agnostics - not typically analyzed in public opinion surveys.

"This report illustrates, chapter and verse, the amazing diversity and dynamism both between and within religious traditions in America," noted John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum. "And this diversity of affiliation, belief and practice matters when it comes to social and political questions."

The second report of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey finds:

* Although many Americans are highly religious, they are not dogmatic in their faith. Seventy percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions - not just their own - can lead to eternal life. Most also think there is more than one correct way to interpret the teachings of their own faith.

* This does not mean, however, that Americans take religious matters lightly. Most, in fact, say they rank the importance of religion very highly in their lives, and a plurality wants to preserve the traditional beliefs and practices of their faith, while only a small minority wants to accommodate their religion to modern culture.

* There is tremendous diversity of religious beliefs and practices in the U.S. Important religious differences exist between the major religious traditions, but there are also important differences within religious traditions.

* While more than nine-in-ten Americans (92%) believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, there are considerable differences in the nature of this belief. Six-in-ten adults believe that God is a person with whom people can have a relationship; but one-in-four - including about half of Jews and Hindus - see God as an impersonal force. Similarly, seven-in-ten Americans say that they are absolutely certain of God's existence, while roughly one-in-five (22%) are less certain in their belief.

* Three-quarters of Americans report praying at least once a week, with large majorities among most religious traditions saying they pray on at least a weekly basis. Even among the unaffiliated, roughly one-in-three pray on a weekly basis. At the same time, however, there are those among all faith groups who pray much less frequently; overall, one quarter of the public says they pray a few times a month or less often.

* Almost two-fifths of Americans report meditating at least once a week. This practice is particularly common among Buddhists, but nearly half of evangelical Protestants and Muslims say they meditate at least weekly. About one-quarter of the unaffiliated report weekly meditation. These patterns may incorporate elements of both Christian and non-Christian traditions.

* Politics and religion in the United States are intertwined, and religion is highly relevant to understanding politics in the U.S. Yet while the diversity of religious affiliation, belief and practice translates into important differences on many social and political issues, differences on other issues are less pronounced.

* Religion is closely linked to political ideology. The survey shows that Mormons are among the most politically conservative groups in the population. Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, by contrast, are among the most likely to describe their ideology as liberal.

* People who regularly attend worship services and say religion is important in their lives are much more likely to identify as conservative, and this pattern extends to many religious traditions. For example, within the evangelical, mainline Protestant, historically black Protestant, Catholic, Mormon and Orthodox Christian traditions, those who attend church weekly are significantly more likely than those who attend less often to describe themselves as political conservatives. And among Jews, those who say religion is very important to them or pray every day are more likely than others to be politically conservative.

* The connection between religious engagement and political attitudes appears to be especially strong when it comes to hot button social issues such as abortion or homosexuality. For instance, about six-in-ten Americans who attend religious services at least once a week say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while only three-in-ten who attend less often share this view. This pattern holds across several religious traditions.

* On other topics covered in the survey, such as views on the role and size of government and foreign policy attitudes, the role of religion is less clear and there appears to be greater consensus across and within religious traditions. For instance, a majority of nearly every religious group supports stricter environmental regulations and believes the government should do more to help Americans in need. Similarly, most Americans, including majorities of most faiths, say it is more important to focus on problems here at home than to be active in world affairs.

In conjunction with the release of this report, the Pew Forum is updating its online presentation of the findings at religions.pewforum.org. Updated features include interactive mapping by state, dynamic charts and a variety of other tools that allow users to explore the beliefs and practices as well as social and political views of major religions in the United States.

Subsequent releases will include a re-contact survey that delves deeper into the relationship between religious and political identity, issues related to conversion and attitudes toward religious pluralism in America.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life delivers timely, impartial information on issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs. The Forum is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy organization and does not take positions on policy debates. Based in Washington, D.C., the Forum is a project of the Pew Research Center, which is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

SOURCE Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Labels: beliefs. practices, God, meditation, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, politics, prayer, religion, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

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Eckhart Tolle: This man could change your life?

We live in an age of revitalised New Age mumbo jumbo; and these days no one is more jumbo with his mumbo than Eckhart Tolle.

Tolle, whose real first name is Ulrich, was born into a German Catholic family in 1948. He changed his name to Eckhart in a homage to the German spiritual leader Meister Eckhart. He refused all forms of formal education between the ages of 13 and 22, preferring instead to pursue his own creative and philosophical interests. Despite all this, he went to the University of London and is acknowledged by Cambridge University to have matriculated as a postgraduate student there in 1977, when he was 29. At 15, he was given the five books written by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, also known as Bo Yin Ra. He is said to have been heavily influenced by these books; his writing also draws heavily on the New Testament, the Bhagavad Gita and Sufism.

After leaving Cambridge, Tolle went into a steep decline, however. "I was unhappy, depressed and anxious," he said in a rare interview, with the environmentalist website Ecomall.com in 2003. "I was not trying to become enlightened or anything like that. I was looking for some kind of answer to the dilemma of life, but I had been looking to the intellect for the answer; philosophy, religion and intellectual inspiration. The more I was looking on that level, the more unhappy I became."

And then, he says, he had an epiphany. "Suddenly I stepped back from myself, and it seemed to be two of me. The 'I', and this 'self' that I cannot live with. Am I one or am I two? And that triggered me like a koan [a Zen statement that appeals to intuition rather than ration]. It happened to me spontaneously. I looked at that sentence: 'I can't live with myself'. I had no intellectual answer. Who am I? Who is this self that I cannot live with? The answer came on a deeper level. I realised who I was."

He spent the next two years sitting on park benches "in a state of the most intense joy". And then he wrote his first book, The Power of Now. The book, published by Penguin in 1999, sat at the top of the bestseller lists for years.

There is not very much new about The Power of Now – it is Buddhism mixed with mysticism and a few references to Jesus Christ, a sort of New Age re-working of Zen. Its central message is that the root of our emotional problems is our habit of identifying too much with our minds. The past and the future are creations of thought and only the present moment is real and only the present moment matters.

The follow-up to The Power of Now, A New Earth, is an extended riff on the same subject. It aims to "provide a spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live". The encapsulating idea, again, is that by abandoning your ego, you become "Present" in the immortal "Being".

William Bloom is a former professor at the London School of Economics, and one of the UK's most experienced teachers, healers and authors in the field of holistic development. He believes that Tolle's work provides a valuable perspective on Western culture.

"Tolle is offering a very contemporary synthesis of Eastern spiritual teaching, which is normally so clothed in arcane language that it is incomprehensible," says Bloom. "Some people might find him confusing but when he asserts that Descartes' major insight ("I think therefore I am") – one of the foundations of Western thinking – is ostensibly wrong, it's a conceptual challenge to how we think about ourselves. And that has always been the major assertion of Eastern religion: that thinking is not the core of who you are. The core of who you really are is that part of you that can watch yourself thinking – that's very Buddhist, very Eastern, very attuned to the whole field of transpersonal psychology.

"Second, he asks people to exist as best they can in any given moment and to connect with the sensation of the physical body – so instead of just staying in your head thinking, to be aware of what's happening in your feet, your hands, your whole body.

"This is particularly useful in the UK at the moment, because as part of Ofsted's initiative Seal [Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning], teachers are being asked to be very attentive to children's emotions and feelings; the foundation of emotional literacy is being present and to notice what's going on in your body and to feel its subtle sensations as a way of identifying your emotions. Tolle's approach is very body aware. He's done it in a nice accessible way for people.

"The thing that's really good about him," Bloom concludes, "in the midst of all the psychobabble to do with happiness being based on getting what you want, Tolle sounds a clear note stating that happiness comes from a state of consciousness and a connection with being present to the wonder of life. Which is just what's needed."

Tolle's detractors, aside from the Church, dismiss him as New Age rubbish of the worst kind, popular only because he has managed to get the attention of Oprah Winfrey. "Even by the standards of the self-help book industry, Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is unutterable twaddle," said one newspaper book reviewer. "Oprah Winfrey's golden touch has turned a stinker into a bestseller for Penguin." Another dismissed the book by saying, "Its 313 pages are, frankly, baffling – a mix of pseudo-science, New Age philosophy and teaching borrowed from established religions."

Indeed, it is difficult sometimes to know what sense to make of Tolle's convoluted discursive style. Try this one, for example: "Something suddenly was there that actually had always been there but had been obscured continuously by identification with the heavy mind structure."

Despite this – or perhaps because of it – Tolle does have fans in academic, even Christian, circles. Andrew Ryder, a theologian at All Hallows College, Dublin, wrote in praise of Tolle in The Way, the modern Christian spirituality magazine: "Tolle's writing is based on his own experience and personal reflection. This makes his approach to the challenge of living in the present moment both practical and fresh. While he may not use the language of traditional Christian spirituality, Tolle is very much concerned that, as we make our way through the ordinary events of the day, we keep in touch with the deepest source of our being."

It's easy to see why Tolle's self-help schtick appeals to such ne'er do wells as Paris Hilton; his central advice about living for now and not dwelling on the mistakes of your past appeals to those with a colourful back history. Too many people, he says, defensively hold on to and preserve guilty, hostile feelings from past events and allow these memories to make them anxious and unhappy.

And really, what Tolle is trying to say is: "chill out" – but you can't sell five million copies of that.

Additional reporting by Photini Philippidou

Quote Unquote
Tolle in his own words

The Power of Now
"The pain-body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from your total energy field and has temporarily become autonomous through the unnatural process of mind identification"

"Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible"

"In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are completely obscured by psychological time. You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be"

A New Earth
"Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection? "

"There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realise that you don't live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance"

"If you are not familiar with 'inner body' awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don't ask your mind. It will say, 'I can't feel anything'"

"Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness?"

"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness"

Labels: Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, ego, Ether Walker, happiness, Jesus, spirituality

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June 22 - Galileo Sentenced for Believing Sun Is Center of Universe

June 22, 2008 12:10 AM

On June 22, 1633, a Vatican Inquisition passed down judgment on Galileo Galilei for his writings and teaching of the Copernicus Theory.

A brilliant scientific mind in 17th century Florence, Galileo, was forced to renounce his work and writings concerning the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, who had suggested that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe.

Directly contradicting Biblical thought in the eyes of dogmatic critics, the Copernicus Theory was a subject Galileo embraced and studied for much of his life.

Promoting it in his writings and lectures early in his life, Galileo was first admonished by the Papacy in 1617.

However, the existence of an official injunction at the time instructing him to remain silent on the subject remains a source of controversy.

It was this injunction that would seal his fate when he was ordered to stand trial before a council of cardinals in the spring of 1633 to explain the publication of a Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—a text that many found to validate the teachings of Copernicus.

Papal critics were especially angry that the text was written in such a way to bring the message to a wider audience, outside the scientific world.

Called to Rome from his home in Florence, Galileo immediately distanced himself from his work, though whether his words came out of necessity or actual regret remains a mystery.

Weak and unhealthy at age 70, Galileo was unable to defend charges that he had contradicted the church’s earlier ruling or remember what it had said.

At the mercy of the Inquisition, the Church body charged with seeking out heretics, Galileo endured a trial that lasted months before finally being ordered to renounce his views.

The trial signaled a debate between the church and science that has lasted centuries.

The trial resulting in Galileo’s renouncement of his belief of the sun’s role as the center of the universe lasted months and required a 23-day journey from Florence to Rome—a taxing and exhausting experience for the 70-year-old scientist.

Galileo’s career

Born in the Italian city of Pisa in 1564, Galileo claimed a number of discoveries during his lifetime, studying time intervals, motion and first theorizing that, regardless of their weight, objects fell at the same speed in a vacuum. However, it was his study of the Copernicus Theory that eventually led him to run afoul of the Church.

Galileo’s life was rich with study and discovery, including the development of the refractor telescope—one of two standard telescopes used today alongside Sir Isaac Newton’s reflector. Galileo used this telescope to observe the movement of the moons of Jupiter, strengthening his faith in the teachings of Copernicus.

