Post 19--Dalai Highlights

An Exotic Visit

 I started that letter to the editor of the GS (see previous post) with the statement that Vancouver is an interesting place and exciting.  How many cities in the world bring together such interesting people as the Buddhist Dalai Lama from Tibet, the Muslim female human rights activist Shirin Ebadi from Iran and the Christian apartheid foe Bishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa?  Three races, three nationalities, three religions, three Nobel prize winners and three gifts of God to this one world.  Then our city joined them to Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a Jew, and to Jo-Ann Archibald, a BC First Nations leader.  And all of that crowd moderated by our own Vancouver Michael Ingham, the most controversial, though now retired,  Anglican bishop in the world.  The menu just doesn’t get more exotic than that!  His current 2014 visit is equally exciting, even if, perhaps, not quite as exotic this time.

The Warm Heart   

 As exotic and different as the actors on the stage were, they dealt with a concept that is central to the main institutionalized religion in Vancouver, i.e., Christianity, namely the “warm heart.”  The warm heart was the Dalai’s main message, but, unfortunately, at that time he confessed not to know how to achieve it. It was still in the conceptual stage. I am not sure whether, between that earlier visit and the current one, he has come to any conclusions on the subject. However, it is important for peace that we learn how to develop the warm heart. It is its absence that has led to the violence and terrorism that marks our time. 

As I emphasized in my GS letter, especially Christian schools and churches continue to emphasize the need for a warm heart and how to achieve it. If dialogue is to be a major element during these visits, I am utterly surprised that this Christian recognition has not bubbled up to the surface in the discussion. At least the reports in the print media have been silent on this score.  

Mind-Body-Heart Connection

The Dalai’s visit was apparently the trigger that motivated a Vancouver-based company, Lululemon Athletica, to help fund research into the connection between mind, body and heart at the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education, also based in Vancouver. I think it a great gain if the research will end up showing a close connection between these three sides of human beings, a subject that has been avoided in the public school system but, again, since of old emphasized in Christian church and education.  Within the Christian community, it is especially the Reformed tradition that has given much prominence to that connection. Hence, if the Centre is really interested in both dialogue and that connection, she should turn to the Reformed community and its philosophers and explore its vision on the subject. Again, they are right here in Vancouver; you don’t have to go to the ends of the earth for it. At the same time, I would encourage leaders in the Reformed community to reach out in dialogue and share their insights, in the process hopefully also learn something from the Dalai’s side, since genuine dialogue implies mutual sharing. Come on, fellow Reformed guys and gals, let’s pay them a visit and get the dialogue rolling.

Multi-Culturalism
During this time of multi-culturalism, there is a lot of back and forth discussion during which participants take opposite sides. The popular side tends to emphasize differences between peoples living together, while the more academic prefers to major on the similarities. The Dalai sides with the latter. During his visit he affirmed that the similarities should be emphasized, rather than the difference.

The discussion is an example of the tendency of people always to choose opposite sides. Not only individuals choosing opposite sides from each other, but even one side being the dominant school of thought in a given period of time, let’s say for a decade, only then to reject that position for its opposite. Now that one becomes the reigning common sense or the politically correct. Human beings are like a pendulum, always swinging from one opposite to the other.

This tendency is not just a matter of innocent opinion or academic theory; it shapes politics, a point we must save for another day. But let me state my own take, which is that both similarities and differences must be acknowledged and embraced together, for that is reality. They both exist; neither can be wished away. Again, this will receive more attention in another blog—some day. 

Enough heavy stuff for the day. Good bye, Dalai Lama. Thanks for honouring us with your occasional visits. As you have moved on, so will we.

Post 18--The Dalai Lama Phenomenon

When the Dalai Lama comes to Vancouver, the city goes wild, for many regard him the personification of positive spirituality, a spiritual hero. If Vancouver has any need, it surely is positive spirituality, what with the dominance of a strongly secular worldview directing the city’s affairs. I interpret the eager popular embrace of this monk as a sign of spiritual thirst in the city due to the barren spirituality of secularism.  Whenever he comes, the city goes all agog. 

