Feynman's Ode to a Flower

R.I.P. Ravi Shankar

Raga

And...just for fun: Moses v. Santa - rap battle

Snoop Dogg as Moses

*"Church Leadership"

Before going back to the grind of writing the always looming and hovering entity called the dissertation, I thought I would write briefly, or as much as the flow dictates, on a 'Religion and Society' seminar which hosted a paper entitled 'Leadership in Churches.'

The speaker conducted an ethnography in a few black methodist churches and found that although black members of a church are given positions of "leadership" e.g. secretary of treasury or finance (although giving, receiving, or holding a position as a marker of leadership is another question) the white member of the church, the constant figure of a methodist church is the most vocal and the one who takes on the role of telling the others, along with the minister, of what is to be done.

This raises the question about the lack of "black leadership" in these black churches. While we must beg the question of what leadership means in various different cultural contexts, there are other issues about the constituency of the black church. The methodist church in particular, maintains a white historical background of hereditary lineages of leadership position. This position (something that sounds like stalworth - not quite sure about the spelling) but is an inherited position that is constitutive of that church in particular. It is a constant. In this regard it would seem plausible and very understandable that the one person who is the constant presence with the church itself is the one who is the most knowledgeable and undertakes the managerial position of what the church out to do in discussion with the minister. The black representative is a partial figure, given this position in part by a received recognition by the church community and at the same time a position provided due to political correctness. It would make sense for that person to not be very vocal as it entails standing out and subject to politicization. What is also going on in such communities is the changing membership of that church i.e. migration and mobility. The folks that attend these churches would not necessarily remain with one church for the duration of their lives. They may move to another part of the UK or move back to their homes in Africa or the Caribbean. This reduces any investment in participation outside of attending church for church services. It is not a static community with a static intersubjectivity of interaction between community and leadership. Furthermore, any dynamic that occurs surrounding leadership and trust of a community in particular members tends to extend beyond church. Trusted lay members hold other positions and social status outside of church which warrants their reception of a leadership position.

This also gets to the point about legitimacy in leadership and the dynamics of politically correct space and institutionalized standards or criterion of holding a leadership position. One of the statements was that while the congregation is black the higher one goes the leadership positions tend to be filled with white persons. Given that this is Britain, it makes sense that there is a lack of minority members who have fulfilled the criterion of white institutions to obtain a leadership position within those hierarchies. In effect, it might seem premature to label the lack of leadership in churches as something or other of these black churches in the UK. This gets to the point about orthodoxy and orthopraxy as a white methodist leader understands it and how a black methodist leader would practice. In this sense, the space of legitimacy is colored by tones of race. Does this entail that there is a lack of black leadership in these dominantly black churches with only 10 percent white folk but historically dominated by white folk. The changes in institutional frameworks of legitimacy and power are always slow to come into effect. I think the paper only scratches the surface and requires some discernment in what leadership means, how the people talk about it, and whether the discourse is influenced by a particular history of what being a leader means in these religious contexts, which are never really restricted to religious contexts. 

Dover Beach

The sea is calm to-night.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

By: Matthew Arnold (1867)

Fate of International Justice

By Seth Engel

Part I

Part II

The Problem of Evil: "God, Rape, and Free Will"

At TalkingPhilosophy: http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=6440

10 Worst Changes to DSM

The DSM V is out. But Allen Frances, chair of DSM IV, is not happy:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201212/dsm-5-is-guide-not-bible-ignore-its-ten-worst-changes

The Higgs-Boson: "God Particle"

*A little late I know:

"Imagine a political gathering, with many groups of people. If someone powerful and important enters, the nearby 'cluster' gathers around her and resumes its conversation when she leaves the 'field of attraction'. This clustering explains how a particle's mass is generated. This important personality is like the Higgs' particle," he explained.

"God particle" that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together. 

 

Mayan Temple found in Guatemala

Suggested implications illuminating the relationship between kings and the sun-god.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120720-maya-temple-el-zotz-masks-faces-science-houston/

Karen Armstrong on Belief

http://jonathanbrink.com/2009/10/08/the-history-of-belief/

Calvin and Hobbes - Euphoria

Mormon Church leaders and Political Affiliation

Article here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/55391586-90/church-lds-republican-mormon.html.csp

West Point Cadet quits because of Overt religion

"A cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets."
here

"Mormon church unveils website on same-sex attraction"

"The LDS Church unveiled a new website about same-sex attraction Thursday, including video conversations with church leaders as well as gay members and their families. The site — mormonsandgays.org — emphasizes compassion and understanding toward homosexuals, and encourages members to be “disciples of Christ.” It also urges gay Mormons to stick with the faith."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55407878-78/church-gay-members-lds.html.csp

and here at Slate: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/12/06/mormons_and_days_new_lds_website_suggests_church_is_evolving_on_homosexuality.html

*'Secrets of the Tribe'

This documentary documents, perhaps, the (hidden) stain on the discipline of anthropology. It is embarrassing, humiliating, intellectually stimulating, and above all revealing. Important questions are raised and should be considered with gravity. I find the documentary relevant for any social scientist and the study of religion - especially those who seek to do comparative work. However - a very strong however - this does not dismiss the merits of the discipline. Mistakes from the past must be taken seriously, accounted for, and become points of departure for advancement. Parallels can be drawn to the history of colonialism, sexism, racism and many others. Unlike others within these parallels, these periods of history should not be dismissed as aberrations of attitude that justify and negate past actions as outliers or anomalies. The veil of invulnerability should be lifted and mistakes acknowledged. Reflexivity and outlook become critical.