Mistreatment of Galileo by the Vatican

Contrasting with reports that Galileo had been mistreated during his trial, and possibly abused in an effort to make him renounce his beliefs, the Vatican’s Secretary of Doctrinal Congregation, Archbishop Angelo Amato, claimed the Church had actually treated him quite well. In 2003, Amato disputed claims that he had been mistreated, citing church documents stating that he had been hosted in the Vatican lawyer’s apartment and treated with every courtesy during his stay in Rome.

After centuries of allegations of mistreatment, the Catholic Church began to rethink its approach to Galileo in 1979 when Pope John Paul II suggested an analysis of how the trial had occurred. A formal apology followed in 2000 and earlier this year, a statue of the scientist was announced, which will be erected outside the apartment where Galileo stayed while awaiting trial.

Science vs. religion

The trial of Galileo has been cited throughout history as a part of the ongoing debate between science and religion, often by scientists who point to the scientist as a “martyr” for scientific persecution at the hands of dogmatic critics.

NASA named the first satellite to closely monitor Jupiter after Galileo, thanks to his achievements in the field of astronomy. The satellite became the first to pass an asteroid, observe a moon of an asteroid and directly observed a comet colliding with an asteroid. It was plunged into Jupiter’s dense atmosphere and lost in 2003.

The Church vs. Galileo

The centuries-old debate between the Church and science does not necessarily have to continue, argued Philip Meyer in USA Today earlier this year. The two explanations for life can indeed coexist and can actually support one another. “Religion is about the mystery. Science is about figuring out what works in the material world. There is no danger that science will ever deprive us of the mystery,” said Meyer.

While the Catholic Church has since backed away from its judgment of Galileo, notably with an official apology in 2000, it has often defended its 17th century actions by pointing out that the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe was considered common scientific knowledge at the time.

Source: Catholic.com

Labels: church, Copernicus Theory, Galileo, Inquisition, sun, universe, Vatican

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life to Release Part II of U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Posted : Thu, 19 Jun 2008
Author : Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Study details Americans' religious beliefs and behaviors as well as their social and political attitudes

WASHINGTON, June 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a noon EDT conference call for journalists on Monday, June 23, 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life will release the second report of a landmark survey that examines the tremendous diversity of Americans' religious beliefs and practices as well as their social and political views. This new analysis follows the first report of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which was published in February 2008 and detailed the size and demographic characteristics of religious groups in the U.S.

Based on interviews conducted in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults, part two of the Landscape Survey includes a wealth of information on the religious beliefs and practices of the American public. It also explores the social and political attitudes of religious groups, including groups that are as small as three-tenths of 1 percent of the adult population.

Topics explored in the report include the importance of religion in people's lives; belief in God and the afterlife; attitudes toward the authority of sacred writings; frequency of worship attendance, prayer and meditation; and views of religion and morality, among others. The report also examines ideological and partisan orientation; attitudes on abortion, homosexuality, evolution and other social issues; views on helping the needy, the environment, and the size and proper role of government; and opinions on foreign affairs.

Subsequent releases will include a re-contact survey that delves deeper into religious-political identity, issues related to conversion and attitudes towards religious pluralism in America.

Labels: afterlife, Americans, God, morality, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, prayer, religion, social issues

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Fortitude and the U.S. Open

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

from the June 20, 2008 edition

There's an old saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

This was exemplified earlier this week when Tiger Woods won the US Open Golf Championship, his 14th major championship. Because he'd had knee surgery, he hadn't had tournament play or even much practice in two months. During the US Open he struggled, often limping, but his indomitable spirit of never giving up sustained him, bringing him to victory in a playoff. When asked afterward if he'd been tempted to give up, he replied, "You just deal with it, giving it your best, no excuses, whether 100 percent or not, it's just get up and go. I wasn't going to bag it. It's not my nature to give up."

If we can glimpse the fact that we are spiritual, expressing strength, courage, and fortitude as ideas of God, infinite Mind, the source of all energy, then we won't allow anything to hinder or limit our expression of God's qualities. Denigrating, restrictive thoughts would suggest otherwise, sometimes so persistently that they may mesmerize us or make us afraid. But we can put them out of consciousness by turning to God for a rundown on our real status and condition.

Another example of fortitude was a woman who'd been told by the doctors who were caring for her that she had only a short time to live. That was 10 years ago, and she's now in her 90s. She said that when the doctor told her she was dying, she said to herself, "Well, I have had a good life, I have helped many people, and as far as I know have not done anyone any wrong, so I may as well just pass on." Then she suddenly became aware of the implications of consenting to death in that way. She thought, "If I do, I am committing suicide, and I am not going to commit suicide. I am not going to give up."

She remembered this statement by Mary Baker Eddy: "He is bravely brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true status of man because of it" ("Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896," p. 183). She realized that she could be "bravely brave" and indeed refute the mortal evidence with what she knew to be true about her true identity as the child of God. And, within a short time, she was completely healed.

So often we are tempted to stop trying – to just give up – but we have the capacity to reject all such notions, and with this rejection come progress and victory.

For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world:
and this is the victory
that overcometh the world,
even our faith.
I John 5:4

Labels: fortitude, God, golf, Mary Baker Eddy, spirituality, Tiger Woods, US Open

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Poll: Revealing New Look at Religious Voters

By Deal W. Hudson
6/18/2008

The volatility of the Catholic vote created by the Iraq War was confirmed by the study's findings.

WASHINGTON, DC (Inside Catholic) - A new survey on religion and politics provides important background on the dynamics at work among religious voters in 2008.

The "National Survey on Religion and Public Life" published by the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College was based on a large sample of 3,002 interviews, nearly three times the sample size of most political polls.

Analyzed by director Corin E. Smidt, the survey data yielded the following major conclusions:

Mainline Protestants are now firmly identified with the Democratic Party, 46 percent to 37 percent. Smidt calls this "an historical turning point," but the shift has been in the making for over a decade. Taking their place in the Republican Party are, of course, the Evangelical voters -- 54 percent to 25 percent, slightly down from 2004.

White Catholic loyalties lean slightly toward the Democrats, 41 percent to 38 percent, reflecting the 30-year migration of Catholics into the GOP. Democrats used to own the Catholic vote in years gone by.

The White Catholic vote is "up for grabs in the 2008 presidential election." Because of the instability created by the unpopularity of the Iraq War, and the Vatican's criticism of it, I agree with him.

The news about Latino Catholics is not good for the GOP. Only 15 percent call themselves Republican, compared to 57 percent for the Democrats. The number of independents among these voters is growing (28 percent).

Individual religious beliefs and practices are more important than denominational affiliation in predicting political views. When you distinguish between traditionalists, centrists, and modernists within each denomination, each group's politics will resemble the others across the denominations. Modernist Catholics will think politically like modernists belonging to other denominations, and so on.

Traditional believers of all denominations are more likely to be Republican, and modernists are more likely to be Democrats -- with the odd exception of modernist Evangelicals, who lean toward the GOP.

The survey numbers on abortion and gay rights bear the importance of looking beyond denominational affiliation. Catholics overall agreed, 51 percent to 43 percent, that "abortion should be legal and solely up to the woman to decide." Among traditionalist Catholics, the number changes dramatically, with 71 percent disagreeing. Modernists, not surprisingly, agree 80 percent with a woman's "right to chose."

Gay marriage is not supported as strongly as abortion among religious voters, but comparing 2004 with 2008, support appears to be growing: 9 percent among Evangelicals, 5 percent among mainline Protestants, but only 2 percent among Catholics, who have heard Benedict XVI quite outspoken in opposition to gay marriage.

The volatility of the Catholic vote created by the Iraq War was confirmed by the study's findings. Non-Hispanic Catholics did not agree that the United States rightly took action against Iraq, 52 percent to 42 percent, while traditionalist Catholics supported the war 56 percent to 36 percent.

Centrist and modernist Catholics overwhelmingly oppose the war: 54 percent to 34 percent, and 68 percent to 29 percent, respectively. Latino Catholics disapprove by a margin of 69 percent to 25 percent.

The Calvin College poll asked its respondents whether they would vote for McCain or the Democratic nominee (Obama was not yet the clear victor) for president in 2008. White Catholics favored McCain 43 percent to 39 percent, but Latino Catholics supported the Democratic nominee 63 percent to 19 percent. Evangelicals picked McCain 59 percent to 24 percent, and mainline Protestants slightly favored McCain over the Democrat; 19 percent were still undecided at the time of the survey.

The methodology of the survey suggests that an innovative way for political candidates to organize their religious outreach may be in the offing. Instead of a Catholic or Evangelical outreach, future campaigns may focus on the newer categories of "traditionalists" and "modernists," regardless of denomination.

Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster, 2008).

Labels: abortion, Catholic, Deal W. Hudson, Democrat, gay rights, Iraq, National Survey on Religion and Public Life, politics, protestants, Republican

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Counseling college kids to keep the faith

Rebecca Rosen Lum
Contra Costa Times
06/16/2008 12:01:03 AM PDT

Losing their religion? Statistics suggest that for college students, it is virtually guaranteed. Studies show as many as 80 percent of college students shed their beliefs and faith practices during their undergraduate years. Reasons range from the rigorous questioning inherent in academic study to robust secular socializing. East Bay religious leaders offered counsel on how to sustain faith throughout the move into adulthood.

Father Wayne Campbell, St. Monica's Catholic Church, Moraga: They often shed their beliefs because beliefs often change. It's the values that we hope are more solid. That's why I always encourage families to not focus so much on teaching beliefs as instilling values. Values create a stable place from which to draw in making choices.

Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Beth Chaim Congregation, Danville: We live in a world where there is so much pressure to succeed. So many high school students head off to college thinking that they are supposed to know what they want to do, and become. In the Jewish tradition, the act of becoming is itself a very sacred journey. College is one of those rare times in life when the purpose of one's existence is to learn, experiment, seek meaningful stimulation, develop, and immerse oneself in exploration and growth. This is such a precious gift that can be easily squandered by rushing into premature decisions regarding the future.

Rev. Sylvia Vasquez, St. Paul's Episcopal Church: The biggest danger is that their structure has been taken away. They right now live in a situation in which parents are their main source of authority and support and structure. The issue isn't really that they lose their faith or doubt what they've been told, they take advantage of the fact that there is no school Sunday. There's no need to get up out of bed unless somebody comes and bangs on your head. Spirituality is a discipline that gets ingrained. When you learn a language and you are somewhere where that language isn't spoken, well, if you don't use it you are going to lose it. It's a discipline.

Now, longing for God, the knowledge that there is a higher being, that is something I think we are born with. Even though they are on a journey -- and as Episcopal we encourage them to explore ... we are not afraid of somebody looking and doubting and questioning.

Senior Pastor Jon McNeff, NorthCreek Church, Walnut Creek: I encourage students to stay grounded in the word of God and in prayer first of all. The Bible is the only eternal book that doesn't change according to the whims of the crowd or the latest educational fad.

Secondly, I encourage them to read outside their assigned classes. Unfortunately, most college professors are some of the most closed-minded people on the face of the earth. To be truly educated, students will need to read other views in subjects like biology, history, psychology, sociology, and philosophy if they want a truly balanced education. That is hard to do when they have all of the other work required of them, especially if they have to work part time.

Lastly, I encourage them to get involved in a local church. They need the fellowship and perspective of people outside the campus to stay grounded.

Father Barnard J. Campbell, CSP, pastor Holy Spirit/Newman Hall, UC Berkeley: I do find in over 22 years in campus ministry work that young men and women are coming and going, connecting, disconnecting, roaming. Yet, at Berkeley and other exceptional vigorous secular environments students articulate and live out their faith commitments. Interestingly, studies that I knew of 15 years ago showed rather consistently that student personal faith commitment was GREATER at the vigorous secular university than at the religious institutions.

In my life with students I have found their struggles best addressed by inviting them into a community of (in my case) Catholics of their own age and hopefully also a varied generational community — including faculty members from the same vigorous secular environment — who are intellectually curious about their faith and their academic discipline, who are spiritually alert and who recognize the need to help their neighbor, locally or internationally.

