Category: Science and Religion

MVPC E-devotion
Vol. 6, No. 14, September 21, 2006
by Steve Weber, Minister

Yes, It’s True, Life is Not Fair
Once again the world of sports is delving into the world of theology. Someone once said the game of baseball is about as close a metaphor for the spiritual life that one can hope for. It is a game played within boundaries, it has no game clock, and when the umpire says, “You’re Out!”, you’re out. And as I confessed last week, we pastor types seem to appreciate a good, slow game of baseball as much, if not more than you’re average bleacher bum.
But it is not baseball I reuminate on this day, but that other American pastime, football, and in this case, college football. Last Saturday the University of Oregon Ducks won a quacker of a game with gridiron juggernaut, Oklahoma, and the loss has not gone down easy for the Sooners. It all started (or ended) when the replay official failed to notice that an Oregon player touched the ball before it had traveled ten yards during an onside kick. The Ducks were in the midst of a comeback in the game’s closing minutes which resulted in an upset 34-33 victory over Oklahoma. The video replay revealed that Oregon did indeed touch the ball. Oregon went on to recover that onside kick, and then score the game-winning touchdown on the ensuing possession.
It’s a bummer when even the striped shirts fail to uphold the rules, ask a Seahawk fan still fuming over a certain, recent Super Bowl loss. Oklahoma is so bent out of shape by the officials’ video blunder that the university president has become involved to the degree of threatening legal action if the game is not ruled a forfeit. While it might seem a university president has other concerns more prevalent than a Saturday afternoon ball game, it is no secret that this single loss could mean huge financial losses later on down the road when it comes time to determine who plays in which prominent bowl game. If this loss means Oklahoma goes 9-2 instead of 10-1 the payoff will be noticeable in a lesser bowl invitation (Remember my first career was at the sports desk so bear with me if I regress a bit here).
So today I read this: “Maybe now those people at Oklahoma understand what I was talking about,” Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight told The Oklahoman. He was referring to a basketball game a few years ago when Oklahoma benefited from a botched call against his team. Knight himself called for a forfeiture to no avail. The game stood. “Had Oklahoma forfeited that game against us like I suggested, they would have gotten far more positive publicity out of that than if they had gone to the Final Four that year. Now I guess the ‘duck’ is swimming in the other pond.”
He’s pretty clever. And he’s right. The duck swims in the other pond all the time. Credit does not always fall to those who deserve it. The promotion does not go to the disciplined, hard worker. The prized role in the school play does not always go to the talented. Good grades do not always go to the intelligent. Parents do not always spread attention and recognition the same to their children. As many times as I have stood on both sides of a games sidelines – playing and watching – there is usually someone who can’t understand how the game ended with that result.
I have never been in favor of instant video replay in sports. It has led only to the belief that every call in the game must be the correct one. So now we have games where the call itself has become as important as the sport itself. What have we lost? I believe we have lost some good theology for our lives.
Theodicy is a word in the dictionary which means the vindication of divine justice in the face of the existence of evil, or in my terms, that God has not abandoned us even when life treats us unfairly. What this means is that as human beings we will need to come to terms with suffering to some extent. There will come a day when the game ends and the scoreboard may read that we have lost. Even unfairly. What then? Sue someone, or ask the question: Who am I as a loser?”
As Helmut Thielicke wrote out of the devastation of Germany at the end of World War II: “No one will ever come to the truth and thus to a trustworthy bridge over the abyss of Nothingness who has not faced doubt, despair and shipwreck … The one who knows what faith is must also have stood beneath the baleful eye of that demonic power against which we fling our faith. Faith is either a struggle or it is nothing.”
Maybe our time and our culture needs to ask the question: What’s wrong with losing once in awhile? I once heard a coach say we learn more from a loss than a victory. Thinking back on some of the teams I’ve played on, we should be geniuses by now. But I would agree. Losing is not a loss. Only in the eyes of the world who cannot understand how losing something, even our own lives for the sake of Jesus Christ, can be anything but a foolish life strategy and we really ought to review the video tape and make it right.
How strange that when God Himself entered the human stage he would say that to really win in life we must lose ourselves for His sake. Then he allowed himself to be the ultimate loser. And he just took it. No replay. No official to overrule it. He just took the loss.
Can I? Justice is such a built-in response mechanism. Yet, the experience of living and the truth of the gospel seems to point to a life that sometimes looks like failure.
I think I’ll go play some tennis and see if I can sort all this out.
See You Sunday,
Steve Weber, pastor
Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church
Mount Vernon, Washington
360-424-7675
www.mvpres.com
* Two Sunday Morning Adult Classes – While the kids are in class, adults now have two options. “A Chosen Vessel” is a video portrayal of the life of the apostle Paul. It meets in Good Shepherd Hall. YAD is a young adult discussion class now based around the Nooma series of thought-provoking questions about the Christian life. It meets in the Calvin Conference Room. Join us for The Path, our Sunday morning education hour at 8:50 a.m. in Good Shepherd Hall.
* Small Group Leader Training – A group of leaders will begin training this Sunday and small groups will be up and running the first week of October. Have you signed up yet to be in a group this fall? Brochures are available in the church office and there is still time to register.
* Youth Groups This Sunday – Our youth program now under the direction of Andy Thor will begin this Sunday with Junior Highers from 4:30-6:30 and Senior Highers from 6 – 8 p.m.

