My new Twitter handle is now live - check me out at @jackiewgibson!
CNN has posted a history of bias against Sikhs - more reason for people to learn about religions before they attack anyone:...
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/A0ltLLIm
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/l3KrAJZf
Hackers group Anonymous takes down Vatican website: http://t.co/B6lbGAVp
WGN-TV calls doomsday prophecies "an illusion": http://t.co/mv8Gzyw7
RT @graceishuman: Really,? Asking people JUST LEAVING the service how they felt about it? Tacky, tacky, inappropriate
Whitney Houston's funeral service really took the world to church. Love Pastor Winans' honesty, very moving.
#teacher ? Here are appropriate responses to situations with your Jehovah's Witness student: http://t.co/A6UfqcgH
#Teachers: Want to know why your Jehovah's Witness student won't say the pledge and how to respond? http://t.co/EIdlgDwW
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Science & Religion
Scientists have taken a deeper look at the brains of people who claim to have had spiritual experiences connecting them to God. Decide for yourself — is the experience real? Or is it just a chemical experience in the brain?
Check it out at npr.org today.
Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends
Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the naturalist scientist known for his theories of evolution and natural selection.
Who was Darwin?
Darwin was born in England in 1809. After attending the University of Edinburgh, he moved to Cambridge to become a clergyman. But his training was interrupted when he decided to join a British science expedition. For five years he sailed around the world collecting fossils, studying animals, and examining plants.
When he returned, he devised a theory: All species have evolved from one ancestor. He also concluded that the evolutionary process was gradual and included “natural selection” (individuals with the strongest traits survive, so weaker traits disappear over time). He is perhaps best known for publishing these revolutionary findings in book called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). He died in 1882.
After his death, his ideas became immensely controversial. Christians and others who believed that God had created the universe and everything in it were disturbed by the idea that creatures had simply evolved on their own.
But according to New York Times writer Carl Safina, Darwin didn’t invent a whole belief system about evolution — nor did he really intend to spark the debate with Christians and Creationists. But he did have an idea that packed power. And that idea was furthered by scientists who discovered genes and DNA, leading to the completion of the theory of evolution and so-called “Darwinism.”
What’s next for the Vatican?
The aforementioned Vatican archbishop has also said that the Vatican never formally condemned the theory. In fact, Pope John Paul II and his predecessor Pius XII both suggested evolution may be valid. Furthermore, esteemed theologians St. Augustine (of the 4th century) and Thomas Aquinas (from the Middle Ages) understood that life transforms over time, even if they had not yet heard of evolution. See what else the Vatican has to say by watching this video on their YouTube site.
Backed by the pope, an organization will hold a conference in March to celebrate the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
Creationism hasn’t gone away. Proponents of the Creationist theory contend that God created the universe. And they seek to continue this debate in schools, political arenas, etc. So what do you think? Will the pope’s announcement change the debate? Are you surprised by the Vatican’s endorsement? What does this mean for Creationism? Who do you believe?
Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends.
Research from psychologists and anthropologists at Yale, Oxford, Northwestern, and other universities suggests that humans are naturally inclined to believe in gods and develop religions.
According to an article in New Scientist, humans have a tendency to develop ideas of gods – just as children have a natural capacity to think up imaginary friends, or just as adults intuitively imagine conversations with the supernatural or with others who aren’t physically present. The idea is, when you’re a baby, you notice that things like trees can’t decide when and how to behave. Yet people can make their own choices and move about as they so choose. Therefore, some objects have minds and some objects don’t. If this is true, then where does this mind come from? And can it interact with possible unseen objects like ghosts, spirits, and gods?
Left on their own, researchers told New Scientist that children would raise these questions and would conclude there is an existence of supernatural minds, thereby forming their own religious beliefs naturally.
Adults take the extra step of forming a religion around the belief in a god or gods. The basis, according to researchers, is cause and effect. If the leaves blow, there must be wind. If my heart is moved, it must be God.
The need to keep this belief is greater when times are hard. When we feel out of control, we get superstitious or wonder what outside force could be causing – or helping – our case.
It’s important to note that just because we form our ideas about God doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist. It just means it’s easiest for our brains to think about the existence of a god or gods than to work to disprove it.
Learn the psychology behind the idea on the New Scientist Web site.
Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends.
Evolution. Creationism. Darwin. Adam and Eve. The question is this: Did God really create the entire world in 6 days…or was something else at work? Did the world, perhaps, come about on its own?
These questions have placed followers of Biblical teachings, atheists, scientists, and pretty much everyone else in a position to choose. Do you believe God knows every little hair on your head? Do you believe we evolved from monkeys? Does God exist? Is God actively involved in your life? In media and church reports, answers tend to fall on one side or the other: Either you believe in Darwin’s evolutionary theory or you believe in creationism (that God created the world). But there is a middle ground, a gray area, that is almost always overlooked. It’s easy to forget that there’s almost always a middle path. I myself had forgotten until I saw a report from the Chicago Tribune this morning.
In it, the reporter examines the ideas of Howard Van Till, a professor and physicist in Michigan who wrote “The Fourth Day” in 1986. His book stirred up controversy, claiming there was a way to reconcile evolution with the Bible. Van Till expounded that everything had evolved and that God was a force within all of nature. The big news today is that Van Till no longer thinks God can “coerce nature.” Rather, he’s not sure what God does or who he is at all. He’s just confused, and he’s content with not having a total understanding of how we came about and what will happen to us when we are no longer. But he’s happy to know that something made the world as orderly as it is.
The article gives great examples of others who have tried to reconcile evolution with creationism. But they left out one important figure: Teilhard de Chardin. De Chardin was a Catholic Jesuit monk who spent most of his life as a paleontologist — one of the first to be allowed to dig up bones on many forbidden sites. Mankind was evolving, he thought, and moving closer and closer toward God — or at least toward a full understanding of the universe. The Church objected to his ideas, but his thoughts provide an interesting take on what is normally viewed as a black and white issue.
Check out the Chicago Tribune’s article here.
Read more about Teilhard here.