Category: Religion
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From the Outside, Looking In
Recently, the crew of a US naval cruiser in the Persian Gulf was alarmed by the actions of some nearby Iranian speedboats, potentially sparking a confrontation. Commenting on the almost-incident, US Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson quipped, “I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins that they’re looking forward to seeing.”
Okay, is there anyone out there who hasn’t seen or heard the stereotype—the caricature—often enough to get his joke? I didn’t think so. In fact, in the past six years, we’ve heard some version of this joke so many times that it’s already come to feel old. There’s a whole battery of these jokes by now, with themes ranging from Islamic terrorism to… um, Islamic terrorism. And while America has a nice little collective chuckle over this, I can’t help but wonder if it would have been quite so funny if Thompson had made an equivalent joke about Jews, Mormons, or Baptists, for instance. I have to wonder why fair-minded, clear-thinking people aren’t up in arms over this.
I remember only two years ago when a politician referred to a young Indian-American as “macaca” and—though it never became entirely clear what the hell he was even talking about—his political career was effectively destroyed by a backlash against that single imprudent utterance. And last year former US President Jimmy Carter was hounded by the American press and accused of anti-Semitism for comparing the condition of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to life under South African Apartheid.
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The Politics of God
Perhaps all that unites feminists today is their goal of making the world a better place for women. Approaches diverge from there: from hard-liners, who see all men as complicit in oppressing women, to moderates, who seek incremental changes by working with men. They rarely see eye-to-eye: the former call the latter anti-feminist sell-outs; the latter see the former as extremists damaging to the cause, etc.
The analogy is not exact but a similar dynamic exists in atheist discourse today. In response to 9/11 and the alarming role of evangelical Christianity in US politics, a host of loud atheistic voices have emerged. Most belong to concerned citizens driven by their secular ideals. But they seem united only by their goal of curbing religion in public life; in their approaches, they too range from hard-line to moderate. The former see most religion as noxious, worth getting rid of like the plague; the latter see it as a universal instance of non-rational human nature, and only seek to reform and contain its moral excesses. Which stripe of atheists do we side with? We can evaluate them based on results (an amorphous exercise). More often, we evaluate them via their assumptions, analysis, and claims. A part of our answer, as always, comes from subjective and often sub-conscious factors: our culture, experiences, psychological makeup. Another part derives from the understanding we consciously gain about the beast — religion in this case — relying on a calm analysis of all relevant data available to us, from biology, history, anthropology, etc.
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Comedy Break
Intelligent comedy is so rarely found. I consider it a gift when I run across something that moves me and makes me laugh and think, or makes me laugh with respect for the speaker. One occasion to do all of these is in Lilly Tomlin‘s one-woman show, “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” (montage; reviews). I highly recommend it.
Happily, I’ve just discovered another serious comic, Julia Sweeney, whom some may remember as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. I came across a clip of Sweeney’s monologue, “Giving Up God,” which she performed during the TED talks in 2006. In this routine, Sweeney talks about the journey she took from being raised as a Catholic, losing her faith, and then finding sense in the idea of understanding the universe without a belief in god. In her blog, she says of this:
One of the astounding results of me losing my faith, (which was a beautiful experience…), was that I suddenly saw how alike we are to our fellow animals. And how different. But different in ways I had not previously considered. I saw my own behavior being influenced by millions of years of evolutionary history, but I also gained a new respect for ethics and the ability of the human race to make informed choices. Much more informed choices than many other animal species. After I lost my faith, I stopped anthropomorphizing in a childlike way and started anthropomorphizing in an informed way.
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Beyond Demonic Memes
David Sloan Wilson, evolutionary biologist, on multi-level selection, the state of sociobiology, and Dawkins’ delusions.
When Dawkins’ The God Delusion was published I naturally assumed that he was basing his critique of religion on the scientific study of religion from an evolutionary perspective. I regret to report otherwise. He has not done any original work on the subject and he has not fairly represented the work of his colleagues. Hence this critique of The God Delusion and the larger issues at stake.Dawkins and I agree that evolutionary theory provides a powerful framework for studying religion, and we even agree on some of the details, so it is important to pinpoint exactly where we part company. Evolutionists employ a number of hypotheses to study any trait, even something as mundane as the spots on a guppy. Is it an adaptation that evolved by natural selection? If so, did it evolve by benefiting whole groups, compared to other groups, or individuals compared to other individuals within groups? With cultural evolution there is a third possibility. Since cultural traits pass from person to person, they bear an intriguing resemblance to disease organisms. Perhaps they evolve to enhance their own transmission without benefiting human individuals or groups.