Rev. Steve Harms, Peace Lutheran Church, Danville: `The mind is a profound gift. Use it to explore everything. Ask endless questions — especially of your faith because that is how you grow. Know that knowledge alone can make you clever but cold. So keep your mind grounded in the heart. To just become a data bank of information is completely unsatisfactory. You will want to learn the ways of wisdom so you can discover real joy in life.

There is nothing to fear: If what you learn is true, it is the Spirit of God. Ideas, views, perspectives change — that is how people mature. Even your ideas about God will change but that doesn't mean the wisdom and compassion of God will dissolve.

J.P. Singh, president, Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area: Religion is something that is passed on in the family. Parents with good communication can help their children reconcile outside pressure with their own culture. I preach to both kids and parents, become good listeners. It has to be done in a friendly way.

We encourage (students) to become part of cultural activities, because that's where they get their strength. The Internet has been very, very good in the respect that Sikh youth groups use it to communicate and solve their problems. They have discussion groups. And there are the national Sikh camps.

Rabbi Mark Bloom, Temple Beth Abraham, Oakland: 1. Don't be afraid to questions your beliefs. God and our 4,000 year old tradition can certainly handle it. 2. Learn from others and their religious points of view. If your foundation is firm, the diversity will only strengthen and enrich your Jewish identity. 3. There's a whole new Jewish world for you to explore as a college student. Try Hillel. Join a Jewish fraternity or sorority. Take a Jewish studies class. Go on a Birthright Israel trip. Attend a rally. Meet Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews. 4. Most importantly, call home every once in a while. By that I mean, come to synagogue during Thanksgiving with your parents on a Saturday morning where you would otherwise be sleeping. Attend your rabbi's get-together for college students.

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers religion. Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Labels: advice, college, Rebecca Rosen Lum, religion, students

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Why We're Happy

By Arthur C. Brooks
Posted: Monday, June 16, 2008

According to hundreds of reliable surveys of thousands of people across the land, happy people increase our prosperity and strengthen our communities.

But today's leaders and policymakers seem to have forgotten this. To hear politicians talk about gross domestic product, health-care reform, and Social Security, you'd think that this nation's Founding Fathers held as self-evident that we are endowed by our Creator with the ability to purchase new, high-quality consumer durables each and every year, or to enjoy healthy economic growth with low inflation and full employment. The Founders didn't talk about these matters, not because they're unimportant, but because they believed happiness went deeper.

As a professor of business and government policy, I've long been interested in the pursuit of happiness as a national concept. According to hundreds of reliable surveys of thousands of people across the land, happy people increase our prosperity and strengthen our communities. They make better citizens--and better citizens are vital to making our nation healthy and strong. Happiness, in other words, is important for America. So when I chanced upon data a couple of years ago saying that certain Americans were living in a manner that facilitated happiness--while others were not--I jumped on it.

First, just what is happiness? Most researchers agree that it involves an assessment of the good and bad in our lives. It's the emotional balance sheet we keep that allows us to say honestly whether we're living a happy life, in spite of bad things now and then.

You might suspect that Americans are getting happier all the time. After all, many (though clearly not all) are getting richer, and this should make them better able and equipped to follow their dreams. On the other hand, there's a lot of talk about the good old days, when kids could play outside without any worry about being kidnapped. And there's a great deal of stress in this country right now, due to financial concerns, negative workplace environments, and chronic health problems, among other pressing issues.

But average happiness levels in America have stayed largely constant for many years. In 1972, 30 percent of the population said they were very happy with their lives, according to the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. In 1982, 31 percent said so, and in 2006, 31 percent said so as well. The percentage saying they were not too happy was similarly constant, generally hovering around 13 percent.

The factors that add up to a happy life for most people are not what we typically hear about. Things like winning the lottery, getting liposuction, and earning a master's degree don't make people happy over the long haul. Rather, the key to happiness, and the difference between happy and unhappy Americans, is a life that reflects values and practices like faith, hard work, marriage, charity, and freedom.

Happiness Predictor 1: Faith

Roughly 85 percent of Americans identify with a religion, and about a third of Americans attend a house of worship every week or more. These statistics have changed relatively little over the decades. By international standards, America's level of religious practice is exceptionally high. In Holland, for example, just 9 percent of the population attends church on a regular basis; in France, it's 7 percent; in Latvia, 3 percent.

In general, religious Americans (those who attend a place of worship almost every week or more) are happier than those who rarely or never attend. In 2004 the General Social Survey found that 43 percent of religious folks said they were very happy with their lives, compared with 23 percent of secularists. Religious people were a third more likely than secularists to say they're optimistic about the future. And secularists were nearly twice as likely as religious people to say "I'm inclined to feel I'm a failure."

The connection between faith and happiness holds regardless of one's religion. All nonpartisan surveys on the subject have found that Christians (Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and others) and Jews, as well as members of many other religious traditions, are far more likely than secularists to say they're happy. It also doesn't matter if we measure religious practice in ways other than attendance at worship services. In 2004, 36 percent of people who prayed every day said they were very happy, versus 21 percent of people who never prayed.

Of course, not every religious person is happy; neither is every secularist unhappy. Nonetheless, it's clear that faith is a common value among happy Americans.

Happiness Predictor 2: Work

If you hit the lottery today, would you quit your job? If you're like most Americans, you probably wouldn't. When more than 1,000 people across the country were asked in 2002, "If you were to get enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, would you stop working?" fewer than a third of the respondents answered yes.

Contrary to widely held opinion, most Americans like or even love their work. In 2002 an amazing 89 percent of workers said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. This isn't true just for those with high-paying, highly skilled jobs but for all workers across the board. And the percentage is almost exactly the same among those with and without college degrees and among those working for private companies, nonprofit organizations, and the government.

For most Americans, job satisfaction is nearly equivalent to life satisfaction. Among those people who say they are very happy in their lives, 95 percent are also satisfied with their jobs. Furthermore, job satisfaction would seem to be causing overall happiness, not the other way around.

Happiness Predictor 3: Marriage & Family

In 2004, 42 percent of married Americans said they were very happy. Just 23 percent of never-married people said this. The happiness numbers were even lower for other groups: Only 20 percent of those who were widowed, 17 percent of those who were divorced, and 11 percent of those who were separated but not divorced said they were happy. Overall, married people were six times more likely to say that they were very happy than to report that they were not too happy. And generally speaking, married women say they're happy more often than married men.

Marriage isn't just associated with happiness--it brings happiness, at least for a lot of us. One 2003 study that followed 24,000 people for more than a decade documented a significant increase in happiness after people married. For some, the happiness increase wore off in a few years, and they ended up back at their premarriage happiness levels. But for others, it lasted as long as a lifetime.

What about having kids? While children, on their own, don't appear to raise the happiness level (they actually tend to slightly lower the happiness of a marriage), studies suggest that children are almost always part of an overall lifestyle of happiness, which is likely to include such things as marriage and religion. Consider this: While 50 percent of married people of faith who have children consider themselves to be very happy, only 17 percent of nonreligious, unmarried people without kids feel the same way.

Happiness Predictor 4: Charity

We've all heard that money doesn't buy happiness, and that's certainly true. But there is one way to get it: Give money away.

People who give money to charity are 43 percent more likely than nongivers to say they're very happy. Volunteers are 42 percent more likely to be very happy than nonvolunteers. It doesn't matter whether the gifts of money go to churches or symphony orchestras; religious giving and secular giving leave people equally happy, and far happier than people who don't give. Even donating blood, an especially personal kind of giving, improves our attitude.

In essence, the more people give, the happier they get.

Happiness Predictor 5: Freedom

The Founders listed liberty right up there with the pursuit of happiness as an objective that merited a struggle for our national independence. In fact, freedom and happiness are intimately related: People who consider themselves free are a lot happier than those who don't. In 2000 the General Social Survey revealed that people who personally feel "completely free" or "very free" were twice as likely as those who don't to say they're very happy about their lives.

Not all types of freedom are the same in terms of happiness, however. Researchers have shown that economic freedom brings happiness, as does political and religious freedom. On the other hand, moral freedom--a lack of constraints on behavior--does not. People who feel they have unlimited moral choices in their lives when it comes to matters of sex or drugs, for example, tend to be unhappier than those who do not feel they have so many choices in life.

Americans appear to understand this quite well. When pollsters asked voters in the 2004 Presidential election what the most important issue facing America was, the issue voters chose above all others was "moral values." This beat out the economy, terrorism, the Iraq war, education, and health care as people's primary concern. Pundits and politicians would certainly like us to think otherwise, and critics scoffed at the conclusion, interpreting it as evidence that ordinary Americans were out of touch. But moral values are critical to Americans. This suggests that, as a people, we do best by protecting our political and economic freedoms and guarding against a culture that sanctions licentiousness.

Lessons for America

The data tell us that what matters most for happiness is not having a lot of things but having healthy values. Without these values, our jobs and our economy will bring us soulless toil and joyless riches. Our education will teach us nothing. There will be no reason to fight--or to make peace, for that matter--to protect our way of life. Our health-care system will keep us healthier, but what's the point of good health without a happy life to enjoy?

The facts can help remind us of what we should be paying attention to, as individuals and as families, if we want to be happy. There's also an important message here for public policy and politics. We must hold our leaders accountable for the facts on happiness and refuse to take it lightly when politicians abridge the values of faith, work, family, charity, and freedom. Candidates running for office should be grilled about happiness in debates and by the press, and their answers should determine our votes.

Our happiness is simply too important to us--and to America--to do anything less.

Arthur C. Brooks is a visiting scholar at AEI. He is the author of Gross National Happiness (Basic Books, 2008).

Labels: Arthur C. Brooks, charity, faith, family, freedom, happiness, marriage, values, work

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Warrior Of Light

May 2008

From the romantic 1960s to the hi-tech twenty-first century, Paulo Coelho masters the art of whispering to the heart

By Mohamed Shady

Although Paulo Coelho is the author of one of the most popular novels of the last few decades, he is no conformist. His most celebrated book, The Alchemist, inspired by Coelho’s pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in northern Spain, explores the spiritualism of dreams and symbols. Although The Guardian accuses the author of “pandering to the lowest common denominator of new age gullibility” and Brazilian critic Mario Maestri dismisses Coelho’s writing as “yuppie esoteric narrative,” 100 million readers all over the world would disagree.

While his career as a songwriter was established much earlier, the author’s commercial success came when he was 38 years old. With over 25 titles, Paulo often draws on his spiritual experiences traveling the world in his youth when writing his novels. Looking at the number of books he has sold and the life-changing effect he has had on millions of readers, this author is indeed an extraordinary phenomenon and unique voice.

From the romance of his earlier years in Brazil to taking on the responsibilities of a UN Messenger of Peace, Paulo Coelho talks to us about his journey, his work and how he sees his role in today’s world.

Edited excerpts:

As a writer, most of your novels revolve around the idea of pilgrimage, travel, or departure. The works engage readers in a discourse about letting go of one’s defined self-image in new experiences and using those experiences to reach one’s own true self. What did you find in Egypt that helped you transmit this concept?

It’s true that all of my main characters travel, either by choice (like Santiago or Maria) or by necessity, as is the case of Elias’ exile or even Athena’s adoption. Their wanderings are the road that most often guides my stories.

I’m a pilgrim writer and that inevitably appears in the way my characters deal with space. I’m in constant movement and very often I find that my characters need to move constantly as I do. I believe that we are constantly experiencing transformation and that’s why we need to let life guide us. That’s what the main character in The Alchemist, for instance, does: he has to get to Egypt in order to discover himself. I decided to choose Egypt because I was so impressed by my first visit to the country.

The physical journey of the protagonist in The Alchemist mimics the psychological one in the sense that it’s only through this experience that he is able to grasp the deeper meaning of his life, the reason for his wanderings.

In your novels, you communicate a wonderful magical world, full of spirituality and goodness, and you insist that goodness is not limited by place, religion or group. How did you reach this conclusion, especially with all that you went through earlier in your life?

