TruthBook Religious News Blog

7/26/2007
The Catholic Register
(www.catholicregister.org)

Occasionally, the image of Canadians — as portrayed in popular media — runs headlong into the wall of Canadian reality. It happened in early July when a new opinion poll revealed that a majority of Canadians believe that God had a hand in making human beings who they are.

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The Canadian Press Decima Research poll, released July 3, showed that only 29 percent of those surveyed believed that God had no part in the creation or development of human beings. This statistic runs against the grain of common perception. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking Canadians were a race of atheists or agnostics if all they knew of the country came from the daily news.

Despite this ingrained perception, the polls consistently say otherwise. For instance, who knew 26 percent of Canadians are essentially creationists when it comes to evolution? Yet there are almost as many creationists as there are hardcore religious skeptics. Come on over Stockwell Day. It appears the former leader of the Alliance party, and current public-safety minister, has lots of company.

In fact, a plurality of Canadians – 34 percent – actually agree with the statement that “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.” Few Catholic theologians, including Pope Benedict XVI, would have any problem with this position from a doctrinal point of view. The Catholic Church has understood for some time that nothing in church teaching stood in the way of accepting evolution as the best available scientific theory for describing the biological roots of humanity, as long as this belief did not preclude the foundational role of God in the process.

There were also some interesting regional revelations in the survey. Belief in creationism was at its lowest in Quebec at 21 percent (not surprisingly), but second was Alberta (22 percent) and British Columbia (22 percent), both of which have reputations as diehard conservative neighborhoods, overrun with fundamentalist Christians. Also in once overwhelmingly Catholic Quebec, the greatest percentage of those surveyed (40 percent) felt God had no role in creating humans.

Another challenge to conventional wisdom can be found in the political preferences of those surveyed. More Conservatives (31 percent) than Liberals (29 percent) were likely to say God had no part in human development. What does this say about the influence of the religious right, except that it has been exaggerated? Or about the “godless” Liberals?

While it is always prudent to be careful how much to read into opinion polls, it could be reasonably concluded from this survey that Canadians are yet to jettison a belief in a creator as the source of life. While institutional religion may suffer from declining attendance and other related ills, Canadians, by and large, still remain believers. Whether those beliefs are more than skin deep is a question for another poll.

Labels: Canada, Christianity, creation, God

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Weaving a thread of tradition

Navajo class bands heritage and skills

By Arin Gencer
Sun Reporter

July 15, 2007

Deb May leaned back to survey her work, a neat row of orange and brown wool tightly wrapped around a piece of wood.

Did it look right? Would there be enough to make a knot and then warp the other side of the loom?

"You have to just trust," said one of her classmates in the Navajo -- or Diné -- weaving class at Common Ground on the Hill.

An experienced weaver, May's uncertainty came from tackling a loom unlike her own -- and an equally unfamiliar technique.

Some trust, and a healthy helping of patience, seemed to go along with learning the art of Navajo weaving, a long-standing tradition that has served as a spiritual and financial aid to Native Americans.

At McDaniel College last week, a handful of intrepid individuals, hailing from various parts of Maryland and beyond, perched on stools before vertical wood looms and sought to create their own woven patterns using wool from the sheep raised by their instructor, Roy Kady, a Navajo master male weaver.

Navajo creation stories say Spider Man taught Spider Woman how to weave, then instructed her to share the techniques with the rest of the world, Kady said.

The master weaver, who lives in Arizona, has been weaving since childhood, guided and inspired in the making of traditional dresses, horse cinches and saddle blankets by his mother and grandparents.

Now Kady creates commissioned pieces, such as contemporary wall hangings, while also raising his own Navajo-Churro sheep, which provide wool that he can dye using such natural elements as plants, roots or indigo. He looks to the creation stories, his surroundings, and even travel for inspiration in his designs.

And when he can, Kady said, he brings the sacred art of his people to others, in part because many from the younger generations are disconnected from the lessons of Spider Man in today's MTV culture.

Practically every facet of the weaving process reflects Navajo cultural beliefs, Kady said, with its creation stories woven into the rows, the warp and weft.