Since 2005, the head of the Vatican Observatory has been very vocal against intelligent design, saying it belittles God. He has been fired. Only recently – in 1992 – did the Church officially announce acceptance of the findings of Galileo. Those are the facts, I’ll keep my opinions to myself. Below are links to various viewpoints on the issue, including input from James Randi and also Catholic.org
Wikipedia info on George Coyne

Intelligent Design belittles God – from Catholic.org
Excerpt:
Science is and should be seen as “completely neutral” on the issue of the theistic or atheistic implications of scientific results, says Father George V. Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, while noting that “science and religion are totally separate pursuits.”

Christianity is “radically creationist,” Father George V. Coyne said, but it is not best described by the “crude creationism” of the fundamental, literal, scientific interpretation of Genesis or by the Newtonian dictatorial God who makes the universe tick along like a watch. Rather, he stresses, God acts as a parent toward the universe, nurturing, encouraging and working with it.
Skeptic article by James Randi
Excerpt:
The Vatican Observatory, now under new, safer, and much more reliable direction, has an interesting history. It began as a simple observational tower erected by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578. This was the Gregory who brought about the drastic changes in the Western calendar, appropriately now named, the Gregorian Calendar. By 1800, the tower was being used for real astronomy – rather than simple positional work, and a century later it was formally established as the Vatican Observatory. The Jesuits now operate it, working both from facilities south of Rome and from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Want to talk about it more? Join the discussion on this topic at:
Creation Talk Forum – Vatican Fires Observatory Director

I have been critical of Falwell on this website and others for his pompous representation of Christianity and for the Liberty University approach to science, if it can be called that. All Christians do not share Falwell’s views. His views on education, science and his apparent hotline direct to God are not universal Christian attitudes. God told me he will die in May of next year, but that doesn’t make it true.

The concepts of Moral Right and having a culture that has it’s roots in faith are beautiful to me. But so is Marxism, in theory. When some of these ideas are played out in the real world they can become ugly.

May 1979: Falwell, a televangelist and Baptist pastor in Lynchburg, Va., is recruited by
far-right activists Howard Phillips, Ed McAteer and Paul Weyrich to form the Moral Majority, a vehicle for bringing fundamentalist Protestants into the Republican Party with the aim of unseating President Jimmy Carter. The move was an about-face for Falwell, who advised his congregation in 1965, “Preachers are not called to be politicians but soul winners.”

March 1980: Falwell tells an Anchorage rally about a conversation with President Carter at the White House. Commenting on a January breakfast meeting, Falwell claimed to have asked Carter why he had “practicing homosexuals” on the senior staff at the White House. According to Falwell, Carter replied, “Well, I am president of all the American people, and I believe I should represent everyone.” When others who attended the White House event insisted that the exchange never happened, Falwell responded that his account “was not intended to be a verbatim report,” but rather an “honest portrayal” of Carter’s position.