The cost is always high, but it is worth it. If I look back at my life — which in this moment I am ‘obliged’ to examine, since a biography about my lyricist days just came out in Brazil and another will come out by the end of the year — I see many occasions where society tried to make me conform to “normality.” This resulted in three hospitalizations in an asylum when I was a teenager (which I describe in my book Veronika Decides to Die), torture when I was a young adult at the hands of paramilitaries and many defeats. You could look at these experiences and say “Paulo’s life is tragic,” but I don’t see it that way. What I do see is someone trying to remain true to oneself. Yes, there is a price but I believe that life tends to be very generous to those who are brave enough to take these risks. In other words, I’ve always had faith in life.

I’ve also always been fascinated by the spiritual realm. It’s true that coming from a country where different religions have mingled, forming such a unique and rich environment, made things easier for me. In Brazil (and also in the rest of South America) we accept more easily the magical elements of everyday life. However, as a young man I wanted to have answers for everything. I also believed that the path to God was only for a few. Now I know that I can’t have those answers. I only know that I am alive and there is something that manifests itself in my life, and that it is God.

Although I do believe that everything we see, everything that is in front of us is just the visible part of reality, there is also an invisible reality that is ruled by emotions and feelings. This is our perception of the world, but God is, as William Blake said, in a grain of sand and in a flower. This energy is everywhere.

You were given an award by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a ‘social entrepreneur,’ and then you joined the WEF board as a board member of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. [...] How do you see the WEF efforts in this field, and how do you evaluate their achievement?

Certain things when shared are not divided but multiplied. You can say that of love, of compassion, of hope This is a very simple way of explaining the feelings or actions that create a virtuous circle.

Social entrepreneurship follows the same principle, namely that society as a whole wins much more when business is coupled with social concern. It’s about common sense: How can I have a good quality of life if those surrounding me are constantly striving for food, shelter, water? I may have a haven in my house, but the moment I walk in the streets, I will be in an environment of poverty and violence.

Social entrepreneurs are the people who strive to pass on the idea that a person’s well-being is dependent on the well-being of others.

I’ve seen how WEF, with its constant concern to “improve the state of the world” is managing to change perceptions and help social entrepreneurs to not only share information but also to implement their programs in other regions and help them to raise funds. The example of micro-credit — which is changing the face of India but also is being applied in other regions of the world — was nurtured and actively supported by the Schwab Foundation.

This is but one example of the many projects that are supported by WEF and the Foundation and are truly making a difference.

‘Inter-cultural dialogue,’ ‘inter-religious dialogue,’ and ‘global dialogue’ are widely used expressions nowadays. But you ask your readers to build a “dialogue with the world.” How do you see these expressions versus yours?

There is no conflict whatsoever between these expressions and mine. In a way, my expression encompasses the others. Indeed, if you are open to the world, this means you are open to other cultures, other religions, other places. It allows different cultures to share with each other the best they have, and at the same time respect their own background.

From the moment that we understand that the world has a soul and that we are all part of it, we start to pay attention to very subtle things. We start treasuring the small things, the people next to us, the beauty of difference.

Going on a pilgrimage reawakens that awareness, but you don’t need to walk the road to Santiago to realize the benefits. Life itself is a pilgrimage. Every day is different, every day can have a magical moment, but often we don’t see the opportunity, because we think, “Oh this is boring I’m just commuting to work.” But we are all on a pilgrimage whether we like it or not and the target, or goal, is death. You must get as much as you can from the journey, because in the end the journey is all you have. It doesn’t matter what you accumulate in terms of material wealth, because you are going to die anyway, so why not live? When you realize that, you can be brave, and that is the first tenant of any spiritual quest — the ability to take risks. And what risk is more interesting than to dive into the soul of others?

As a Messenger of Peace for the UN, and UNESCO special counselor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences,” how do you envision your role in today’s world?

I think that it is everyone’s responsibility to be involved in their community. I’ve always been very skeptical about people that say: “I want to save the world, help others” This is because “to save the world” is a Sisyphean task — too abstract to actually be put into practice. What is possible, and the most difficult task, is to first look at oneself and try to identify what’s wrong. Before searching for the other, one has to find oneself.

I took 40 years to find myself, to accept my dream to become a writer. Only when I started to walk down the path of my personal legend was I able to honestly turn myself towards others: Before that, there were too many walls inside my soul. I looked around me and said, “I can’t change the world, I can’t change my country, I can’t change my city, I can’t even change my neighborhood what I can change is my street.” That’s when I went to a favela (shanty town) — in Rio, favelas are in the center of the city — and met a group of people that were taking care of children. Since then I’ve been cooperating with them and now we take care of 430 children.

The marvelous thing is that now I’m being given the opportunity to speak out about injustices and use my influence in the political arena.

I still believe that most of the real changes are made in a small scale. Nevertheless the tribune of the UN contributes to the changes that are necessary in the world. Being a messenger of peace is like being a reminder of something that defies power, something that runs deep inside all men’s souls. Peace, as well as justice, has a natural authority that, given enough time and enough space, imposes itself. The challenge lies in the fact that too often, we let our better judgment get crushed by too much fear, by too many scars.

Who is Paulo Coelho, the Warrior of Light? To those who want to follow your steps, what advice would you give them?

During my wanderings I came to believe that a person has a personal legend to fulfil. What is a personal legend? It is the reason why we are alive. In my case this legend was to share my ideas with others through writing.

We have dreams that are not necessarily the dreams that our parents or society had for us. So, we must get rid ofthe idea of fulfilling what people expect us to do, and start to do what we expect from our lives. Dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other people’s destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment thatyou don’t fear to share your heart, you are a free person.

As a Latin American author who became an icon in today’s world, what are your dreams for the future, on a personal level as well as for humanity?

My dream for the future is to live the present. It is only through one’s presence in this world that things can truly manifest themselves. I believe that unfortunately too often men and women are absent from their actions and caught up in their fears, illusions and desires. One just needs to focus in the present moment and understand that the simplest things are the most extraordinary ones. With this knowledge, everyone can first change themselves and the world will simply follow.

Labels: goodness, Mohamed Shady, Paulo Coelho, spirituality, The Alchemist, World Economic Forum

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Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life

By Brandon Keim 06.13.08

Little green men might shock the secular public. But the Catholic Church would welcome them as brothers.

That's what Vatican chief astronomer and papal science adviser Gabriel Funes explained in a recent article in L'Osservatore Romano, the newsletter of the Vatican Observatory (translated here). His conclusion might surprise nonbelievers. After all, isn't this the same church that imprisoned Galileo for saying that the Earth revolves around the sun? Doesn't the Bible say that God created man -- not little green men -- in his image?

From within, theologians have debated the implications of alien contact for centuries. And if one already believes in angels, no great leap of faith is required to accept the possibility of other extraterrestrial intelligences.

Since God created the universe, theologians say, he would have created aliens, too. And far from being weakened by contact, Christianity would adapt. Its doctrines would be interpreted anew, the aliens greeted with open -- and not necessarily Bible-bearing -- arms.

"The main question is, 'Would religion survive this contact?'" said NASA chief historian Steven J. Dick, author of The Biological Universe. "Religion hasn't gone away after Copernican theory, after Darwin. They've found ways to adapt, and they'll find a way if this happens, too," Dick says.

The central conundrum posed to Christianity by alien contact would involve the Incarnation -- the arrival of Jesus Christ as God's representative on Earth, his crucifixion and the absolution of humanity's sins through his forgiveness.

Some propose that the Earthly incarnation of Jesus some 2,000 years ago redeemed all intelligent creatures, in all places and -- since a space-faring race is likely older than us -- in all times. Others have suggested that Jesus could take multiple forms.

"Just as Jesus is human like you and I, you would find an alien-specific Jesus," said Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary professor Ted Peters.

But Peters and others also say that aliens may not have fallen into sin, instead existing in a state of grace, neither having nor needing Jesus. In that case, missionaries would have no call to convert them.

All this, however, assumes that humanity not only encounters new forms of life but also understands them. Other intelligences may be incomprehensible to us, thus intensifying another doctrinal question: What does it mean to be made, as the Bible proclaims, in God's image?

Many astrotheologians argue that God's image refers to our spiritual nature, with our physical forms being irrelevant. Not everyone, however, agrees.

"If there are aliens, the Bible specifically does not say that they were created in his image," said Mark Conn, pastor of the Noble Hill Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. "God created many other intelligent beings on this planet, and they were not created in His image."

Conn's church recently met to discuss the issues posed by extraterrestrial contact, ultimately deciding that "if they're there, they're there. It doesn't change a whole lot."

Unlike Peters, Conn suggested that missionary work may be required, something the aliens may not welcome -- especially if, as many postulate, they are technologically superior to humanity and do not have religions of their own.

"Maybe they'll say that they used to need religion but have outgrown it. Some people say that would be a great blow to religion, because if an advanced civilization doesn't need it, why do we?" said Douglas Vakoch, director of interstellar message composition at SETI.

"I don't buy it, though. I think religion meets very human needs, and unless extraterrestrials can provide a replacement for it, I don't think religion is going to go away," he continued. "And if there are incredibly advanced civilizations with a belief in God, I don't think Richard Dawkins will start believing."

Labels: Brandon Keim, Christianity, extraterrestrials, God, religion

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In religion, ignorance is not necessarily bliss

Dennis Roberts
Published: June 13, 2008

Some of us may chuckle when we read about a poll or survey that indicates how Americans seem to know very little about religion.

We hear that 10 percent of Americans think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife or Moses went to Mount Cyanide to get the 10 Commandments (which, of course, most cannot name) or the epistles were the wives of the apostles or that most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible.

Religious illiteracy makes it difficult for many – if not most – Americans to make sense of a world in which some people kill and others seek to make peace in the name of religion. This lack of basic religious knowledge – reaching even into the higher, policy-making echelons of our federal government – makes it all the easier for the general population to be swayed by demagogic voices. Certainly, since the tragic events of Sept. 11, circumstances in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and other global hot spots should have brought home to Americans the relevance of religion to world affairs, our need to be better informed and the importance of finding common ground for working together.

There is a glimmer of hope on the international horizon. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced recently the formation of The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which is envisioned as a vehicle through which different religious faiths can work cooperatively to address some of the world’s pressing challenges. He has expressed a desire to rescue faith from the dual challenges of irrelevance and extremism. He wants to create an environment in which faith traditions can encounter one another “through action“ as well as dialogue.

Blair said in a New York speech, “Globalization is pushing people together. Interdependence is reality. Peaceful co-existence is essential. If faith becomes a countervailing force, pulling people apart, it becomes destructive and dangerous.
“If, by contrast, it becomes an instrument of peaceful co-existence, teaching people to live with difference, to treat diversity as a strength, to respect ‘the other,’ then faith becomes an important part of making the 21st century work. It enriches, it informs, it provides a common basis of values and belief for people to get along together.”

It is important that we, as Americans, work to increase our basic knowledge of the major religious traditions because a well-educated electorate is crucial, not only for our representative democracy, but for responsible world citizenship as well.
What are the sacred texts of other major world religions? Significant holidays? What are Islam’s Five Pillars, the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism or the 10 Commandments? What are the sacraments for Roman Catholics? For Protestants?

It is also crucial that we move beyond knowledge and dialogue to action, working side by side to break down barriers in order to help a world in need. Tony Blair may be a player on the world stage, but each of us has a role to play here in our local communities, our Commonwealth and our nation. Will we be counted among the literate or the illiterate?

Labels: Dennis Roberts, Faith Foundation, religious illiteracy, Tony Blair

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Set Free By Truth

2008 May/June 2008

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the controversial author of Infidel, her improbable but true autobiography. A Somali-born Muslim woman, she became a member of the Dutch Parliament. As the title of her book implies, after growing up in a world that condones the physical abuse of women, practices honor killing, female genital mutilation, and often marries women against their will, she ends up rejecting Islam as inherently oppressive to women. As a result, she is living under the constant threat of death. An associate, Theo van Gogh, who helped her do an art film to protest against the victimization of women in Islam, was brutally murdered and a note threatening Hirsi Ali was pinned to his dying chest with a knife.

