Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Columbia Sanctum - Spring 2010
Columbia Sanctum - Spring 2010
Spring 2010
Leap of Faith
Sanctum Staff
Stephanie RiedeRman Editor-in-ChiEf JoSefina aguila Managing Editor leaRned foote finanCial ManagEr Ray Katz, aviShai gebleR SEnior EditorS Jody zellman art Editor tamaRa epelbaum layout Editor elana RibacK Copy Editor aKiva bambeRgeR WEbMaStEr
Editorial Note:
Stephanie Riederman
Prepare to believe, beckons the homepage of The Creation Museum, a self-proclaimed Mecca of biblical history and proponent of creationism, located in Petersburg, Kentucky. Here, visitors will find well-known characters in familiar settings: Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Edens Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil...1 The museum, prominently featured early last year in Bill Mahers film Religulous, has been vilified by many non-believers as a complete mockery of reason. Yet at the same time, they must still take noticeit logged over 100,000 visitors in its first eight weeks after opening.2 Early on, I too was introduced to theistic explanations for commonly held scientific assumptions. The Israeli physicist and author of The Science of God and Genesis and the Big Bang Gerald Schroeder was invited to speak at my Jewish high school to introduce some of his own. Offering evidence from the fields of biology, paleontology, and cosmology, Schroeder attempted to highlight parallels between the creation narrative of the Old Testament and modern science in order to claim that the two accounts were not only reconcilable, but that remarkable parallels were present between them. The texts mentioning of big sea monsters in the first chapter of Genesis for example, could be a reference to dinosaurs and conforms to the fossil record, according to Schroeder.3 Though admittedly around half of his technical arguments went over my head, Schroeders attempt to defend the Bible has been largely criticized by most scientists, despite its popularity in select religious communities. Given this criticism, why do Schroeder and others put forth the effort to harmonize the biblical creation narrative with the scientific one in the first place? Though the same people who founded the Creation Museum most likely rely on scientists to introduce various technological breakthroughs that constantly better our society, why cant they entirely trust scientists with science? For literalist readers of the Bible, the Creation Museum and Schroeders work are recent examples of longstanding efforts to reorient science to reflect eternal religious truth. From evolution to stem cell research, climate change to medical testing, more than half of the American public believes that science and religion are often in conflict, according to a July 2009 poll by the Pew Research Center.4
Notes 1 About the Museum. The Creation Museum. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://creationmuseum.org/ about/>. 2 Creation Museum Logs 100,000 Visitors in 8 Weeks. Fox News, 24 July 2007. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290444,00.html>. 3 Revised Standard Version. National Council of Churches of Christ in America. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=1801>. 4 The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Leshner I. Dr Alan. Scientific Achievements Less Prominent Than a Decade Ago. Survey Reports. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 9 July 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/528. pdf>. 5 Interview with Eugenie C. Scott: Safeguarding Science Education. Interview by Chuck Crumly. University of California Press Blog. University of California Press. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://www. ucpress.edu/blog/?p=5276>.
Religion is
Carlos Blanco
Religion Is Another Language At age three, I pronounced the word shoes as choose though after four years of English as Second Language (ESL), my Spanish accent is now eradicated. Religion is like learning another language. Recall the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis: Mankind unites to build a tower, attempting to reach God and Heaven. Angered by their conceit, God divides humankind with language barriers. So the Torah, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Quran, the Vedas and all other religious texts are often linked by faith and ideals, but not by language. One began in ancient Aramaic, the other in Hebrew, and one in Sanskrit. We can very well argue that the outcome of the Tower of Babel accomplished its goal: No tower could ever be built to Heaven without a translator there to tell us how to mix mortar and cement in Taiwanese. Religion is another language. On our quest to understand religion, we can get lost in a foreign tongue we have yet to master. Sometimes, those who have learned English as a second language have trouble recalling words others might easily conjure. Simple words like chair or godmother escape our grasp. One of the first effects of dementia is losing the ability to remember a second language. The language of religion is difficult and elusive, escaping us in an instant.