This was not his first visit. He was in town in 2004. I wrote a letter at that time to the editor of a local newspaper, Georgia Straight, which they published. Though with some changes and updates, I reproduce part of that letter here:

The main message in The Georgia Straight (GS) is about the Dalai Lama’s teaching of the “warm heart,”  a concept that is described as one of his core convictions.  The concept is part of his central message here in Vancouver.  The Dalia has turned this into a major discussion topic in relationship to education.  Modern education needs to be rebalanced by joining emphasis on the mind to the warm heart.  Students in BC’s highschools, UBC and SFU are now encouraged to participate in an essay-writing contest on the subject.  The idea is so important in his scheme, in fact, that Buckley, the author of the GS article ends his story with the prediction that the concept of the warm heart may well become the monk’s greatest legacy. Something that important is obviously worthwhile discussing.

Victor Chan of UBC’s Institute of Asian Research, one of the main organizers of the Dalai’s visit, explained what can happen when that warm heart is missing.  The most catastrophic example is that of 9/11. It was a case of highly intelligent and highly technical people who did not have the input from the warm heart.  As a result, they used their knowledge “in a very destructive way.”  That insight he apparently learned from his august visitor.

The example reminds me of the Biblical story of the fall, the event where the warm heart was replaced by an egotistic, cold and calculating heart. That distorted heart, though it did not prevent further developments in technology and art, now led to putting further developments to egotistic use, in the service of  human beings who now were now mainly concerned with their own reputation and greatness.  In both stories the heart plays a central role in the development of life and community and it makes all the difference whether that heart is warm, turned towards God, or whether it steers people and cultures into directions that produce monsters like concentration camps, 9/11, and other forms of terrorism.   

Here we have, of course, the reason various religions set up their own educational systems: to ensure a “warm” heart that leads to compassion and all other positive components that go into a humane society. The secular public educational system has eliminated that warm heart.  It is more than interesting that public funds will now apparently be expended to promote the warm heart concept, surely a deeply religious concept. With secularism now seen as wanting and along with it public education, it suddenly appears that the myth of separation of religion and government itself is now beginning to explode. Well, that would be a great gain from this visit.  

It is peculiar that it takes a foreigner to jump start a conversation on this subject, when Christians and other religions all around us have been saying this all along!  Thanks, Dalai, for trying to put our secular society back on track!  Perhaps your presence will help lift some of the fog from our secular minds.  If it takes one from afar like you to make us listen to what locals have been repeating over and over again, well, so be it!  However, the people of Vancouver should ask themselves why they plug their ears to a similar message from their own indigenous institutions.  Could it be a case of undisguised secular prejudice?

Post 17 Religion vs Science/Evolution?

As promised, we’re back to science/evolution and religion today. You see today’s heading. There is, of course, a long history of the relationship between the two, all the way from supportive to hostile. I published a small book some years ago that contains two essays on the subject. One is my 70-page translation of an essay by Abraham Kuyper; the other, an 80-page chapter on this subject by yours truly. These have gone through two printings and now are available as ebooks. I encourage you to access this material.

          Title of the Kuyper chapter:  “You Can Do Greater Things than Christ.”

           Title of my own chapter:  “Science without Faith Is Dead.”

The paper editions being out of print, you can now access these two chapters free of charge from my ebook publisher under the title Faith, Science, Miracles, Islam: Four Kuyperian Essays at the following address:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/abraham-kuyper-and-jan-h-boer/faith-science-miracles-islamfour-kuyperian-essays/ebook/product-20929893.html

To access them, though free of charge, you need to go through the entire purchase protocol. That is to say, push the cart through to the cash register as if you are intending to buy. You even have to establish an account with www.lulu.com as is required of any customer by every online publisher. But don’t worry, at the end your bill will be an exact $00.00. And while you’re perusing those documents, take a look at some other free < jan h boer > publications on the same website. You will find plenty there to keep you reading for a long, long time!   

Some people have difficulty accessing them. If you do, feel free to contact me at
                                   <  boerjf@hotmail.com  >.

These two essays pretty well represent my basic perspective on the question of religion vs science/evolution. Though fundamentalists among scientists and their counterparts in religion sharply oppose and berate each other, you will find alternative positions in these essays that accept both as mutually supportive, though not in their extreme fundamentalist forms. 

Well, didn’t get much farther today, but we’ll keep plugging away on the subject. You are now in a position to access wider discussions on our topic, within which these posts are offered you. These posts can well be regarded as summaries of those essays. So, read them if you have time, for then you will be able to follow these blogs more easily, perhaps predict them even.  