Infidel contends for the idea that took so long for the Christian West to learn: even heretics and skeptics must be given political freedom of speech. A religious community may not be able to tolerate their dissension, but with the freedom to function and speak freely in society their challenge can even benefit the religious community they oppose by stimulating dialogue. If all disagreement is squashed, spiritual growth is impossible. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is against the politically correct manners that forbid the criticism of religious ideas. Sociologists in the West have often advocated a benign (and condescending) view of religion that equates all religious ideas as equally valid. The postmodern idea that all religions are the same not only belieshat can be seen and observed but also implicitly reduces all religious ideas to nonsense. Religious ideas are only equally valid if they are meaningless. To the extent that religious ideas provide the impetus for all kinds of public behavior, they are fair game for public challenge.

Infidel not only contains a challenge for Muslims, but for Christians as well. There is a need for dialogue between church and state and a compelling interest in the state to see that the weak are not made the innocent victims of religion. Pedophilia and the abuse of women should not be tolerated in a civilized society and are legitimate causes for state interference no matter what the religious justification. Policies that demand reasonable behavior of all, regardless of religious affiliation, will benefit all societies, even those that might initially resist on religious grounds.

Hirsi Ali feels that the lack of freedom and the political oppression in Muslim countries are a direct result of their view of the Koran. With the primary virtue being “submission” (the translation of Islam) and instilled with fears of hellish torment, believers are ripe for manipulation. She points out that many of the terrorists are not the marginalized poor, but Islamic professionals and members of privileged classes, such as Bin-Laden himself. Whatever the truth is in this matter, it opens up the strong possibility that the promotion of democracy in Muslim countries will not succeed unless they are willing to open up religious dialogue. The hyperdefensive attitude that dissenters must be killed or silenced speaks poorly to the strength of the core idea, whether that idea is political or religious. Coercion in the realm of religion leads to either hypocrisy or fanaticism. The very nature of human spirituality demands the freedom of choice. Conscience cannot be coerced. It is not an accident that the First Amendment protects both freedom of religion and freedom of speech. One is impossible without the other.

Like political speech, religious speech must include the right to criticize and debate. Otherwise, there is no protection against manipulative demagogues and false ideas leading to intellectual and spiritual bondage. Jesus gives us an example of true dialogue in the New Testament by frequently entering into religious debates. He knows that religious ideas have importance. He accuses some of the religious leaders of His day of binding up “heavy loads and [placing] them on men’s shoulders” while “they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).* He proclaimed: “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Religious disputes are dangerous only when taken out of the context of civil tolerance. “Love your enemies,” and “pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) provide a wonderful foundation for civil discourse on religious ideas that can allow for debate. These principles provide a moral foundation for seeing that disagreement does not become a license for hatred and violence. This is why all religious debate has to take place in the context of peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) provides a necessary preparation for the uncoerced conscience that is necessary for all true conversion. Jesus’ statement that “[His] kingdom is not of this world” (John 8:36) provides the foundation for the culture within and apart from the state that is the essence of the kingdom of god on earth. The secular state, with guarantees of religious freedom, is the ideal environment to provide for the free exchange of religious ideas and to guarantee that intimidation will not be a part of conversion.

Labels: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel, Muslims, religious freedom, william McCall

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Religion Necessary to Survive Our Century

Published: June 03, 2008

Religion Necessary to Survive Our Century

By Krzys Wasilewski

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled last Saturday that uniting the world's three largest religions will be his lifetime goal. Blair, who once said that God would be his judge on Iraq, launched a foundation that will work towards the peaceful coexistence of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Although while premier Tony Blair urged British politicians not to perform American-style "chest beating," now he wants religion to play a leading role in the 21st century. At the opening conference of his new foundation, Blair admitted that "Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was launched on May 30, 2008, in New York City. The invited guests, among who was Former US President Bill Clinton, heard Blair saying that "the world [was] going tumultuous change" and, to address new issues, world leaders would have to discover a set of rules which could guide them in their efforts. According to the former British prime minister, religion is the answer.

Goals that Blair set up for his foundation may, in his own words, "sound impossibly idealistic," but after greater scrutiny are achievable. The foundation's website lists the three most important points: to promote respect and understanding between the major religions; to make the case for faith as a force for good; and to encourage inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and conflict.

Faith is so important, says Blair, because the contemporary world brings distant communities closer than in the previous centuries. "Here is the crucial point. Globalization is pushing people together. Interdependence is reality. Peaceful co-existence is essential. If faith becomes a countervailing force, pulling people apart, it becomes destructive and dangerous," said the former British prime minister.

According to the data provided by Blair, Christians and Muslims know very little about each other. "Most Christians want better relations between Christianity and Islam but believe most Muslims don't," said Blair. The British leader underlined that in a recent survey; only 40 percent of Europeans said that religion was an important part of their lives. In the US, this number rose to 70 percent whereas in Muslim countries it exceeded 80 percent.

Blair hopes that his foundation will show how faith can help solve materialistic problems that plague the contemporary world. Religion, says the British statesman, can join people of different denominations in one common effort towards the better future.

Krzys Wasilewski is a NewsBlaze journalist, particularly interested in history and literature that expands his love of travel and historical curiosity.If you have any comments or suggestions, please write to: krzys.wasilewski@yahoo.com.

Labels: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Krzys Wasilewski, Tony Blair

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"Spiritual Evolution" by George Vaillant - Book Review

June 10, 2008 at 06:40:18
by Senia Maymin

Here is what will happen to you when you read George Vaillant’s book Spiritual Evolution:

* * During the chapter “Joy,” you may cry as you feel Joy. During the chapter “Love,” you will want to call home to say Hi.
* * You will be pulled in by personal stories from the Study of Adult Development, and how these men have come around to positive emotions and spirituality.

In Spiritual Evolution, Vaillant makes the case that “positive emotions are not just nice to have; they are essential to the survival of Homo sapiens as a species.” For thirty-five years, George Vaillant ran the seven-decade-old Study of Adult Development at Harvard. He writes in this book, “by studying lifetimes, I have learned to pay attention to how people behave, not to what they say.” Here, too, in this book, Vaillant describes emotions by how the emotions behave, not by what they say. Vaillant describes an emotion by what a poet may have written about it, where it resides in the brain, which world leader may have used it, and how a Study participant over time came to display it. As a reader, you may feel that in reading about Joy, you’re inside a story with many paths, and then, in stepping away from the book, you start to see: “Aha!”

Spiritual Evolution

The table of contents may remind you of a hymn: Faith, Love, Hope, Forgiveness, Awe, etc. The first part of the book is about the three evolutions Vaillant references in the title: genetic (”walnut-brained… cold-blooded reptiles slowly evolved into warm-blooded, child-nurturing [mammals] trusting their parents to care for them rather than do them for lunch”), cultural (”Homo sapiens began to decorate caves in ways that still induce a unifying gasp of spiritual awe”), and individual (over the human lifespan as “adolescent caterpillars evolve into great-grandfather butterflies”). The second part includes individual chapters about each of seven positive emotions, and the last part is about the difference between religion and spirituality (”Love, like the other positive emotions, is religion without the side effects.”)

A crux of the book is that Vaillant backs up his stories with data about the mind and the brain:

* In addressing “what good are positive emotions?” Vaillant cites a study by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in which there was a large rise in heart strengths after the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks: gratitude, hope, kindness, love, spirituality, and teamwork all increased while head strengths did not much change. Similarly, Barbara Fredrickson at the University of Michigan at the same time learned that awareness of positive emotions appeared to buffer the students against depression after the attacks.
* There are many details about how the limbic system (one of the three main areas of the brain) contributes to health and healing through positive emotions: Vaillant’s brain-based examples include oxytocin for Love, endorphins for Compassion, the parasympathetic nervous system for lowered cardiac risk for Forgiveness, and others.

A Bonus
Plus, in addition to information, stories, and connections, Vaillant brings us his language. Here are some George-isms:

“You can pull a puppy’s tail, but not a rattlesnake’s.”
“She did not have faith. She did faith. Basic trust, like God, is not a noun: it is an experience.”
“If poets are blind to love, psychologists are struck dumb.”
In describing how Sigmund Freud could not experience joy, “What an irony it is that in German freude means joy.”
“…bonobo chimps and Homo sapiens are are the only two species to make eye contact during sexual intercourse.”

Senia Maymin, MBA, MAPP, is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of www.PositivePsychologyNews.com, a 30+ author daily news site about the latest research and applications of positive psychology, offered in English and Chinese. Senia has taught positive psychology at the Masters level at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Chicago Graduate School of Business, and has taught business communication skills at the Masters level at NYU.Furthermore, Senia works with individuals and companies to bring positive psychology tools to businesses (www.Senia.com). Senia has a background in entrepreneurship (past President of two high-tech start-ups) and finance (Morgan Stanley, hedge fund). Senia is a member of the Forum Committee for the Springboard Enterprises ALLTHINGSMEDIA venture forum for women entrepreneurs. Senia completed her AB in Mathematics and Economics at Harvard University, her MBA at Stanford University, and her Master in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Senia speaks Russian, French, and Japanese.

Labels: behavior, emotion, evolution, George Vaillant, Senia Maymin, spirituality

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Surprising Spirituality of SETI

By Brandon Keim June 09, 2008 |

There's a surprising amount of overlap between seekers of extraterrestrial life and seekers of God.

Not that the folks at SETI are actually hoping to detect the deep-space transmissions of a bearded deity from SGR 1900+14, handing them off to Vatican astronomers for inscription on silicon tablets. Far from it. But in my reporting for an article on the religious implications of finding extraterrestrial intelligence, I noticed that much research was produced in collaboration between scientists and theologians.

Why this partnership between parties whose relationship typically amounts to a truce, and an uneasy one at that?

In part it's practical: Christianity boasts a small but rich history of so-called astrotheology, particularly within the Catholic Church. It makes sense that they'd run in some of the same circles as the SETI crowd. And since discovering aliens would prompt religious self-examination -- if God is universal, maybe the image of God isn't a hairless biped called homo sapiens -- and perhaps devotion, it's probably good that they're already talking.

But after speaking this morning to Lutheran theology professor Ted Peters and then to Douglas Vakoch, the generally secular (he's Unitarian) director of interstellar message composition at SETI, I couldn't shake the feeling that something else was going on -- some union of the like-minded, nominally separated by their titles and duties.

Towards the end of the interview, after Vakoch had explained the incredible unlikelihood of both receiving and comprehending interstellar signals, I asked him what it's like to dedicate a career to something that would almost certainly not be realized in his own life, and perhaps not ever.

"One of the greatest misconceptions about SETI is that we know in our hearts that there is life out there, and the question is whether we're going to be the generation that finds it. That's false," he said. "SETI requires an acceptance of ambiguity. If there's a virtue to SETI, it's that it's making ambiguity acceptable at a time when people are focused on the concrete and short-term. It is very often uncomfortable not having the answers, but we need to accept that. We try to recognize that, in this domain, with what we now know, the best we can do, the most honest thing we can do, is live with a sense of ambiguity."

"That sounds deeply spiritual," I told Vakoch. He asked what I meant. "The act of coming to peace with the unknowable," I said.

"It's not necessarily a matter of being at peace with it," he replied. "There's a passage in the Bible -- 'Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.' In a sense, I think science and religion are not ultimately in opposition to one another. They are both attempting to understand things as they are. They understand different aspects of what is."

Now, before those of us conditioned by ugly fights against anti-evolution classroom sabotage paint Vakoch as a young earth creationist who stole a SETI lab coat, he's certainly not insisting that religious principle trump testable hypothesis. He's talking humbly about the Big Questions, and acknowledging the difficulty of answering them -- something that truly religious people tend to do, too.

