Now, I had assumed that you have had experiences similar to mine,
that is,
about homophobia, abortion, sex, marriage, family, stem cell research,
evolution, Biblical
roots for the denigration of women and racial prejudice, the moral and ethical
revelation
of mere Scripture quoting, God intervention in grading, Divine guidance in
taking a test
and writing a paper and doing a project, the Almighty's involvement in
relationships, etc.
I get it every day and read about such things in the students' daily journal
entries,
about Bible study groups, sermons heard in church, praying to God for signs,
relying upon
God to cure, create, solve, supply, fix, clarify, direct, etc, etc, etc. I had
one
student who wanted a grade change proclaim to me, "I do my best as an honor to
my God whom
I love." I responded, "I'm not impressed. Love your assignments. You'll do
your best
when you do the class work and if you really wanted to honor God you would have
honored
yourself by giving it everything you had." She didn't get her grade change.
On the other hand, the scientific rationalizations and excuses and
expectations of "it's only human nature" or "it's natural" aren't not much
different. You
know, following the Enlightenment Creed or those ennobling five lines of the
second
paragraph of the Declaration of Independence would yield identical results to
obeying the
last seven Commandments or the Golden Rule. Yet, reason and science, like
faith and
religion, can be used, misused, and abused. You can have a Mother Teresa on
one hand and
a zealous suicide bomber on the other. You can have the proclamation that "God
commands
it" and you can have the proclamation that "nature tells us." You can have an
anthropomorphized God no less than Nature. You can have reason that is
unreasonable and
faith that is unloving. Both reason and faith, science and religion would be
perfect if
imperfect human beings such as you and me didn't screw them up by tarnishing
the Golden
rule and casting shadows over the Enlightenment Creed.
Maybe, aside from the fact that both adherents of science and
religions too
often trespass on each other's property, that's where the confusion lies. I
have
witnessed, like you, the worst and the best religion. So many use religion to
excuse
prejudice, close-mindedness, self-righteousness, control over other people, and
intellectual and spiritual laziness. So often these people are trying to tame
God as an
animal tamer would control a seal. So many are trying to make Him into an
employee at a
hotel where the guest is always right and who is there to grant the guests'
every wish.
This God is their puppet. This God blames those they blame and won't assume the
responsibilities they won't assume. This God and this Nature loves and hates
what they
love and hate; His politics is what their politics is; His racism is their
racism; His
country is their country; His egotism is their egotism; His views are what
their views
are; He says "Amen" to what they say "Amen;" They fight His war against His
enemies. His
fear is their fear; He is like a genie granting the wishes they want Him to
grant.
Essentially, He does their bidding and these people play God.
At its best, religion is free of theology and piety, absent of sack
cloth and
ashes, void of fearful fire and brimstone, demanding nothing less than a total
commitment
to justice, compassion, and love of self and fellow-human being. At its best,
religion
teaches Micah 6:8. It teaches adherent how to live a life transformed by love,
kindness,
justice, empathy, and humility. At its best, religion is inclusive rather than
being
exclusive by claiming a monopoly on goodness and truth.
Think it's any different with reason and science? It's not.
They're merely a
replacement, or contender, of both the worst and best of religion. The Greek
rooted
macro-micro relationship between the all existence and mankind (man is the
universe made
small-the universe is man made large) prevalent in the ancient thinking,
medieval
thinking, the Renaissance thinking, the Enlightenment thinking, and no less our
thinking
don't allow it to be otherwise. Just think, to mention a very few "modern" and
"scientific" examples, of the Declaration of Independence, Utopian Socialism,
Egalitarianism, slavery, Scientific Socialism, Social Darwinism, Scientism,
Reform
Darwinism, Democracy, Authoritarianism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Cephalic
Indexing,
Racism, Imperialism, Capitalism, Taylorism, Relativism, Industrialism, Fascism,
Nazism,
Holocaust, etc. If you want a visualization of what I'm getting at, watch
Chaplin's
"Modern Times." No, people use reason and science no less to denigrate and to
impose and
to control, to excuse self-righteousness and arrogance and close-mindedness and
absolute
certainty; these people are no less trapped in hopeless deafness and muteness
and
blindness, and separated from themselves and others by unbridgeable chasms.
The problem, dear Brutus, is not in religion or science, it is in
us.
` This is why I tell students at one time or another in every class,
"Don't tell
me you love God. I'm not impressed by that proclamation. What to impress me?
Live a
'godly' life!" (Or, the "reasoned life" of Aristotle).
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.newforums.com/L_Schmier.htm
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\____/\ \/\
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hills" -/
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