August 1980: After Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith tells a Dallas
Religious Right gathering that “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,” Falwell gives a similar view. “I do not believe,” he told reporters, “that God answers the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.” After a meeting with an American Jewish Committee rabbi, he changed course, telling an interviewer on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “God hears the
prayers of all persons….God hears everything.”

1980-81: After the election of Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority begins advocating for
constitutional amendments banning abortion and restoring school-sponsored prayer. The
group also demands tax aid to religious education.

September 1982: Falwell announces a drive to register 1 million new voters before the
November elections.

July 1984: Falwell is forced to pay gay activist Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle. During a TV debate in Sacramento, Falwell denied calling the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Churches “brute beasts” and “a vile and Satanic system” that will “one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven.” When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did so, Falwell refused to pay and Sloan successfully sued. Falwell appealed, with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was forced to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.

November 1984: Reports from the Federal Election Commission indicate that Falwell’s “I
Love America Committee,” a political action committee formed in 1983, was a flop. The
PAC raised $485,000 in its first year—but spent $413,000 to do so.

May 1985: Falwell apologizes to a Jewish group for seeking a “Christian” America. From now on, he says, he will use the term “Judeo-Christian.”

January 1987: Falwell holds a Washington news conference to announce that he is changing
the name of the Moral Majority to the Liberty Foundation. The new name never catches on
and is soon abandoned.

October 1987: The Federal Election Commission fines Falwell $6,000 for transferring $6.7 million in funds intended for his ministry to political committees.

November 1987: Falwell tells reporters he is stepping down as head of the Moral Majority and retiring from politics. “From now on, my real platform is the pulpit, not politics,” he says at a news conference.

February 1988: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a $200,000 jury award to Falwell
for “emotional distress” he suffered because of a Hustler magazine parody. Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist, usually a Falwell favorite, wrote the unanimous opinion in Hustler v.
Falwell, ruling that the First Amendment protects free speech.

June 1989: Falwell announces that the Moral Majority will shut down its offices and
disband.

January 1991: Siding with Americans United, the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously
rejects Falwell’s quest for $60 million in state bonds for his Liberty University. During the
litigation, Falwell tried to camouflage the school’s rigidly fundamentalist character, telling the
court that the school would no longer discriminate in hiring or force students to attend
mandatory chapel (renamed convocation). All the while, Falwell assured his congregation that
Liberty had not changed, insisting chapel will be mandatory “until Jesus comes.”

January 1993: In the wake of Bill Clinton’s election to the presidency, Falwell mails
fund-raising letters nationwide asking people to vote on whether he should reactivate the
Moral Majority. He later refuses to say how much money the effort raised and tells reporters he has no intention of reactivating the organization.

February 1993: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political action committee. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour’s tax-exempt status for 1986-87.

March 1993: Despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a
“Christian nation,” Falwell gives a sermon saying, “We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”

September 1993: Falwell announces he will not reactivate the Moral Majority but will
instead do political work through a group called the Liberty Alliance.

March 1994: Falwell announces the formation of a new group, Mission America, which he
claims will mobilize like-minded clergy across the country. Falwell describes the group as a
“personal ministry” and says it will have no budget or staff. Nothing more is heard from it.

May 1994: Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Flame newspaper runs an article calling TV preacher
John Hagee a heretic for saying Jews can be saved without accepting Jesus Christ. Falwell
urges every pastor to “take this information to the podium next Sunday.”

September 1994: Falwell endorses former Iran-Contra figure Oliver North for a U.S. Senate
seat in Virginia. Falwell glosses over North’s legal problems, saying they happened “in the
past.”

1994-1995: Falwell is criticized for using his “Old Time Gospel Hour” to hawk a scurrilous video called “The Clinton Chronicles” that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton—among them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG). CHG’s Pat Matrisciana later admitted that Falwell and he staged an infomercial interview promoting the video in which a silhouetted reporter said his life was in danger for investigating Clinton. (Matrisciana himself posed as the reporter.) “That was Jerry’s idea to do that,” Matrisciana recalled. “He thought that would be dramatic.”