Labels: astrotheology, Brandon Keim, extraterrestrials, God, religion, science, SETI

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Institute Poll Shows Americans Oppose Pulpit Partisanship

June 9th 2008

Faith will continue to play a significant role in the political landscape through this year’s election.

Today the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics released its National Survey on Religion and Public Life. The poll gauged the attitudes of 3,002 Americans, belonging to 18 different religious groupings, about their political attitudes, affiliations and preferences.

The conclusions of the national survey were largely unsurprising. Faith will continue to play a significant role in the political landscape through this year’s election, and congregants have a tendency to vote in a similar fashion to other traditionalists, centrists or modernists, regardless of denomination.

According to the study, mainline Protestants in 2008 have moved away from the GOP and are now more likely to self-identify as Democrats (46 percent) as opposed to Republicans (37 percent). Evangelical Protestants, however, have been moving in the opposite direction. They favored the Republican Party over the Democratic Party 48 percent to 32 percent in 1992, but now lean Republican 54 percent to 25 percent.

While the statistics, similar to those from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 2007, seem to be generally indicative of 2008 voting patterns like those of 2004, one question raised an issue of particular importance to advocates of church-state separation.

The Henry Institute asked survey participants whether clergy should endorse political candidates from the pulpit. A majority of Americans, across the board, found the practice to be inappropriate.

Fifty-seven percent said clergy should not “be permitted to endorse political candidates during worship services.” Only 28 percent said they should (with 15 percent offering no opinion).

Among Evangelicals, 55 percent opposed pulpit partisanship, while only 29 supported it. Among Catholics, the figures were even farther apart, with 66 percent taking a stand against church electioneering and only 23 percent supporting it.

With the Alliance Defense Fund and other Religious Right groups pressing clergy to violate federal tax law and endorse candidates from the pulpit, it’s good to know the American public won’t say amen to that reckless scheme.

By Ilana Stern

Labels: Ilana Stern, Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics, politics, religion

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A Matter Of Belief or Evidence

By January W. Payne
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Page one of two: Please click on external source for complete article

An integral part of many people's lives, religion defines patterns of worship and socialization, but its impact, if any, on health is unclear. Some studies show a benefit to religious practice, while others -- including much of the research into prayer -- fail to prove its health value.

The question of the role something as unquantifiable as religious belief might play in health troubles some scientists in an age when mainstream medicine is turning ever more toward epidemiological science to define research protocols and to determine the validity of treatments.

That said, it's not hard to understand why being religious might be good for the body, experts say. Religious people often attend regular services; this puts them in a socially supportive environment, which has widely acknowledged health advantages. And some religions promote healthful diets and discourage unhealthy behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking.
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"Religions package many of the ingredients of well-being to make them accessible to people," said Richard Eckersley, a visiting fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Canberra. And the "psychological well-being" that religion can promote is "linked to physical health through direct physiological effects, such as on neuroendocrine and immune function, and indirect effects on health behaviors, such as diet, smoking, exercise and sexual activity."

Interest in researching the impact of religion and spirituality on how we live seems to be surging. David Myers, author of "A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists" (to be published in August) and a professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Mich., did a database search to compare recent and past interest in the topic. Between 1965 and 1999, 1,950 study abstracts mentioned religion or spirituality, he found. Myers's search for the same terms in abstracts published between 2000 and 2007 came up with 8,719 hits, he said.

Among that research is some evidence that religion and spirituality offer health benefits and even longer life spans. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and mentioned in Myers's book found that people who did not attend religious services were 1.87 times more likely to have died during an eight-year period than those who attended services more than weekly. The life expectancy for infrequent attendees was age 75, and it was 83 for those who attended frequently.

A 1996 study looked at the association of Jewish religious observance with mortality by comparing secular and religious kibbutzim in Israel. Belonging to a religious group appeared to prolong life, and the lower mortality rates seen in the religious group were consistent for all causes of death, the authors wrote. And a 2003 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine found that meditation might alter brain and immune function in positive ways, an effect similarly seen in research involving Buddhist monks.

But researchers have had trouble replicating such statistics in the randomized studies that are the gold standard for medical research. It's hard to show conclusively whether or how a belief system affects one's health; other life experiences might provide benefits to health so similar to religion and spirituality that it's hard to differentiate.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, some common religious practices are widely thought to enhance health.

It's not unusual for people to pray for their own health and for that of others. In a 2004 survey of more than 31,000 people, 45 percent said they'd prayed for health reasons, 43 percent prayed for their own health, and 25 percent reported that others had prayed for them. About 10 percent said they'd participated in a prayer group for their health, according to the results, released by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

But science says that prayer might not help a person who is ill. A 2003 update to an earlier systemic review of clinical trials on distant healing found that intercessory prayer, which involves someone praying for the healing of a person located elsewhere, with or without that person's knowledge, probably doesn't offer specific therapeutic healing effects.

Any benefit seen from prayer might come from the fact that "knowing that your friends and family are praying for you is part of social support, . . . and [that is] probably really helpful to people, independent of if there is a higher being that answers those prayers," said David G. Schlundt, an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, who has researched the connection between faith and health.

Labels: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, David G. Schlundt, David Myers, faith, health, January W. Payne, prayer, religion, science

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Survey of Indian Scientists’ Attitudes toward Religion, Ethics and Society

The Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, recently released the first in a series of ground-breaking sociological studies entitled “Worldviews and Opinions of Scientists.” Each of the studies explores the opinions of science professionals in non-Western societies. The first report focuses on the views and attitudes of scientists in India. Subsequent studies will explore the opinions of science professionals in countries such as China, Japan, Russia and Turkey.

More than 1,100 participants from 130 universities and research institutes in India were surveyed for this research project, which was begun in August 2007 and completed in January 2008. The research team was led by Professors Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin of the ISSSC at Trinity College.

Among the findings, the study shows that only 8 percent of Indian scientists express ethical reservations about genetic engineering and stem cell research, while 90 percent somewhat or strongly agree with the teaching of traditional Ayurvedic medicine in university degree courses. The vast majority (88 percent) either definitely or probably endorse the theory of evolution.

Other survey questions cover such topics as Reasons for Becoming a Scientist; the Status of Women; Scientific Literacy in India; Ethical Constraints on Science; Belief in God; Belief in Miracles; and Spirituality.

Those queried include engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physicians, physicists, geologists, and those involved with behavioral and social sciences.

The survey was designed in consultation with Dr. Meera Nanda, author of Prophets Facing Backwards, and conducted in cooperation with the Center for Inquiry-India, for which Dr. P.M. Bhargava serves as a chief adviser.

The entire survey is available online at: http://cruller.cc.trincoll.edu/NR/rdonlyres/D98B14DA-CC70-4CA2-B270-EA0A6E9B4006/0/WholeIndiaReport.pdf

Labels: ethics, India, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, religion, scientists

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Book Review: Science from a different perspective

Jonathan Davies
Gauntlet News

June 05, 2008

Book Review: A University of Calgary professor is trying to bring science and religion closer together. In his latest book, Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion, Dr. Stuart Kauffman argues society needs a new worldview that accepts the inability to fully understand the universe through science alone.

For over four centuries, pioneering scientists such as Galileo, Newton and Descartes promoted a philosophy called reductionism, the view that all phenomena can be reduced to and understood in terms of interactions between basic particles governed by natural law. This view suggests that life can be reduced from biology to biochemistry to chemistry and eventually to physics. However, Kauffman finds a problem with this view.

"Our biosphere cannot be completely understood or predicted by natural law," explained Kauffman. "Science leaves a gap in our understanding."

The problem with reductionism, he argues, is that it cannot predict biocomplexity-- when biological systems emerge that are not created by a single pattern or rule. Darwinian preadaptation, an example in his book, is when existing anatomical features evolve to serve a new purpose that cannot be predicted based on biological, biochemical or physical laws. In nature, this has been illustrated by dinosaurs using feathers for insulation or sweat glands evolving into mammary glands. Thus, argues Kauffman, science alone is an inadequate tool to explain our evolving universe.

"If we accept that Darwinian preadaptations cannot be reduced to physics, then what we've believed for the past 400 years is wrong," he said.

As the world becomes smaller, the rift between science and religion seems to widen. Religious and scientific fundamentalism is becoming increasingly common as cultures and ideals clash. Kauffman maintained recent books by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, which have been highly critical of religion, even suggesting that a belief in God is a delusion, are not helping matters.

"These books aren't doing any good," he suggested. "It's time to move past some of these old ideas and find the middle ground. We have to rethink everything. We need a second enlightenment."

Traditional Christianity credits a creator God as the sculptor of our world. By contrast, Kauffman believes that honoring the emergent creativity of the universe is far more awe-inspiring than believing that a supernatural God created the universe in six days.

"Do we need the Creator or just the creativity?" he asked. "We need to consider that emergence and biocomplexity is the creativity of a fully natural God."

He added that the concept of God and the sacred values that God represents have also evolved along with what devotees collectively consider sacred.

"The [book] title is controversial as hell," said Kauffman. "But how many gods have we worshipped down the eons? It seems to me that we're telling God what we consider sacred, not the other way around. Perhaps it's time to consciously consider what we hold sacred for ourselves."

A recent book launch tour in the United States has received a warm reception. Afterwards, Kauffman will be returning to Canada to continue his research as director of the U of C's Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics. He plans to expand on his theories with research of biocomplexity and the physics of the origins of life. For the moment, Kauffman hopes that his proposal of a marriage between science and God will provide a starting point for a new scientific world view, although he acknowledges that this concept may upset some.

"If this view holds, we will undergo a major transformation in our understanding of science," he said. "If we reinvent the sacred to mean the creativity in the universe, biosphere, human history and culture, are we not also inevitably invited to honour all life on the planet that sustains it?"

Labels: Darwin, God, Jonathan Davies, reductionism, sacred, Stuart Kauffman

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African American Muslim Women are a Rare Gift

Given our unique perspective on history, we are prepared to engage in struggles for social justice both within the Muslim community as well as for all Americans, and indeed, every global citizen, says Aisha al-Adawiya.

New York - African American Muslim women are a rare gift in that we have a unique perspective on what it means to be Muslim in the United States. Our historical references as women are specifically honed and readily available to address issues of oppression and struggle for liberation as well as opportunity and success.

We have experience communicating with those different from us in faith and culture; we have the stamina needed for a sustained struggle in the interest of social justice. Our lives are intertwined with those who oppress and those who seek to liberate.

Most of us were not raised by Muslim parents; we grew up in predominantly Christian households and were schooled in ethics, community service and self-reliance. But we were looking for a new spirituality. We wanted a new way of life that would speak to our current existence while taking into consideration our exigent past. Islam was the answer.

When we adopted Islam, the teachings that were already ingrained in us – such as the respect of parents and elders, responsibility to family, kin and neighbours, a strong work ethic and commitment to self-improvement – became even more pronounced. Our new religion provided us with a structure for the lessons we'd been taught throughout our lives.

We continue to be nourished by the daily practice of Islam. We lay claim to the strong women who surrounded the Prophet Muhammad, such as his wife Khadija, as our role models. They forged a clear path for us since they were among the first Muslims and, like us, had embraced Islam while living in a predominantly non-Muslim society.

Many Muslim women struggle against cultural oppression within their societies. But while immigrant Muslim women struggle as new minorities in the dominant culture, the African American Muslim woman has a knack for understanding the terrain that must be scaled due to our historical knowledge of how oppression manifests itself.

We carry the scars of centuries of enslavement and the residual effects that persist to this day. We have lost – and continue to lose – our children and loved ones to pernicious institutional racism manifested through policies of abuse and neglect, such as economic deprivation, criminalisation of our youth, substandard health care, and inferior education. Based on these experiences, we can offer lessons learned to Muslim immigrants struggling to realise the promises America makes to new arrivals. At the country's doorstep, Ellis Island, we say to them, "Give me your tired, your poor huddled masses yearning to be free".

Many of us have come to feel that Islam has been a vehicle of empowerment for African Americans, and African American women specifically. We can thus speak concretely about the vast potential the religion offers not only to women, but all humanity, in the realm of personal spirituality, community, equality and justice.