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Epstein on Secular Humanism
Greg M. Epstein, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University, on the need for less anti-theism and more humanism:
While atheism is the lack of belief in any god, anti-theism means actively seeking out the worst aspects of faith in god and portraying them as representative of all religion. Anti-theism seeks to shame and embarrass people away from religion, browbeating them about the stupidity of belief in a bellicose god.Anti-theists are often brilliant scientific thinkers. The ones I know tend to be passionately ethical in their personal lives. And as in the case of Hitchens, they can be ferociously eloquent. So why hasn’t anti-theism ever gained any real political or social power?
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Atran on Sacred Conflicts
Here is a refreshingly rational approach to knotty conflicts that defy reason (by Atran, Axelrod, Davis):
Efforts to resolve political conflicts or to counter political violence often assume that adversaries make rational choices. Ever since the end of the Second World War, “rational actor” models have dominated strategic thinking at all levels of government policy and military planning. In the confrontations between nation states, and especially during the Cold War, these models were arguably useful in anticipating an array of challenges and in stabilizing world peace enough to prevent nuclear war. Now, however, we are witnessing “devoted actors” such as suicide terrorists, who are willing to make extreme sacrifices that are independent of, or all out of proportion to, likely prospects of success. Nowhere is this issue more pressing than in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The reality of extreme behaviors and intractability of political conflicts there and discord elsewhere—in the Balkans, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, and beyond—warrant research into the nature and depth of commitment to sacred values. Read more here.
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Beyond Belief, 2006
I ran into an exchange that captures my own reaction (esp. via Scott Atran’s response) to the very stimulating Beyond Belief conference on science, religion, reason and survival held at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA (read additional views on Edge). I watched the whole event glued to my laptop for two days last year and I strongly recommend it. Many brand name scientists had struck me then as total yahoos in their view of religion, religious people, and the human condition in general. They included Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg, and Sam Harris (the Dick Cheney of the conference, whose ass justly got whipped by many). I saw them as not only unscientific, prejudiced, and ignorant, but also positively dangerous — they descended into the same metaphysical swamp of fear, intolerance, and unreason that they purportedly criticized, all under the banner of science and truth. It you need illustrations on how even the most brilliant scientists can so readily abandon reason and evidence in matters outside science, get it here.
Fortunately, the conference was saved by Scott Atran and Melvin Konner — the stars of the event for me — followed by Susan Neiman, Lawrence Krauss, James Woodward, and Neil Tyson. They either evinced a more nuanced view of religion and human nature backed by empirical data, or proposed a more rational strategy for promoting the “constituency of reason” in the world. By the way, this year’s conference has just concluded and the videos will be available online in the days ahead. This year’s theme is Enlightenment 2.0 (no kidding!) and I intend to review the conference in some detail.
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The Pakistan Puzzle
Cross-posted from Neutral Observer .
On August 14th this year, Pakistan completed 60 years as an independent country. In these 60 years, the state of Pakistan has endured, but doubts about it still persist – it has been called a failed state and a rogue state. For its own people, the state has done precious little. Small groups of individuals, however, have enriched themselves. Constitutional democracy has yet to find a foothold in Pakistan. Indeed, the constitution itself has not found a foothold yet. The Pakistani state has fomented and supported insurgencies and terrorism, both of which now pose serious dangers to Pakistani society. Its rulers have flirted with Islamic fundamentalism to various degrees, with the ill effects on society becoming increasingly obvious in recent years.
Is Pakistan really a failed state ? In what form do Pakistan’s failures manifest themselves ? What are the reasons for these failures ? What are the possible remedies ? What are the criteria for defining the failure of states?
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A Journey to the West
Journey to the West, “China’s most beloved novel of religious quest and picaresque adventure,” was published in the 1590s in the waning years of the Ming dynasty. The novel’s hero, “a mischievous monkey with human traits … accompanies the monk-hero on his action-filled travels to India in search of Buddhist scripture.” * It is “an extended allegory in which … pilgrims journeying toward India stands for the individual journeying toward enlightenment.” * Indeed there aren’t many books in which “go west, young man” would be a call to go to India.