April 1996: Falwell hosts a “Washington for Jesus” rally in the nation’s capital where he holds a mock trial of America for engaging in seven deadly sins: persecution of the church,
homosexuality, abortion, racism, occultism, addictions and HIV/AIDS (acronym:
PHAROAH). He declares the nation guilty “of violating God’s law.”

July 1996: Falwell announces a series of “God Save America” rallies in evangelical churches
to stop the United States from entering a “post-Christian” era.

February 1997: Falwell sponsors a pastors’ briefing in Washington, during which he
threatens to form a new political party if Republicans waver on abortion.

June 1997: Falwell announces a plan to urge fundamentalist churches to intervene in partisan
politics. He vows to send sample candidate endorsement sermons that pastors can read in
their churches and says he has already done this in the Virginia attorney general’s race. Falwell drops the plan after being reported to the IRS by Americans United.

August 1997: Falwell pleads for funds for a new group, the National Committee for the
Restoration of the Judeo-Christian Ethic. In a fund-raising letter, he promises to “get back in
the ring” and be a “spiritual George Foreman.” He pledges to register 4 million new voters and mobilize 50,000 pastors. After publishing a couple of fund-raising letters, the group is never heard from again.

November 1997: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial
Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University’s financial woes. The
donation, and several Falwell appearances at Moon conferences, raised eyebrows because
Moon claims to be the messiah sent to complete the failed mission of Jesus Christ, a doctrine
sharply at odds with Falwell’s fundamentalist Christian theology. (In 1978, before the Moon
money started flowing, Falwell told Esquire magazine, “Reverend Sun Myung Moon is like
the plague: he exploits boys and girls, and he should be exported.”)

February 1998: Falwell accepts a $70-million donation from insurance magnate Art
Williams, for his debt-ridden Liberty University. Falwell says the contribution will free him to
focus on politics again.

April 1998: Confronted on national television with a controversial quote from America Can Be Saved!, a published collection of his sermons, Falwell denies having written the book or had anything to do with it. In the 1979 work, Falwell wrote, “I hope to live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!” Despite Falwell’s denial, Sword of the Lord Publishing, which produced the book, confirms that Falwell wrote it.

October 1998: In a fund-raising letter, Falwell announces plans to expand his ministry and to
“immediately rededicate myself to use my God-given skills as a national spokesman for
morality and return to the moral/political arena….[W]ith God’s anointing and your prayerful
support, you will soon think I am omnipresent.”

January 1999: Falwell tells a pastors’ conference in Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible is alive today and “of course he’ll be Jewish.”

February 1999: Falwell becomes the object of nationwide ridicule after his National Liberty Journal newspaper issues a “parents alert” warning that Tinky Winky, a character on the popular PBS children’s show “Teletubbies,” might be gay. (Americans United was responsible for releasing the information to the national press.)

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Absolutely chilling words if taken into the context of our constantly evolving social consciousness: Martin Luther and the Reformation, Slavery and the American Civil War, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, World War II and the Holocaust, etc.

Elements and situations that are accepted by one generation are condemned by later generations in a tipping point change in social consciousness. And in many instances the flames for change are fanned by one person who just happens to fit in at the right time and place; and has the courage to put it all on the line for that higher purpose.

In the background of all these social changes is the element of open discussion and freedom of speech. It is a powerful force. Most misunderstandings I have experienced in my life come down to people not having all the facts, and/or operating behind closed doors without open discussion.

If we sit in our comfortable protected pockets and refuse to interact with those of differing beliefs, then it’s very easy to continue with our current beliefs unchallenged. It can be our nature to create a world view of how and why everything is the way it is, and then to fiercely defend that regardless of the viewpoint’s validity. After all, it’s reality isn’t it? Maybe not.

Most things are perception, and the world view each of us creates is based largely on perception. How painful it is when we find something we thought was true, isn’t anymore. We are confronted with new information, new knowledge, paradigm shifts in our thinking. It’s a rebirth of the new, but a painful death to the old.

I strongly believe that when open discussion is encouraged and all information is available, that good things happen. I also believe that when people deal in half-truths and incomplete information they can make devastatingly bad choices in their lives. You don’t have to look very far to see this in action.