The wood comb used to firmly pack each newly woven line of wool evokes the sound of falling rain, a soothing rhythm, Kady said.

The bottom wooden beams of the loom represent Mother Earth; the upper ones, Father Sky. And Spider Man is believed to have taken the horizon from all four directions to make the main posts of the loom's frame, he said.

"There's life in these," Kady said. "They're not just tools."

The traditional meanings and references have drawn students such as Mary Bare, of Westminster, to the art. Bare brought in a project she had begun at last year's Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but which had been stored in her basement since then.

"There's the spirituality and the story of creation and the teachings," Bare said. "That's what makes it different from other weaving."

Kady's class wasn't a first for Reyne Salacain, of Virginia, either. Salacain said she had tried the Navajo technique on a floor loom. Now in her fourth class using the Navajo vertical loom, Salacain said, she was working on a modified, smaller version of a rug she'd like to weave for her parents' home.

Kady said he hopes his class will teach students to "learn and connect with their inner soul."

"A lot of them are in tune with the time

Labels: Arin Gencer, creation, Navajo, spirituality, weaving

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Most see God-creation link: Poll

Jul 03, 2007 01:58 PM

Canadian Press
OTTAWA —

Canadians may not be as religious as Americans, but a new poll suggests they are not prepared to rule out God’s essential role in creation.

The Canadian Press-Decima Research survey suggests that 60 per cent of Canadians believe God had either a direct or indirect role in creating mankind, shattering the myth that Canadians had long ago put their faith strictly behind the scientific explanation for creation.

The poll suggests Canadians divide in essentially three groups on the issue of creation: 34 per cent of those polled said humans developed over millions of years under a process guided by God; 26 per cent said God created humans alone within the last 10,000 years or so; and 29 per cent said they believe evolution occurred with no help from God.

“These results reflect an essential Canadian tendency,” said pollster Bruce Anderson. “We are pretty secular, but pretty hesitant to embrace atheism.”

The belief that God had a direct or indirect role in creation was widespread among the 1,000 respondents questioned between June 21 and 24. A majority of those polled held this view in every region of the country, in rural and urban areas, and regardless of education.

And there were a few surprises: Conservatives were more likely than Liberals to say that God had no part in the process, and Alberta, regarded as the birthplace of social conservatism, had one of the lowest levels of beliefs for strict creationism at 22 per cent.

But in this controversial area, the devil is in the breakdown of the numbers.

For instance, while Liberal party voters were more likely than Conservatives to credit God with some contribution to creation, Conservative voters were less likely to write God out altogether. Only 22 per cent of Tory respondents said God had no role, as opposed to 31 per cent of Liberals.

Liberal respondents were far more likely to be what could be termed “soft evolutionists” or “soft creationists,” with 41 per cent saying God guided the process of human development, as opposed to 34 per cent of Conservatives seeing creation in those terms.

Regionally, Quebec respondents were by far the most likely to say God’s role in creation was a delusion, with 40 per cent saying the evolutionary process had no interference from an intelligent designer.

British Columbia respondents were the next sub-group who could be termed strict evolutionists, with 31 per cent saying God was not involved. Least likely to hold this view were respondents in the Prairie provinces — 21 per cent.

The findings suggest the least educated were most likely to be creationists, as were respondents living in rural Canada.

Among respondents without a high-school diploma, 37 per cent said they believed God alone created humans less than 10,000 years ago, whereas only 15 per cent of university-educated respondents were strict creationists.

Rural respondents also had a plurality who believed in strict creationism at 34 per cent, whereas only 22 per cent of urban dwellers said they believed God alone created humans.
Anderson said the findings suggest Canadians lack consensus on creation, but also don’t view the issue as polarizing.

“It’s more as though for many, these feelings are unresolved,” he said. “We believe in a higher being, we know what we don’t know, are comfortable not knowing, and choose not to press our views upon one another.”

That is not the case in the United States, where similar polls have suggested Americans are more polarized on the subject. In a recent U.S. poll, 45 per cent said God created humans, and 40 per cent said evolution was God guided. Only 15 per cent said God played no part in creation.

The Canadian Press-Decima Research survey is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

Labels: Canada, Conservative, creation, God, Liberal