Given our unique perspective on history, we are prepared to engage in struggles for social justice both within the Muslim community as well as for all Americans, and indeed, every global citizen. But we cannot call for constructive change in the larger society and not address the social ills within our own ranks.

Issues such as honour killings and domestic violence must be addressed and resolved. We must help break down the cultural barriers that prevent all Muslim women from seeking education, attending mosque, and participating in Islamic organisations and civic projects. Failing to do so would be in direct contradiction to the examples of those very women we have taken as our mentors.

At the same time, we also seek opportunities to build coalitions with others across racial, religious, ethnic and socio-economic lines to bring about equality, equity and harmony not only for ourselves but also our neighbours. The historical experiences of African Americans, combined with those of Muslim women, have taught us the value of collective effort for peace and social justice.

Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya is the founder and executive director of Women in Islam, Inc., an organisation of Muslim women that focuses on human rights and social justice. This article is written for the Common Ground News Service and can be accessed at GCNews.

Labels: African-Americans, Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya, culture, faith, Muslims, women

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i4cp Study Finds Employers Struggling with How to Handle Religious Differences

i4cp Study Finds Employers Struggling with How to Handle Religious Differences

Nearly a third of employers surveyed said they have seen personal clashes in the workplace linked to religion

Seattle, WA, June 09, 2008 --(PR.com)-- According to a recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), nearly a third of employers surveyed said they have seen personal clashes in the workplace linked to religion. Despite the frequency, it’s clear that many of those organizations are still unsure of how to handle religious differences in the work environment.

While 61% of companies said they have made an accommodation for an employee based on the worker’s religious beliefs, just 12% of respondents actually have a written definition of what is considered to be a “religious belief.” And, even though a third of respondents reported that their organization has experienced personal friction over religious beliefs, almost two-thirds of those companies said they do not have a written policy specifically addressing religious bias.

Perhaps because of this lack of clarity, most companies opt to handle disputes quietly and internally. Over half (56%) of the employers surveyed reported that they use in-house mediation to resolve religious disputes. For some, those disputes might be avoided if leaders were better trained on how to handle them. Of the companies surveyed, a mere 29% train managers on how to avoid religious bias in their decision-making.

“Businesses must find ways to handle religious conflicts while allowing room for employees’ spiritual needs,” said Anne Lindberg, research analyst with i4cp. “Effectively handling religious differences not only requires specific attention, but also creativity, empathy and fairness.”

When asked about practices used to attend to religious diversity, 68% of companies reported they “make reasonable accommodations for beliefs and practices,” implying that the remaining 32% don’t. “This is interesting because, by law, all companies are supposed to offer reasonable accommodations,” Lindberg adds.

Other findings from the survey:

-Fifty-five percent of companies provide flexible scheduling to allow people to attend religious services, yet only 33% offer paid time off for religious holidays.

-31% said that unsolicited sharing of religious views has been a problem in the workplace.

-13% said that, because of their religious beliefs, employees have refused to do certain work or associate with certain co-workers.

The Taking the Pulse: Religious Discrimination survey was conducted by i4cp, in conjunction with HR.com, in April 2008. A total of 278 organizations participated. The full results of the survey are now available exclusively for i4cp corporate members.

About i4cp, inc.

i4cp is the world’s largest private network of corporations focused on improving workforce productivity. Our vendor-free community facilitates innovation by giving our members – among the largest and most respected organizations in the world – access to:

1. Peers to spark new ideas and prevent “reinventing the wheel,”

2. Research to enable members to understand current practices and next practices,

3. Tools to put ideas and research into action,

4. Technology to enable members to easily access tailored information and execute workforce strategies.

With more than 40 years of experience and the industry’s largest team of human capital analysts, i4cp is the definitive destination for organizations seeking innovative ways to improve workforce productivity.

Labels: business, disputes, Institute for Corporate Productivity, religion

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Marvelling at God's handiwork

As religion-versus-science debate rages, 3 physicists come out on side of God

Don Lajoie, Windsor Star
Saturday, May 31, 2008

Page 1 of 2: Please click on external link for complete article

God versus science. That most ancient of debates has been raging in academic circles, popular culture and in the media with increasing ferocity since the fundamentalist religion-inspired attacks of 9-11.

Three scientists from the University of Windsor, professors Gordon Drake, Mordechay Schlesinger and Tim Reddish of the school's physics department, have stepped gingerly on to the slippery rocks of the discussion, coming out -- some might say surprisingly -- on the side of God.

The religiosity of the three scientists may be surprising, since some statistics, including a Scientific American study in 1999, show that, while up to 90 per cent of the general North America population profess some belief in a God, only about 40 per cent of scientists do. And the numbers of scientists believing in God keep dropping, particularly among "eminent" scientists, with as few as 10 per cent believing.

However, poll results on the topic vary. A Rice University survey in 2005 demonstrated that only 38 per cent of natural scientists polled considered themselves to be "non-believers."

"Why should a physicist, studying the laws of nature, countenance a belief in God?" asked Drake, a practising Anglican, recently named principal of Canterbury College. "Because, as physicists, we're more aware of what we don't know. And the book of the unknown keeps getting larger."

Added Schlesinger, a Jew: "You can look at it another way. Our modest success in scientific research allows us to marvel at God's handiwork."

Reddish, a Christian with a Protestant background who does not adhere to any particular denomination, said God gave him a mind to use and "it would be a disservice to not use it to the fullest extent." His rumination, he said, leads him back to God. "My faith enhances my life."

Their declarations of faith out of the way, the three doctors of science sat down recently to state their case.

Drake began by suggesting the latest flareup in the old debate has its roots in the terrorist attacks of 9-11 on New York and Washington.

The fact the suicide pilots claimed to be acting out of Islamic fundamentalist zeal led to a backlash against all religion as an abomination to mankind, leading to intolerance, violence and war, he suggested. The backlash resulted in a spate of books such as God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris.

The atheist point of view has become ever more visible on cable news and talk radio, usually countered by an equally animated "believer's" position.

"The debate has existed since creation," said Drake. "But 9-11 intensified it, gave it focus, the idea that religion could do more harm than good, that God could make you fly into a building.... But should you throw out religion because of 9-11? It's the same as asking should you throw out science because of the atomic bomb."

They said that the debate has been framed on the premise that science and religion are polar opposites used to explain existence and the two ideas cannot be reconciled. But, they say, that premise, put forward in Dawkins' book, is flawed.

Labels: atheism, Don Lajoie, God, Gordon Drake, Mordechay Schlesinger, religion, science, Tim Reddish

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Catholics, Evangelicals Differ On Views Of Sin

Evangelicals More Traditional Than Catholic Counterparts

Last updated Friday, May 30, 2008
By Terry Mattingly
Scripps Howard News Service

One tough challenge that Catholic shepherds face, Pope Benedict XVI said this past Lent, is that their flocks live in an age "in which the loss of the sense of sin is unfortunately becoming increasingly more widespread."

"Where God is excluded from the public forum the sense of offense against God -- the true sense of sin -- dissipates, just as when the absolute value of moral norms is relativized the categories of good or evil vanish, along with individual responsibility," he told a group of Canadian bishops, early in his papacy.

"Yet the human need to acknowledge and confront sin in fact never goes away. ... As St. John tells us: 'If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.'"

But there's a problem at pew level. Many American Catholics who regularly attend Mass simply do not agree with their church when it comes time to say what is sinful and what is not. In fact, according to a recent survey by Ellison Research in Phoenix, if the pope wanted to find large numbers of believers who share his views on sin he should spend more time with evangelical Protestants.

For example, 100 percent of evangelicals polled said adultery is sinful, while 82 percent of the active Catholics agreed. On other issues, 96 percent of evangelicals said racism is sin, compared to 79 percent of Catholics. Sex before marriage? That's sin, said 92 percent of the evangelicals, while only 47 percent of Catholics agreed.

On one of the hottest of hot-button issues, 94 percent of evangelicals said it's sinful to have an abortion, compared with 74 percent of American Catholics. And what about homosexual acts? Among evangelicals, 93 percent called this sin, as opposed to 49 percent of the Catholics.

The Catholics turned the tables when asked if it's sinful not to attend "religious worship services on a regular basis," with 39 percent saying this is sin, compared to 33 percent of the evangelicals.

Sellers said his team sifted evangelicals out of the larger Protestant pool by asking participants to affirm or question basic doctrinal statements, such as, "The Bible is the written word of God and is totally accurate in all that it teaches" and "Eternal salvation is possible through God's grace alone."

The split between Catholics and evangelicals jumped out of the statistics.

It's clear that most Americans are operating with definitions of sin that are highly personal and constantly evolving, said Sellers. These beliefs are linked to faith, morality, worship and the Bible, but also are affected by trends in media, education and politics. For example, 94 percent of political conservatives believe there is such a thing as sin, compared to 89 percent of political moderates and 77 percent of liberals.

The declining numbers on certain sins would have been even more striking if the Ellison researchers hadn't added a strategic word to its survey.

The study defined "sin" as "something that is almost always considered wrong, particularly from a religious or moral perspective."

Note that linguistic cushion -- "almost."

"We had to put that 'almost' in there," Sellers said. "Most Americans do not believe in absolute truths, these days. So if you present them with a statement that contains an absolute truth, people are immediately going to start challenging you and looking for some wiggle room. ... They just can't deal with absolute statements and that messes up your survey."

Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. His Web site is www.tmatt.net. His column is distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.

Labels: Catholic, Ellison Research, evangelicals, Pope Benedict XVI, sin, Terry Mattingly

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

In Japan, 72% irreligious; 56% believe in supernatural

The Yomiuri Shimbun Survey

Seventy-two percent of Japanese do not have any specific religious affiliation, but many still believe in supernatural forces, according to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

According to the survey, 26 percent of respondents said they believed in a religion, virtually unchanged from a similar survey conducted three years ago. Only 37 percent said religion was important for living a happy life.

Views of people's religious sentiment were split, with 45 percent of respondents saying Japanese had little religious faith while 49 percent thought otherwise.

However, 94 percent of respondents said they respected their ancestors, and 56 percent claimed to have had some form of supernatural experience.

The results suggested that many Japanese feel little affinity to a particular religion, but many do harbor feelings of respect for things that are scientifically unproven.

The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed 3,000 randomly selected people across the country face-to-face on May 17-18, of whom 1,837 gave valid answers.

Asked about what happens to people's spirits after they die, 30 percent said they believed they would be reincarnated, 24 percent said they would go to another world and 18 percent answered they would vanish.

The recent popularity of new forms of spirituality and other new age-related beliefs, such as an interest in previous lives and guardian angels, was particularly prominent among female respondents. Although 21 percent of all respondents said they were interested in such thinking--far below the 75 percent who were not--27 percent of women saw the appeal of such beliefs, whereas only 13 percent of men said they felt this way.

To the question about what should be taught as religious education at school, 71 percent said students should be taught about "respect for life and nature," 31 percent said "histories of major religions," and 21 percent selected "the meaning of religion" and "tolerance for people of other faiths." Only 7 percent preferred not to have religion taught at school.

Respondents were allowed to give more than one answer to this question.

Views on religious groups were somewhat standoffish, with 47 percent saying these groups' activities were unclear, and 43 percent believing they use fear-mongering and other aggressive approaches to disseminate their beliefs. Thirty-six percent said they felt these groups were good at raising large amounts of money.

These three answers occupied the top three slots to the same question in Yomiuri surveys in May 1998 and August 2005.
(May. 31, 2008)

Labels: ancestors, Japan, religion, spirituality, supernatural, Yomiuri Shimbun

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Insights into living and dying - Book Review

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sogyal Rinpoche, Patrick D. Gaffney, Andrew Harvey

ENNAPADAM S. KRISHNAMOORTHY And
NIRANJANA BENNETT

Modern healthcare professionals can learn much from the Tibetan Buddhist belief that it as important to die with dignity as it is to live happily. Another look at a classic, a book by Sogyal Rinpoche, that had its 10th anniversary reprint recently.

