Strange Way....

This is poem I just came across by Stewart Henderson. KInd of talking about the foolishness of the idea of a crucified messiah. Thought it was interesting.

Strange way to watch for stormy weather,
Strange way to disprove gravity.
Strange way to go around fundraising,
Strange way to sing out liberty.

Strange way to reassure your mother,
Strange way to finish your world tour.
Strange way to pose for all those paintings,
Strange way to gather the poor.

Strange dissident of meekness,
And nurse of tangled souls,
It's so unlike the holy
To end up full of holes.

Creation, Darwin and Losing My Religion

Last night I saw the new movie, Creation, about Charles Darwin and his life leading up to the publication of the Origin of Species. It is based on a book called, Annie's Box, written by Darwin's great great grandson on Darwin and his relationship with his daughter. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and believe it raises a number of interesting ideas, of which the most powerful was the devastating effect the loss of religious conviction is for the believer.

Before I discuss my thoughts on that, the movie is interesting for a number of reasons. I particular enjoyed how the film wove a number of key themes, such as Darwin's struggle to reconcile his disbelief in God with human emotions and feelings, such as 'heartbreak'. Or his discussions on theodicy, by looking at certain types of animals which cause such devastating suffering on others for survival. Which reminded me of a David Attenborough quote I heard once (i think it's on wikipedia):

My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every
individual species as a separate act, they always instance
hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend
to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of
a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's
going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that
the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who
cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created
this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's
eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's
full of mercy'.[28]

Also of interest was Darwin's belief in some pseudo-medical beliefs at the time to do with water therapy.

But perhaps the most interesting for me was the discussion on his loss of faith and how traumatic the implications of his theory and his lack of faith was for his family and wife. This is a common issue for people who find themselves changing or questioning their beliefs about things which have fundamental meaning and purpose-giving effect in their lives. It is hard to over emphasise the psychological pain that can be involved if a person who used to believe there was an all powerful God, who loved them individually and created the world for order, and everything including themselves for a purpose to suddenly (or gradually) no longer exist. This is a revolution of the mind of sorts which it seems caused Darwin incredible physical pain to go through. As much as it was an intellectual pain for Darwin's beliefs to change, it was also so painful for him to think what would happen to his family, his wife, if he changed his beliefs. I wonder how similar this issue is for many people in their lives who have grown up in faith traditions and communities only to be scared of what would happen if they didn't believe?

Throughout all of this is a moving film about a father who loves his family, and is at pains to see them drifting apart. The hardest part is to watch Darwin's daughter Annie slowly die which has the effect of killing off Darwin's belief in Christianity as Divine Revelation (or any revelation) at a similar time. This is such a difficult thing for people of theistic faith to grapple with: the suffering of children. It was the subject of Stanley Hauerwas' book, Naming the Silences. A very good book, which I won't go into the ideas he presents there, but only to say that the suffering of children is perhaps the hardest thing for people to reconcile with many tradition Christian ideas about God.

Some problems I had with the film include the exaggeration of the idea of religion and science to be at war. While those issues were certainly debated and some did want to use Darwin to "kill God" as it were, most Christians (Anglicans) did not find evolution and Christianity at odds in some form of eternal battle. Many were able to happily accommodate Darwinian beliefs into Christian worldviews. While many neo-Darwinians, such as Richard Dawkins would baulk at that idea, people in past had no problems doing so. For example, see research by historian of science and religion at University of Otago, John Stenhouse.

There a bunch of resources for churches based on the film here.

Overall this was a powerful movie for me and i definitely recommend it.

Atheist Bus Campaign Continues.. Updated

The Atheist Bus Campaign in the UK, largely it seems kicked off by the Comment is Free bloggersphere has just put out its final billboard (this time it's not on the bus). The advert asks people not to label children according to their religious belief, (or as a humanist etc) following Richard Dawkins' claim that such labelling is tantamount to child abuse. I think such a campaign is missing the point for a number of reasons. Firstly, the idea that atheists need to be out there preacher there message just seems a little too religious for a atheism (there was also the splintering of atheist views when the first ad came out proclaiming "there probably is no God". Some said probably sounds too agnostic.) I also wonder what the goal with such a campaign is? The people they are trying to influence or reach? Is it not following the lowest common denominator with religious evangelicals by playing their game? Instead is there a better way to have a more meaningful dialogue?

But more importantly regarding this campaign, as one comment on the post stated, why is it assumed that non-religion is normative? Why is it assumed that children have no religious belief, or should have no religious belief? What is the age when a child is free to make up their own mind? How can you be sure to keep them out of all "religious brainwashing" until that age? For instance, many children believe in all sorts of things, and in many cases would have highly diverse beliefs about their own parents faith traditions. Children believe in fairies and ghosts and wizards. If a child wants to be called a wizard, but is obviously not old enough to make a "rational" decision about it, is it right to go with the label? The point I'm trying to get at is, non-religious belief in children is not normative, so why try and force it?

Secondly, many children are sent to faith schools in order to learn about certain values that parents believe those schools teach, such as, loving your neighbour and loving the stranger (that is, those Other from yourself). Or sharing, or humility and sacrifice. None of these things have anything to do being labeled a religious belief or not.

I've just found a quote by Charles Darwin on educating children in religion:

"Nor must we overlook the probability of the constant inculcation in a belief in God on the minds of children producing so strong and perhaps as inherited effect on their brains not yet fully developed, that it would be as difficult for them to throw off their belief in God, as for a monkey to throw off its instinctive fear and hatred of a snake." (p.93)

These were exerpts taken out of his autobiography upon his death out of fear they were too controversial for the Church, but which were later included.

Michael Ruse on Dawkins and New Atheists

This is also an excellent piece in the Guardian by Michael Ruse. He point by point details why he disagrees with fellow atheists like Richard Dawkins, and at the same time, hints at why they are so damaging in their approach.

Gender Gap Widens in University Graduates

NZ Herald reported that:

Two-thirds of bachelor degrees last year went to women, the highest figure on record in New Zealand.