Postscript
 
This postscript has been added to this post on the day I write Post 18. However, this post (17) is written during a time of considerable turmoil in Canada. For one thing, the Dalai Lama is visiting Vancouver and, secondly, there's been some terrible terrorist activities in the country. So, I decided that, since both science and religion will be around for a long time and can always be discussed, when important events like those two occur, I cannot postpone commenting on them. So, next post on the Dalai Lama. Then, the recent terrorist attacks and then back to science and religion--if some other important developments don't intervene.  If nothing else, according to the Dutch proverb, "Verandering van spijs doet eten." That is to say a change in diet keeps things from getting dull and encourages eating.  Not sure that's always true, but in this case, a handy sentiment.

Post 16--Thanksgiving 2014

Post 15 contains the promise that the next few posts will deal with the thorny issue of “evolution vs creation.”  I have every intention of carrying out that promise, except that at the time of writing I had a senior moment and forgot that Thanksgiving was just a few days ahead. So, a disruption, but not a broken promise. I do fully intend to continue with that earlier subject, but Thanksgiving is too important to pass over silently.

American readers, if you check out the date of this post, you will see it is too early for your Thanksgiving celebration, but this is a Canadian blog to which I invite you. Canadian Thanksgiving is held on the second Monday of October. 

I wonder if you, my American friends, notice anything different about this post. If I were an American, I would not even mention the Canadian version; just skip over it; not even be aware of it. That’s because you are so many that you tend not to notice the rest of the world, let alone a northern neighbour with less than one-tenth of your population. We may be slightly bigger geographically, but population wise we hardly count. So you blithely ignore our Thanksgiving version like so many other things. We Canadians, on the other hand, are all too conscious of the elephant south of us and can hardly avoid noticing all she does. So, like any good Canadian, I cannot help but alert you to the different dates for Thanksgiving; I simply cannot avoid it. We tend to think continentally; you,  nationally.  

But here I am, spending precious Thanksgiving time on a major cultural difference between our two nations. Sorry about that, but it had to get out! This leaves me with only a little space left for one thanksgiving thought.

Douglas Todd draws our attention to a number of recent books about thanksgiving and related attitudes like contentment, written by psychologists. These writers emphasize the effects of gratitude on our health and happiness. Todd points out that these studies show that grateful people “on average, have lower stress levels, lower blood pressure, more satisfying relationships, higher grades, smoke less, get in fewer arguments, feel a stronger sense of community and are more likely to donate money or volunteer their time.”

Though religious and spiritual people appear more inclined towards gratitude, even non-religious folk share it, which indicates that “the spirit of Thanksgiving is universal.”  That conclusion should not surprise us, for we are created to praise and thank God. That’s one of the fundamentals of life, inherent to us.  To the extent that this attitude diminishes amongst us or even disappears, to that extent life and culture become more harsh and brutal, not to say barbaric. 

So, it is no surprise that scientists have made this discovery, but a people that have their noggins straight have known this secret all along: Gratitude is one of life’s fundamentals. It should come natural to all of us. Happy thanksgiving—throughout the year.  To God, that is, the Creator and Giver of it all.

(Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, Oct. 11/2014, p. A3)

Post 15--Evolution Endangered?

The subject of today’s title has been bandied back and forth for well over a century.  If we expand it by replacing “evolution” with the term “science,” it has been with us for many centuries, at least ever since that famous ancient North African Christian philosopher/theologian St. Augustine (354-430 AD) was making waves and laid the foundation of a Christian world view during the fourth and fifth centuries.
I hope to devote a few posts to this subject—or should that be plural: “subjects?”  A blog is not the place to come to final conclusions about such major topics, but I would like to just talk about and share with you a few thoughts of mine on the subject.

There are at least two reasons for picking up this subject at this particular time. Apart from the fact that I have long-standing interest in the subject, recently two papers I read regularly have featured articles on it, both written by Christians. One by a Reformed writer; the other by a more liberal one, namely, Douglas Todd of Vancouver Sun fame. 
Todd’s article is entitled “Is belief in evolution endangered?” Of course, it is quite possible that it is not Todd’s title of choice, but that it was imposed by his editor. However, my immediate reaction was, “Come on!  Nonsense!  This majority position is firmly established!” Todd refers to it as “the established scientific view.” True, historically established viewpoints and institutions have been overthrown. So, this one could be as well. But though there is considerable opposition to it, I do not foresee that it will lose its privileged position any time soon. Embattled? Opposed? Resisted? Reviled? All of that, yes, but endangered? No way.  