What is the good that happens with open discussion and full disclosure of information? We are better equipped to make better choices. There are many beliefs I have held in the past that only changed when I was bold enough to discuss them publicly. This enabled others to hear what I was saying, and offer me more information or alternative points of view. Some views that change might be very small, simply trivial facts. But every once in a while you get a thunderbolt that rocks the very foundation of a world view. Those are exciting times. Open discussion facilitates that.

What is the bad that happens when discussions are closed? We never get to hear the full feedback and additional information that might have been available. It takes a certain amount of courage to speak out, but that courage holds great gifts within it.

I am not immune from having preconceptions, perhaps incorrect, that affect my world view. We all have these; to pretend we don’t is naive and foolish. I am very thankful for those that have entered my life along my walk, those that have had profoundly moving discussions to share that have enriched my life and subsequently my effectiveness to serve.

For those of you from my Bible and Christian fellowship forums: Be particularly wary of taking individual scriptures out of context as an end-all-be-all without cross referencing your findings. I have seen it so many times in my discussion communities where someone comes forward with a particular interpretation, only to find they may have been misled when more studied members add clarification.

We’re all in this world together. Choose your walk and encourage open discussions when at all possible. We have great gifts to share with each other. Let’s share them.

Dr. Michael Shermer’s response to Deepak Chopra’s attack on skepticism is so great, so powerful, and so civil considering the outlandish topics to be addressed. I wanted to give this response special notice for those not hip to the current writings of Dr. Michael Shermer, and to those that have not had the opportunity to see well written response to Chopra’s careless abuse of science and incorporation of pseudo-science.

READ Shermer’s Response to Deepak Chopra

Currently I only have two references in my blog-roll referrals – Dr. Shermer and James Randi. It is because these two people continue to amaze and inspire me with their focus to the facts, and their determined stamina to continually take on pseudo-science in a style that is well written and well documented.

That Chopra and Shermer would go head to head on the Huffington Post website is impressive to me. I would have thought that Chopra would shy away from this encounter, perhaps he wasn’t ready for what he would get in return.

In my previous attacks on the current state of affairs of the New Thought movement, which in my experience have become irreversibly infested with New Age quackery, I had not addressed Chopra. Deepak Chopra was someone I used to read and try to follow. The latest work of his I read was just about a year ago – a close friend gave me his entire set of tapes on body types, etc. In going through his series it was one of the first times it donned on me, “this seems kind of made-up”. As I looked online I found countless professors and professionals who were bold enough to speak up on how much of the work was made up words, phrases and things that “sounded like they might be science.”

Chopra is above my head to address, but Michael Shermer makes fair game of the material. You can easily Google more rebuttals, but they tend to be VERY dry from academic sources. They have to be to adequately address the material.

Read for yourself, make your own decisions.

Joel Osteen fascinates me for many reasons. I’d say I’ve seen about 15 of his televised sermons. When I first saw him I was compelled to sit down and watch his entire sermon. What really struck me is how everything was very easy to digest. I didn’t hear the condemnation or seperatist type statements that seem to be typical of TV evangelists. He didn’t seem “fake”, he seemed very real and present.

But what I also noticed by the fifth sermon or so was a real avoidance of all the hot topics. Basically an avoidance of all the topics that would be an indication of how he approached interpretation of scripture. Are Paul’s letters to the Church in Corinth to be followed, just used as guidelines or written off as cultural comments of the time that have no bearing on today. (Interpretation of Corinthians is my personal benchmark to know how people are approaching interpretation).

At the time I was involved in a “New Thought” church and I heard several people very excited that “new thought is finally being accepted by the Christians”. This was a little red flag to me, because every Christian fundamentalist friend of mine is very opposed to new thought ideas. What a genius man this Osteen is, to be embraced by Christian AND New Thought congregations simultaneously.

History shows me this cannot continue. At one point Joel Osteen will need to make a stand on the beefier issues, and that will create firm dividing lines as to who accepts or does not accept him. These are just my personal opinions, and I could very well be wrong. Just the way I see it.