The inspiration for this novel was a journey made by a 7th century CE Chinese man, Xuan Zang (or Hieun Tsang). Though raised in a conservative Confucian family near Chang’an (modern Xi’an), Hieun Tsang followed his brother into a Buddhist monastic life (Buddhism had come to China after the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 CE). A precocious boy, he mastered his material so well that he was ordained a full monk when only 20. Disenchanted with the quality of Buddhist texts available to him, he decided to go west to India, to the cradle and thriving center of Buddhism itself. After a year-long journey full of peril and adventure, crossing deserts and mountains, meeting robbers and kings, debating Buddhists on the Silk Road and in Afghanistan (where he saw the Bamiyan Buddhas, recently destroyed by the Taliban), he reached what is now Pakistan.
He spent 17 years in India, traveling, visiting places associated with the Buddha’s life, learning Sanskrit, and studying with Buddhist masters, most notably at the famous Nalanda University. His erudition seems to have brought him fame and royal patronage in India when in a religious convocation “in Harsha’s capital of Kannauj during the first week of the year 643 … Hieun Tsang allegedly defeated five hundred Brahmins, Jains, and heterodox Buddhists in spirited debate.” * -
The Romance of the Nation-State
A thought-provoking and often amusing lecture by Ashis Nandy, prominent Indian political psychologist and social philosopher.
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On The Road With Jesus
Sam Fentress is a Jack Kerouac of sorts. He travels the roads of America looking to find not himself but Biblical signs and bill boards – messages to praise and persuade. In his many sojourns he has found farmhouses, grain silos, restaurants, hair salons, gas stations and even traffic signs bearing Biblical messages. An artist and a photographer, Fentress first started photographing roadside biblical messages when a student in his class brought him a picture of a barn covered in Scriptures. Fentress was stunned.“It just knocked my socks off as a picture,” he said. “The boldness of the farmer in covering the roof, the sides — every square foot of the barn had some sort of Bible quote, Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels, Epistles, Revelation.”
Fentress has photographed an urban billboard which rotated its message to read among other things.
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Buddha’s Finger
The monks and proprietors of Famen Temple in China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province, about an hour’s drive outside of Xi’an, believe the Buddha has given them the finger.Or four.
Legend has it that after the death of Prince Siddharta (aka the Buddha) around 500 BCE, such was the demand among local kings and chieftains to own a piece of him, that they were ready to go to war to claim his remains, also called relics or sarira (roughly: transient body), which are the tiny bits of bone that survive cremation fires. Fortunately, a wise man intervened and convinced Buddha’s unenlightened devotees instead to divide his relics and enshrine them within eight stupas throughout the lands of Buddha’s life and teaching (modern north-central India and southern Nepal). Some 200 years later, Emperor Ashoka, in his zeal to spread Buddhist teachings, broke into those stupas and redistributed the relics far and wide. Just how far and wide is unknown, but it’s said that Ashoka built tens of thousands of stupas and his influence is known to have reached at least from Sri Lanka to Central Asia. So ultimately the precise fate of Buddha’s remains is shrouded in mystery. But, for believers, mystery provides fertile ground for the miraculous discovery of lost relics hundreds or thousands of years later.
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The Wonder That Was India
Condensed versions of this review have appeared in The Pioneer, July 2006, Culture Wars, August 2006, and Desi Journal, Sep 2006.
An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World
by Pankaj Mishra. Picador, 422 pp., INR 2751.
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John Frum
Some time ago, Ruchira brought to my attention an article about a village on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, where the people believe Prince Philip of England is a god. Though it might sound preposterous to many of us, it’s actually not a joke. As the article explains, Prince Philip is a foreigner who traveled across the sea from his native land to marry a powerful woman and, as it happens, the people of Yaohnanen village on Tanna know that a pale-skinned spirit from their own island once made just such a journey. Somewhere in the past decades, Prince Philip came to be regarded by these villagers to be that selfsame island spirit.And why not? This religious tradition dates back some decades to the time when Vanuatu was a colony of European powers. Conflating their own mythic histories with the current news they would have heard during those colonial times was not an unreasonable thing for the islanders to do, especially given that the goings on in faraway England and the lives lead by British royals might seem every bit as mythical and magical to them as their stories of spirits might to us. What’s more, by recognizing this powerful man as being one of their own kin (albeit of a spiritual nature), they associate themselves directly with power and can appeal for benevolence.