I am not arguing that I don’t want it endangered!  I believe it might be good for it to be endangered, for too many of its adherents are all too dogmatic about it and intolerant. Given a chance, most of them in academic and scientific circles would love nothing better than to exclude opponents of evolution from their spheres, just have them shushed away into think air, vanish.  It is indeed an “established” perspective that brooks no more opposition than did/do religions with establishment status both in the past and in the present.  Like established religions, it has led to persecution and exclusion of others. I have read any number of stories of people who have been forced out of their academic environments for being politically incorrect. An establishment tends towards smugness and complacency; it becomes lazy and comes to regards its position as representing “common sense” that should not require defense. And it should be supported by the larger established institutions, including universities and governments.  

No, the next few articles will represent neither rejection of certain forms of evolution nor advocate creationism. But I do welcome serious challenges to the evolutionary establishment in favour of a more open, tolerant and pluralistic approach that will allow room for other viewpoints, including both creation and creationism.  

If that distinction puzzles you, well, stick with me and you’ll understand.

Post 14--Is this Hollywood's 'Year of the Bible'?

Post 14--Is this Hollywood's 'Year of the Bible'?
 
Hello, I’m back after many months.  Been doing a lot of things during this time, but mainly busy writing, publishing and distributing stuff I have either written or translated. (Also snuck in a month-long RV trip from Vancouver BC—Mountain View CA for family reasons.) I have finally completed the major writing projects of my life and am now more ready to be serious about shorter stuff like blogs and magazine articles. That implies a promise to be more faithful in serving you with my blogs. Might you have heard this promise before?!

As to those writings, I will tell you more about them in future blogs. In the meantime, do yourself a favour by checking them out at < www.lulu.com >, where you can not only see them but actually purchase them—for the grand price of $00.00 each! Just keyboard in my name as <jan h boer> and you’re on your way to a great reading experience.

I will explain that 0 price later, but in the meantime, just take advantage of it. Let me assure you it’s not because they are worthless or of poor quality. They are indeed priceless—with pun fully intended.                            

For today, I am treating you to an article published by Dr. Jim Denison in his newsletter on the < Denision Forum on Truth & Culture > that you can access on  <   comments @denisonforum.org > of January 20, 2014. Here goes with many thanks to Dr. Jim:

The movie Son of God premieres on February 28.  The film is taken from the History Channel's hit 2013 miniseries The Bible.  Noah will hit theaters in March, with Russell Crowe in the lead.  Debuting in April is Heaven is for Real, in which Greg Kinnear plays a father whose son claims that he went to heaven.  In December, Christian Bale will play Moses in Exodus, while Mary will debut that same month.

And there's more to come in 2015.  Will Smith may direct a Cain and Abel movie, while Brad Pitt may play the title role in Pontius Pilate.  Is Hollywood getting religion?

Probably not.  Only two percent of those who work in the movie industry go to church.  Woody Allen, who recently received a Golden Globes lifetime achievement award, once said he would tell a believer, "poor thing, you really are deluded."  Angeline Jolie says, "There doesn't need to be a God for me."  Bill Maher calls religion "insanity by consensus" and claims that "all religious people have a neurological disorder."  Bruce Willis is convinced that "modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology."

Why, then, are we seeing so many biblical movies?

You thought immediately of money, and you're right.  Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's The Bible was the third most-watched cable series or miniseries last year; its DVD was the fastest-selling disc in the last five years.  The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur together made more money than Avatar, The Dark Knight, and Transformers, combined.  As Hollywood continues looking for blockbusters, it knows it will have a ready-made, ticket-buying fan base if it brings biblical stories to the screen.

But I think there's more to the story.  Consider Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  When Tim Keller started the church in 1989, there were only nine thousand evangelical Christians in all of central Manhattan.  In the 25 years since, nearly 100 new churches have been planted and the faith population in one of the most unchurched cities in America has nearly quadrupled.  Keller speaks to 5,400 people every Sunday.

What's their secret?  "Most people believe that Redeemer has grown because of our commitment to intellectual life and our sophistication," Keller says.  "That's not it at all.  Our core message is simply the grace of God in the gospel.  I integrate into every sermon the grace of God in the person of Jesus.  Everything else is ornamental."

This hunger for the God of grace is universal.  How could it not be?  We were designed to need food, and will hunger for it until the day we die.  In the same way, we were designed to need our Designer: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3).  Jesus told his disciples, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34).

Your soul is hungry for the same food—what will you feed it today?  The next person you meet is just as hungry as you are—what will you offer him?