In a 60 Minutes interview they asked him to make a comment on some of the heavier issues, including sexuality. His answer was to give that Sunny Jim southern smile and say something to the effect of: “Oh no, I don’t want to go there. I want to keep things positive.” Good or bad to do this? The jury is still out I think.

Here’s an interesting blog article on Joel Osteen from the Wesleyian Blog.

And my whole point of this article: It’s very easy in any theology to make everything work when you keep it light and superficial. But when you dig in deep is when people are going to show their real colors and where they stand. For me, I’d rather dig in deep first and see where everything is leading and then get to the superficial “feel good” stuff later. I’d like to know I’m not wasting my time barking up the wrong tree.

If Joel Osteen can keep his ministry going and never make a stand on those very sensitive divisive issues, then my hat’s off to him. He has succeeded in the tight rope act of the century.

Report on the Perversion of Science to Support Mysticism – PDF Download

For more info on debuking pseudoscience please visit the James Randi website and also the Skeptic Society with Michael Shermer that hosts regular educational seminars at CalTech Pasedena (Mr. Shermer is a regular contributing writer to Scientific American magazine)

. This is a report I put together in April 2005 detailing a small iceberg’s tip of misinformation and New Age pseudoscience that has crept into the New Thought movement. At the time of the report I had thought I was doing a great service to New Thought and specifically the Church of Religious Science by looking into these subjects more carefully.

I was astonished at the time to find virtually no support whatsoever for what I was doing. In time I came to realize that I myself was the outsider for bringing up these subjects, and that path led to discovering a multitude of twisted ideologies and theologies coming to light.

The powers that be are well aware of this work, which I think is actually a very small beginning and really not even a “report”, more of a compilation of the obvious.

I had contacted James Randi of the James Randi Institute about some of these issues and he quoted me on his site. Shortly thereafter I was contacted by Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, co-producer of Cosmos and of the movie Contact. She encouraged me to keep the path, and that in time my voice would be heard.

Then e-mails from all over started trickling in, people thanking me for speaking out. Most of them had a funny feeling that something wasn’t quite right about what they were hearing in Religious Science churches, or in New Thought groups where discussions were suddenly turning a little too New Age. These people looked for more info online and found my report.

Here’s the catch: YOU WILL NEVER FIND OUT THIS INFORMATION IF YOU DON’T THINK TO LOOK! Sound too obvious? It wasn’t for me – I watched my whole life fall apart, not knowing why anything wasn’t working – and never ONCE did it occur to me I was on the wrong path. The tools I was using were similiar to sweeping dirt under a rug – I was working on changing my outlook, my vision, on co-creating with spirit on and on…..but nothing was changing.

Well that’s enough on that for now. If things aren’t working, consider at looking to your belief systems.

Oh, another good friend I’ve made after the report release was Michael Shermer, head of the Skeptics Society. I have attended several of the lectures he sponsors down at Cal Tech in Pasadena. These lectures have been worth their weight in gold. Getting the REAL low-down on science research from world renowned scientists at a very reputable college.

All the e-mails I get, only a very few can I post. People are scared. They are scared of making waves, of being confronted within their church, for whatever reason. I do respect that so I don’t repost them. But it’s too bad, because there are a lot of rich stories in those emails and you can feel their pain at realizing they have been deceived.

It’s nice to be able to look back a bit and see that my own personal pain was for a greater good, and that my voice is being heard more and more. Actually, it’s not my voice, it’s the voice of the academic community that has done so much research in these areas. Unfortunately, the general public is not educated strongly enough in these areas to know what information is correct. We rely on our sources for this info.

My discovery is that what the established body of scientific research says in these areas, and what New Thought ministers SAY that the scientific community says, are often two entirely different and opposing viewpoints.

I choose to stand with the science community, as Religious Science has apparently and inescapably veered off into the dangerous realm of the New Age and by all indications I have seen; have no intention of correcting that course.

Why is it important? When people base their life off bad information, they make bad decisions. It very much has dire affects on individual lives and no, I do not think I am taking these areas too seriously. To me, the implications of doing otherwise are sinister, suppressive and devious.