At least on one level, this is the aim of religious mythology: to associate ordinary people with mystical power. One sees in the emergent and localized religions of Vanuatu the unvarnished essence of how religion works, how it arises, what function it serves in society and in individuals, how it binds groups in common understanding, and also how it impedes understanding between people of different beliefs.
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The Burning Ghats of Varanasi
(For a significantly modified and expanded version of this post, please click here.)
Varanasi (Benares, Banaras, Kashi), on the left bank of the Ganga (Ganges), is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. Among “the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world, its early history is that of the first Aryan settlement in the middle Ganga valley. By late 2nd millennium BCE, Varanasi was a seat of Aryan religion and philosophy and a commercial and industrial centre famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture.”
It was the capital of the kingdom of Kashi during the Buddha’s time (6th century BCE), who, after achieving enlightenment, gave his first sermon at nearby Sarnath (it is said that he purposely avoided this hotbed of Brahmanism). The Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsiang visited Varanasi in c. 635 CE and saw it as a centre of art, education, and religion. The city, he wrote, extended for about 5 km along the western bank of the Ganga. -
Evolution Is a Blind Watchmaker
For a long time, Biblical creationists have trotted out the empty analogy of the Blind Watchmaker to try to refute the theory that complex organisms evolved by natural selection—or at least persuade people that such a thing couldn’t possibly be true. It’s an argument based on fundamental misunderstanding of the theory as well as some glaring logical flaws, as demonstrated in this sweet video for children:In rebuttal, Chuck Kopec has created his own video. Substituting the terms of the Creationists into the theory of natural selection and plugging these parameters into a very clever computer simulation, he demonstrates that, in fact, evolution is a blind watchmaker.
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Respecting Religion
Religious folks are a diverse lot. In their public acts, they exhibit a host of inspirations, both religious and secular. We can guess but we can’t usually be sure about the mix. Forget the average pious bloke, even a suicide bomber’s inspirations are rarely plain. Yet, to the extent a religious inspiration is evident in a public act — whether good or bad in its effect — what should we make of it?Religion is so entwined with history that it’s hard to imagine what an alternate world would have been like. It is not sensible to say that the world would have turned out better (or worse) without it. When militant atheists like Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens attack religion as pernicious and irrational, they tend to equate secular with rational. They forget that being secular (or an atheist) is not a positive virtue; it doesn’t make one more rational, kind, or caring. History is also replete with secular horrors.
Reacting to militant atheists, moderate atheists often wince and point out the mixed record of religion — that religiosity is not all bad; in many, it has also inspired charity, altruism, and resistance to inhumanity and injustice (e.g., the Civil Rights movement, Anglican Church on Apartheid, etc.). Without their religiosity, many of these folks may not have acted as they did. Religiosity can also hold society together, provide comfort and strength in trying times, etc. Moderate atheists call this “good religiosity” and prefer to object only to “bad religiosity”. As a corrective and a call for greater tolerance, this seems reasonable. We wonder: Is there a downside to this “mixed record of religion” argument?
Category: Religion -
Jerry Falwell, BIH
Jerry Falwell is dead. The news reports reminded me that besides the Moral Majority, he also founded a Christian madrassa called Liberty University. There are in fact scores of Christian madrassas in America, often with thousands of students enrolled. The big difference is that they are wealthier than their Islamic counterparts, market themselves more slickly, and have a lot more political power. I paused to glean some information from their websites — an act of masochism you might say — but for you, dear reader, no trouble is large enough. (Statutory warning: Text below might make you laugh and cry at the same time.)
Liberty University
“[The] world’s largest evangelical university, with over 20,000 students … [providing] the highest quality education in a distinctly Christian environment…. Liberty’s professors integrate a Christian worldview into every subject area. This biblical foundation is the cornerstone upon which we build academic excellence. Our faculty hold degrees from more than 400 colleges and universities. They join Liberty only after completing a rigorous interview process that confirms a born-again relationship with Christ … and a commitment to teaching excellence.”
Bob Jones University
“[BJU] exists to grow Christlike character that is Scripturally disciplined; others-serving; God-loving; Christ-proclaiming; and focused Above…. Whatever field of study our students choose, they are taught the importance of having Christ at the center of their lives…. This emphasis is rooted in the University’s adherence to the Bible as mankind’s only source of faith … [BJU] continuously strives to be the best school it can be, to the honor and glory of Christ.”