The book, authored by Sogyal Rinpoche, a renowned Buddhist teacher, has been revised and updated to commemorate its 10th anniversary. The book begins rather impressively with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, who sets the tone: “No less significant than preparing for our own death is helping others to die well”. Sogyal Rinpoche places life and death contextually together for our consideration, describing why we must address death during our lives. The realm of gods in the Buddhist teachings, who lived lives of fabulous luxury and pleasure with little thought or time for spirituality until death appeared, and who were unprepared for it, are alluded to here, as is active laziness whereby unimportant tasks become responsibilities, part of a rigid schedule, and begin to dictate one’s existence.

“The fate of the gods reminds me of the way the elderly, the sick and the dying are treated today. Our society is obsessed with youth, sex and power and we shun old age and decay. Isn’t it terrible that we discard old people when their working life is finished and they are no longer useful? Isn’t it disturbing that we cast them into old people’s homes, where they die lonely and abandoned?”

Contemplating deeper meanings

He highlights instead, the importance of spirituality, contemplation and the need to devote some time each day to examining the deeper meaning of life.

He speaks of two groups of people whose attitudes to death clearly affect the way they live life. One group lives in denial of death — repressing and refusing to acknowledge its potential impact. The second group has a casual attitude towards death, not attributing to it the seriousness of thought it deserves.

The author advocates that each individual attempts to understand the nature of the mind, and then move on to train the mind through different practices of meditation. Mindful meditation (having roots in ancient Buddhist practice) is applicable to anyone suffering from stress, anxiety or pain and Rinpoche describes its three essential components. Rinpoche goes on to expound on several Buddhist beliefs: rebirth, karma, reincarnation, bardos etc. and stresses on the importance of the mind.

In its second section the book deals with Dying. Most of us, even medical professionals, are bewildered when confronted by the prospect of death. Often we feel inadequate or embarrassed, not knowing what we should say to the person who is dying, and to his near and dear ones. Indeed, the most typical human response to death is denial of the condition or the diminishing of its impact. However, the person who is dying often has a much clearer knowledge and vision of this inevitable outcome, achieved after weeks of intense suffering. Helping the dying person achieve an early, more graceful acceptance of death, without denying or diminishing his thoughts and feelings is thought to be important. Rinpoche describes the case of a lady doctor friend who, having dealt (in her perception) unsuccessfully with a dying individual, asked Rinpoche what he would have done in that situation.

“I would have sat by his side, held his hand and let him talk. I have been amazed again and again by how, if you just let people talk, giving them your complete and compassionate attention, they will say things of a surprising spiritual depth, even when they think they don’t have any spiritual beliefs. I have been very moved by how you can help people help themselves by helping them discover their own truth, a truth whose richness, sweetness, and profundity they may have never suspected”.

Essential qualities

Two things most useful at the deathbed are, a sense of humour, a useful tool to dissolve the gravity of the situation; and the ability to not take things personally, since anger is a common response of the dying person, and may be directed towards the person trying to help. It is also important to show unconditional love, which can be facilitated by thinking of yourself in the dying person’s place (empathy). Rinpoche also emphasises the importance of telling the truth with love, a rare blend of virtues that directly addresses the dying person’s needs. Active compassion (expressed in action, not mere words) is another ingredient that enables the experience of dying. The Buddhist practice of Tonglen, the ability to take on the suffering and pain of others and give them your happiness, well being and peace of mind and the powerful Tibetan tradition of phowa (pronounced po-wa), the transference of consciousness, are described as being invaluable to the dying person. To be able to deal effectively with the dying person’s fears, it is important to introspect and be aware of one’s own fears about death.

“Caring for the dying makes you poignantly aware not only of their mortality but also of your own.”

While saying goodbye, two explicit verbal statements are pre-requisites. The dying person must be given permission to die with the assurance that his loved one(s) will be taken care of in the aftermath. When the loved one is a child, Rinpoche suggests that it is commendable to encourage the young one to pray, as it gives them a sense of having contributed in some way. He also addresses the people that the dying person leaves behind, saying that it is useful to be open to grief rather than repress it, and try to learn from the grief.

“Bereavement can force you to look at your life directly, compelling you to find a purpose in it where there may not have been one before.”

In its third section, the book deals with Rebirth.

Accepting death

In the final part of the book, Rinpoche speaks about the significance of understanding and accepting death because it is a universal process. In his view, we live in a world that appears to be too besotted with life to give much thought to death, an unhealthy attitude that needs to change. It is not uncommon today, to have a beloved elderly relative admitted in a hospital ICU, with multiple tubes and support systems for his sustenance, often an unwilling participant in the seemingly interminable fight for his life. Pray, what price are we paying, to defy death under these circumstances? What dignity is there in challenging death in this manner? Indeed, what crime would we commit in allowing a person who has lead a full life to meet his maker in a natural, dignified and well-prepared manner? These philosophical thoughts assail one’s mind, as one contemplates life and death in the modern context. Rinpoche’s exhortation to the health professional is particularly moving.

For doctors, nurses and others confronted with the experience of death he also has other valuable tips to share.

“I never go to the bedside of a dying person without practising before hand, without steeping myself in the sacred atmosphere of the nature of the mind. Then I do not have to struggle to find compassion and authenticity for they will be there and radiate naturally.”

Undeniable realities

Death and dying are an undeniable reality; a natural consequence of all human existence. Dying well is a dream that most elders have (we talk of Anayasa maranam in Hindu culture) and helping people die well and peacefully is a duty, not just for the healthcare professional but also for their near and dear ones. This book, therefore, has obvious implications for every one of us, as we will all have to face death at some point of time in our lives. Even individuals who do not share Rinpoche’s religious and spiritual inclinations have plenty to learn from the book, as it offers practical insights into dealing with dying.

However, several of the principles expounded in the book are not scientifically verifiable. Instances of the occurrence of a rainbow body for example or beliefs about near death experiences and rebirth have their testimony in anecdotal repetitions and not empirical evidence. The book, therefore, is likely to appeal more to those with spiritual inclination than those who subscribe strictly to modern scientific tradition. Nevertheless, as the Tibetan saying goes, “If you are too clever, you could miss the point entirely.”

Sogyal Rinpoche’s ability to clearly express himself, capturing the reader’s attention, with interesting anecdotes and quotations from learned works is unquestionable. Even more commendable, however, is his choice of subject… Most books speak of life and living happily ever after. This one speaks of death as well.

Dr. E.S. Krishnamoorthy is Director, T.S . Srinivasan Chair and Senior Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at The Institute of Neurological Sciences-VHS, Chennai. E-mail: esk@nsig.org

Niranjana Bennet is a M.A. Psychology student at Christ College, Bangalore. She researched for and co-wrote this article while interning in TINS-VHS.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sogyal Rinpoche, Patrick D. Gaffney, Andrew Harvey

Labels: Buddhism, death, Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy, Niranjana Bennett, Sogyal Rinpoche

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Don't write off religion just yet - Book Review

JOHN GRAY
May 31, 2008

THE DEVIL'S DELUSION
Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
By David Berlinski
Crown Forum, 237 pages, $27.95

Despite being at variance with historical experience, the idea that science and religion are opposites is embedded in modern Western culture, and it has been given a new lease on life in the writings of the current wave of "scientific atheism." Writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris have popularized the Enlightenment view that a reductive type of materialism is the only picture of the world compatible with the results of scientific inquiry. Promoting Darwinism as an intellectual orthodoxy - a creed rather than a provisional hypothesis - these writers renew the old quarrel between science and religion. Though controversy has been intense, it can hardly be described as having made any large intellectual advance on the debate that raged in Victorian times.

There is actually very little that is new in the so-called new atheism, whose claim to be based on science is as dubious today as it has ever been. A critique of the contemporary assault on religion is therefore much needed, and in The Devil's Delusion, David Berlinski gives us a polemic that is powerful, erudite and often savagely funny. Berlinski - a mathematician and well-known critic of evolutionary theory, though not a proponent of "intelligent design" - has two targets in his sights: the conventional belief that religious thought is intrinsically superstitious and the materialist philosophy that Dawkins and his fellow "brights" - as members of the atheist community fondly describe themselves - mistakenly identify with science.

The first of these targets is dispatched with in a barrage of devastating arguments. Berlinski quotes Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg as declaring "Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Berlinski comments on this, forcefully and unanswerably: "Just who has imposed on the suffering human race poison gas, barbed wire, high explosives, experiments in eugenics, the formula for Zyklon B, heavy artillery, pseudo-scientific justifications for mass murder, cluster bombs, attack submarines, napalm, intercontinental ballistic missiles, military space platforms, and nuclear weapons? If memory serves, not the Vatican."

Nothing infuriates atheists more than the observation that people who scorned traditional religion in all its varieties were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the last century. But Berlinski is pointing to an undeniable truth. The former Soviet Union was an atheist regime from the moment of its inception to the day it collapsed. Applying Marx's philosophy, its leaders looked forward to a time when religion would be eradicated from human life. Lenin and Stalin's "liquidation" of remnants of the old society - in plain words, the mass murder of tens of millions of people, artists and intellectuals, peasants and workers, priests and rabbis - was not done only with the aim of maintaining power.

Atheism was - according to the founders of the Soviet state, and in fact - always an integral part of the communist project. Despite the vehement denials of Dawkins and Hitchens, terror in communist Russia - and Mao's China - was also meant to bring about a utopian society in which religion would no longer exist.

Lenin's Bolsheviks were not a bunch of skeptics. They were fanatical believers in a vision of a future world, more fantastic than any religious myth, which they claimed was based on science. The same is true of the Nazis, who in claiming that race was a scientific category, opened the way to history's supreme crime. The atrocities perpetrated by atheist regimes during the 20th century did not come from believing in nothing. They are testimonies to the destructive ferocity of faith when it is detached from traditional religions and invested in pseudo-science.

Berlinski's second target is the materialist theories of evolution and of the origins of the universe advocated by contemporary atheists, and here his polemic is less successful. No doubt correctly, Berlinski argues that Darwin's account of natural selection and current theories of cosmology leave a good deal that is not adequately explained. More contentiously, he suggests that these gaps in understanding may give support to ideas of intelligent design. Here Berlinski follows atheists such as Dawkins in thinking of religion as a type of explanatory theory, different from that which is presented in prevailing science.

The truth of the matter is that religion and science are not competitors, but fundamentally different responses to the human situation. Religion begins where science leaves off. Theories of how humanity or the universe came about are strictly beside the point. Claiming to have a better explanation of the natural world than orthodox science - as creationists do - does nothing to advance the cause of faith.

Religion expresses the human need for meaning, not a demand for explanation. For those who have it, faith entails understanding the limits of the human mind and an acceptance of mystery. Even if all the problems of science are some day solved, humans will still be searching for purpose in their lives, and for that reason alone they will need religion.

John Gray is the author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia and is emeritus professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics.

_____________________
From The Devil's Delusion,

Chapter 3.

The idea that we must turn to the sciences in order to assess our religious beliefs owes much to the popular conviction that so long as we are turning, where else are we to turn to? The proper response is a question in turn. Why turn at all? And if we must turn, why turn in the wrong direction? To ask of the physical sciences that they assess the Incarnation, or any other principle of religious belief, is rather like asking of a rather powerful Grand Prix racing car that it prove itself satisfactory in doing service as a New York taxicab.

The claim that the existence of God should be treated as a scientific question stands on a destructive dilemma: If by science one means the great theories of mathematical physics, then the demand is unreasonable. We cannot treat any claim in this way. There is no other intellectual activity in which theory and evidence have reached this stage of development.

If, on the other hand, the demand means merely that one should treat the existence of God as the existence of anything would be treated, then we must accept the fact that in life as it is lived beyond mathematical physics, the evidence is fragmentary, lost, partial, and inconclusive. We do what we can. We grope. We see glimmer.

From The Devil's Delusion,

Chapter 3.

Labels: atheism, David Berlinski, John Gray, religion, science

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