[This is the 13th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
When religion has committed itself to a particular science model, it has often been left behind as the public embraced a new model. That's the position in which the Catholic Church found itself in defending Ptolemy's geocentric model of the solar system against the simpler heliocentric model of Copernicus. It's the situation in which supporters of "creationism"--and its offspring, "intelligent design"--find themselves today.
[This is the 12th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
Live your life as if there are no miracles and everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein
The Miraculous
The allure of mystery points directly to the nature of reality as open and infinite. It offers a foretaste of our real power within that reality as its discoverer and knower.
[This is the 11th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
In the aftermath of movement politics, California was teeming with seekers after truth. More than a few political activists had replaced their concerns about social justice with a quest for personal enlightenment. I was skeptical but intrigued by rumors of a state of consciousness promising clarity of mind and perception.
[This is the 10th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
- Albert Einstein
While it's true that science aims to explain and, in that sense, demystify, there remains something ineffable about the process of discovery. I've mentioned the perplexing fact that nature is understandable, not just in broad outline, but in fine detail. It strikes many as mysterious that nature has spawned a creature--Homo sapiens--who comprehends her well enough to steal her power.
[This is the 9th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
Not infrequently we sense our own mistakes at about the same time others do. Why is it so difficult to acknowledge errors publicly? It's because we fear that admitting to imperfection will expose us to indignity, if not outright rejection.
[This is the 8th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
The public...demands certainties... But there are no certainties.
- H. L. Mencken, American journalist
When we hear the word fundamentalist, images of fanatical proselytizers, religious extremists, and suicide bombers leap to mind. But I shall use the word more broadly to refer to any true believers and even to that part of ourselves that might be closed-minded about one thing or another. By generalizing in this way, we include those who reflexively dismiss anything contrary to their own views, whether religious, scientific, artistic, or ideological. Such closed-mindedness is the antithesis of the modeling perspective.
[This is the 7th in the series Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship.]
Proverbial Models
In this 7th part of the series, we take a look at some religious proverbs that have become woven into the fabric of civilization: the golden rule, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," "turn the other cheek," and the idea of universal dignity.
"An eye for an eye" is best understood not as a formula for retribution or punishment, but rather as a simple descriptive model of how humans behave. When we're injured or abused, our immediate impulse is to do unto the perpetrator what's been done to us. We call it biblical justice. Often, victims of predation are not satisfied with merely getting even, but rather are inclined to "better the instruction," as Shylock points out in The Merchant of Venice. Escalation follows. Not to stand up to the perpetrator of a predatory act is to signal weakness and invite a follow-up that may bring death or enslavement.
It may be hard to tell who started a feud because the initial act of predation lies buried in a disputed past and escalation has since blurred the picture. A pattern of reciprocal indignities is what we see today in any number of ongoing conflicts around the world. At some point, it becomes more important to find a way to interrupt the cycle of revenge than to assign blame.
Attempts to stop cycles of predation by "turning the other cheek" can be suicidal unless they're part of a broad-based strategy of civil disobedience, and even then can result in great harm to protestors. Religious ideals, decoupled from political pressure, have seldom been enough to prevent predation or to arrest the cycles of vengeance that tend to ensue.
On the other hand, turning the other cheek, in the form of forgiveness, and as institutionalized in "Truth and Reconciliation" commissions, is the only thing that can permanently end a cycle of revenge.
This may well be the end result, but how we get there is a bit more nuanced than that. But no less scary. In fact, quite a bit more scary. Unpacking a few key terms and phrases show that this and most all the other planks are organized around the Christian Reconstructionist, "theonomist" reformulation of covenant theology. This is the view that God has established several "governments" or spheres, including civil, ecclesiastical (church), family, and individual or self-government (that last one can only be exercised by Christians--the right kind of Christians). Christian Reconstructionists have adopted this from the Westminster Confession of the English Civil War and Cromwellian Puritan commonwealth. All the spheres of government are under God's authority, not the state's. And who determines and exercises God's authority? The super-duper "Christians" who are appropriately educated outside the civil system, either through homeschooling, "classical" Christian schools, or as supplemented by their families and churches. Everyone else gets just enough education to submit to and serve the God-by-proxy authority over them.
My old cult taught this. Remnants of my old cult still teach this. Not to get into seven degrees of Maranatha Campus Ministries, but I say this because what used to be considered fringe, cultish, crazy, outright insane by even evangelical and charismatic/Pentecostal Christians 30 years ago is totally mainstreamed and is now on the verge of becoming public policy (if not already so in some places like my fair state, Louisiana)!!! First indoctrinate the pew sitters, then the churches themselves (largely done), then finally take over the state. More below the fold...
The Trinity Broadcasting Network has withstood a lot of blows over the years--in no small part because of its close ties to the religious right. However, a recently-filed lawsuit could potentially bring this evil empire down for good. Carra Crouch, the granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch, is suing her grandparents and TBN for sweeping a horrific allegation of child abuse under the rug.
Carra claims that back in 2006, she was raped by then-TBN employee Stephen L. Smith in an Atlanta hotel room. Carra was in town for TBN's spring telethon.
During the telethon one night, Smith visited Carra Crouch in her hotel room to discuss the telethon and other company matters, then ordered a bottle of wine, according to the lawsuit, which also says Trinity makes it a practice to supply alcohol to employees during business meetings.
According to the lawsuit, Smith coerced her into drinking the wine, which made her intoxicated. She says in the lawsuit that she asked Smith to leave the room, and that he offered her a glass of water to help her feel better. When she drank it, she immediately passed out, according to the lawsuit.
She believes the water contained a date rape drug which caused her to pass out. When she awoke the next morning, she says Smith was laying next to her, and there was blood on her bed sheets. She also claims to have had "severe pain and soreness in her body in places which indicated she had been molested and raped."
Carra was so horrified by the incident that she flew back to California the next day. On her mother's advice, she reported the incident to her grandmother. However, Jan Crouch went into a screaming fit, telling her that it was her fault. She then tried to tell TBN general counsel John Casoria, who had sat in on the meeting. However, Casoria not only said he didn't believe her either, but suggested she'd brought it on herself because she was already sexually active.
Now here's where it gets hideous. According to the suit, it turned out that the Crouches and Casoria actually did believe Carra, and fired Smith over the phone the next day. Reportedly, Casoria told Smith there was enough evidence to press criminal charges. However, neither the Crouches nor Casoria reported the incident to police. Under California law, as ordained ministers they were required to report it. Instead, they offered to sweep it under the rug if Smith didn't file unemployment, worker's comp or an EEOC claim.
After posting my new story, Humans and Fire Breathing Dinosaurs ? Romney Education Plan Would Fund Rejected Curriculum, that explains how Mitt Romney's new K-12 education plan would allow $26 billion in Federal education funding to be redirected to private schools, many of which would be religious schools that used the Young Earth creationist Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books textbooks, I realized I missed something important.
Where did the "humans lived with dinosaurs, that may have breathed fire" idea come from?
Just hours after posting the story, I learned a possible answer - Kent Hovind ! In the video below, the estimable Mr. Hovind details many fascinating pseudo-facts about dinosaurs, which he takes pains to explain are really dragons
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While it's true that science aims to explain and, in that sense, demystify, there remains something ineffable about the process of discovery. I've mentioned the perplexing fact that nature is understandable, not just in broad outline, but in fine detail. It strikes many as mysterious that nature has spawned a creature--Homo sapiens--who comprehends her well enough to steal her power.