*Update (8/29/13): Kenneth Good's son, David Good making headlines in his return to his mother

 

"God's Doodle"

A fun book review and advert about the history of "man's most precious ornament" God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman

"Mr Hickman examines his subject from various angles: its physical attributes, its role in society, its vulnerabilities and the “violent mechanics” of its fundamental purpose."

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21567330-anatomy-seminal-work-cross-bare?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/pe/crosstobare


the book can be found here









and...


just for fun: Super-sized David

Wisconsin Court to rule on prayer and faith healing...

"Attorneys for Dale and Leilani Neumann argued that the couple didn't know when the state's legal protections for prayer healing ended and criminal liability began."

here and here

Debate - Does Science Refute God?

Debate: Does Science Refute God? from Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates on FORA.tv

For the motion:
Lawrence Krauss (Professor of Physics at Arizona State University)
Michael Shermer (Publisher of Skeptic magazine and Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University and Chapman University)

Against the motion:
Ian Hutchinson(Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT)
Dinesh D'Souza (Former President of the King's College)

Nietzsche on the "Art of Jesuitism"

By

James V. Schall, S.J., a professor at Georgetown University

here 

Is God Happy?

By Leszek Kolakowski in the New York Review of Books: here

Gregorian and "Early Christian" Chants

Calvin and Hobbes on Santa

Genesis 9:25

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

New International Version (©1984)
he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."

Becoming ethical subjects

By Joel Robbins (Professor of Anthropology at UCSD):
http://aotcpress.com/articles/ethical-subjects-freedom-constraint-anthropology-morality/

11 Dogmas of Analytic Philosophy

According to Paul Thagard (Prof. of Philosophy at University of Waterloo): http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201212/eleven-dogmas-analytic-philosophy

Century of the Self

This combines the three part documentary by the BBC called the 'Century of the Self.' It doesn't deal directly with religion but it has much to do with the relationship between the person and society as well as the collective. I recommend the watch.

Nature. Beauty. Gratitude

Some theologians, none of which I can name really (so this assertion might just be blowing smoke), have posited that God is beauty...

But what is beauty, omnipotence, and omniscience when the "problem of evil" (which includes natural disasters and acts of genocide) is blatantly staring into the face of it all?
 

Chomsky on the Israel-Gaza conflict

“You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all, but I am to blame: I shot a rocket back.”

http://www.alternet.org/world/noam-chomsky-what-american-media-wont-tell-you-about-israel?paging=off 



and...an article on the drone strikes carried out by the U.S. military in pakistan, yemen, and afghanistan, which is increasingly killing more and more innocent civilians due to dubious and scandelous practices:
http://www.alternet.org/print/world/its-time-challenge-propaganda-regarding-who-killed-u-s-drones

Church as punishment?

"In August, Alred pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to four years to life, with parole. But a judge named Mike Norman changed Alred's sentence to 10 years deferred—meaning no jail time—provided he graduates from high school, passes regular drug and alcohol tests, performs community service … and goes to church every Sunday for a decade."

http://www.alternet.org/judge-makes-teen-go-church-instead-jail

Death and Grief

 From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/nov/25/grief-mourning-psychology-customs
"In contrast, psychologist George Bonanno has studied the course of grief by following people from before they were bereaved to months and even years afterwards. It turns out that there is little evidence for a progression through specific stages of adjustment, and even the belief that most people are plunged into despair and gradually "get better" turns out to be little more than cliché. This is not to say that sadness isn't a common response to loss, but an experience of deep debilitating anguish tends to be the exception rather than the rule. In fact, two-thirds of people are resilient in the face of losing a loved one – in other words, they are sorrowful but they are neither depressed nor disabled by their experience.

It is worth noting, however, that about 10% of people do suffer what is sometimes called "complicated" or "prolonged" grief, where the feelings of loss are intense, long-lasting and cause significant impairment, potentially needing help from mental health professionals. But in terms of the traditional concept of grief, most people experience their loss differently, something both important and liberating, in a sombre sort of way. We are left to wonder how many people have been stigmatised as being "in denial" because they are not experiencing what stereotype expects, or worse, have had their affection for their loved-one questioned due to their normal and non-catastrophic reactions.

When we look at other cultures we see even starker differences. On the Pacific coast of Colombia the death of a young child will be marked by with a Chigualo celebration, based on the belief that departed infants become angels and go directly to heaven. The Ganda people of south-central Uganda have a strict prohibition of sexual activity during the mourning period, while the Cubeo people of the northern Amazon include sexual activity as part of the wake. Many cultures have funeral rites to ensure that spirits of the departed leave; in an Igbo funeral, the rites are meant to ensure that they stay.

But perhaps the most interesting difference relates to the naming of children. An Australian Aboriginal tradition encourages newborns to be named after the departed as a way of remembrance. The Achuar, from Ecuador, have a prohibition against remembering yet they also name their children after the departed"

On a slightly different note:
In Mumbai, India, apparently they are cultivating vultures to restore a ritual in death:

“Without the vultures, more and more Parsis are choosing to be cremated,” Mr. Mehta said. “I have to bring back the vultures so the system is working again, especially during the monsoon.” 

The plan is the result of six years of negotiations between Parsi leaders and the Indian government to revive a centuries-old practice that seeks to protect the ancient elements — air, earth, fire and water — from being polluted by either burial or cremation. And along the way, both sides hope the effort will contribute to the revival of two species of vulture that are nearing extinction. The government would provide the initial population of birds."