Wheaton College
“A four year, residential, academically rigorous … college whose historic motto is “For Christ and His Kingdom”…. Committed to the principle that truth is revealed by God through Christ in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge… We believe that God directly created Adam and Eve, the historical parents of the entire human race; and that they were created in His own image, distinct from all other creatures… [Our Physics program gives] students a fuller awareness of the structure and principles characteristic of the created universe… [we produce the] best science graduates in the nation [who] have a high tendency to earn Ph.D.s and enter scientific careers.”
Evangel University
“The mission of Evangel’s Department of Science and Technology is to provide a solid understanding of science, yet temper it with an appreciation for the majesty of God as revealed in the beauty and order of His creation…. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to helping our students fulfill their God-given potential. Most important of all, we want our students to know the Truth.”
Regent University
“[An] institution of higher learning that exists to bring glory to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Our mission is … education from a global, biblical perspective in pivotal professions to equip Christian leaders to change the world, and to be a leading center of Christian thought and action…. Our students, faculty and administrators share a calling, founded on biblical principles … Our vision … is to provide Christian leadership in transforming society by affirming and teaching principles of truth, justice and love as described in the Holy Scriptures, embodied in the person of Jesus Christ and enabled through the power of the Holy Spirit. Soli Deo Gloria.
American Evangelical Christian University
“AECU believes that every God called person should have the opportunity to pursue a quality education at an affordable price. No matter what course of study you pursue, it is our goal to have you emerge as a disciple of Christ with a deeper … appreciation of the Christian faith.” -
Anandpur Sahib
Anandpur Sahib is a holy city in Punjab. Its historical significance to the Sikhs is second only to Amritsar. Hundreds of Sikhs once embraced martyrdom here. Sikh history is deeply marked by their struggle for survival in a volatile land, especially during the peak of Mughal persecution under Aurangzeb, which radicalized the Sikhs (many paintings in the museum at the Golden Temple in Amritsar record the horrifying persecution stories retold across the land). The mystical faith of Guru Nanak transformed into the fiercely spartan and nationalistic faith of Guru Gobind Singh, who also committed the Sikhs to the five Ks. In early 19th century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh further militarized the Sikh nation, creating the first modern army in the subcontinent. Reversing the dominant historical trend, he went west to conquer new lands (which later fell in the British lap).
Takhat Kesgarh Sahib—one of five Takhats, or seats of authority, in Sikhism—is the centerpiece of Anandpur Sahib. It stands upon a hill and is visible for miles. The Khalsa was revealed here by their tenth and last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, who selected the five beloved ones and administered baptism of Khanda (Khande di Pahul), instituting the Khalsa panth on Baisakhi, 30 Mar 1699. A special congregation was held that was attended by thousands. Kesgarh Sahib Fort was built here in 1699, replaced long since by the Gurdwara (a room in its inner sanctum holds twelve important military relics of Guru Gobind Singh). The Sikhs celebrated the 300th anniversary of the day in 1999 with thousands of religious gatherings all over the world. Two Gurus and families of four Gurus lived in Anandpur Sahib for many years. -
The Carvakas
It comes as a surprise to many that in ancient “spiritual” India, atheistic materialism was a major force to reckon with. Predating even the Buddhists, the Carvaka is one of the earliest materialistic schools of Indian philosophy, named after one Carvaka, a great teacher of the school. Its other name, Lokayata, variously meant “the views of the common people,” “the system which has its base in the common, profane world,” “the art of sophistry,” and also “the philosophy that denies that there is any world other than this one.” The founder of this school was probably Brhaspati.
The Carvakas sought to establish their materialism on an epistemological basis and their thought resembles that of British empiricist and skeptic David Hume, as well as of logical positivists. The Carvakas believed sense perception alone as a means of valid knowledge. The validity of inferential knowledge was challenged on the ground that all inference requires a universal major premise (such as “All that possesses smoke possesses fire”) whereas there is no way to reach certainty about such a premise. The supposed “invariable connection” may be vitiated by some unknown “condition,” and there is no means of knowing that such a vitiating condition does not exist. Since inference is not a means of valid knowledge, all supersensible things like “destiny,” “soul,” or “afterlife,” do not exist. To say that such entities exist is regarded as absurd, for no unverifiable assertion of existence is meaningful.