Religion is a Subway Swipe One of the new slogans of the revamped MTA market campaign is, MTA: Your stop to wherever life takes you! With its name plastered on bus ads, subway stops, and Metro Cards, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City is an omnipotent power. It is an authority, taking you wherever life takes you and supplying its followersor rather its riderswith a route that leads to their goals. Catholicism, as well as other major religions of the world, argues that living a life according to the Bible of G-d will ultimately lead you to Heaven. We are told that life is granted to us by G-d, and, like a subway ride, it can be delayed, slow, abysmal or awkward. But before we get the chance to ride the subway, we have to pay $2.25. A subway fare, like a baptism or birthright ceremony, allows us to begin a trip to our final destination, which is, arguably, oneness with G-d. Religion is a subway swipe because it is the beginning of the journey we must endure. When Metro fares were raised this year, an uproar ensued. How could the poor afford a price hike? How can those who have no access to religion afford finding G-d? We travel in underground tunnels on the subway because, as in a sojourn though purgatory, the end result is an ascent above ground. It is a holy experience to ride the subway and feel the machinery roar around you. Religion is an intricate mechanism transporting adherents from one level of consciousness and understanding to another. By swiping in and willingly taking part in the institution, people may find themselves on the other side of a metamorphosis.
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Religion is Where the Wild Things Are Max, the little boy in the famed childrens book Where the Wild Things Are, is sent to his room without dinner because he was misbehaving. He stumbles upon the Land of Wild Things. Though initially scared, Max becomes king of the wild animals before returning home from his imaginary world. We the religious are like Max. We stumble upon faith, maybe as a source of heritage, maybe to fill a void, or maybe in a moment of utmost clarity. And so we each become king of the Wild Things. Driven by devotion, we are bold and reckless with spiritual power. We probe the depths of religious wisdom and examine faith from all angles. And then we understand. Scholar upon rabbi upon priest upon monkall claim to know the answer to Maxs undying question of why he is in the land of Wild Things: Why am I here? Religion is the Wild Thing itself. It can serve to scare people or inspire them. And like one of the Wild Things in Maurice Sendaks acclaimed childrens book, it gives us the license to attempt to live our lives like G-d. By the end of the book, Max dons the clothing of a Wild Thing, mimicking them while attempting to emulate a supreme being. Yet in the end, we are all just as frightened and powerless as a little boy, and we return to what we know best: a land away from the Wild Things.
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Frontiers of Truth:
Ill be honest: I have never had an affinity for science. Much to the chagrin of my parents bio-chemistry and physics majors, respectivelyI prefer to discuss philosophical relativism rather than Einsteins theory of relativity. Of course, I never questioned the validity of sciencescientists must know what theyre doing in their distant world of numbers and figures. However, this spring Frontiers of Science came my way, bringing with it some new qualms about science: The expansion of the universe causing galaxies to collide, be created, or zoom away from each other? Stars 500,000,000 light years away? The word quark? In the middle of an early recitation, one classmate leaned over and whispered, This is harder to swallow than Hebrew School. Admittedly, certain aspects of Hebrew school were pretty hard to swallow as well, especially in light of modern science. Throughout my Jewish Day School education I intensely studied
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Drawing by Amy Pollack for Professor Pollacks book The Fruit of Biology and the Biology of Faith
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A biologist, former dean of Columbia College, professor, and author, Robert Pollack is the founder and current director of Columbias Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR). In 1999, Pollack established the CSSR hoping to use the tools of both science and religion to examine the natural world and our place in it. He sat down with Sanctum to discuss the Centers mission and work, as well as his personal take on the ethical and moral dimensions of science. What prompted the founding of CSSR (Center for the study of Science and Religion)? A push and a pull. The push came from the historical fact that I had been the dean of Columbia College from 82 to 89. A decade later I was the author of Signs of Life and asked to give a series
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The Dalai Lama serves as the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people and as a spokesperson for Buddhism worldwide, and is also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. His book, The Universe in a Single Atom, attempts to reconcile claims made from scientific and Buddhist positions in a constructive and cooperative dialogue. Given his intelligence, the Dalai Lama could not turn a blind eye to the progress of science; nor, according to the Dalai Lama, can scientific progress turn a blind eye to the spiritual progress of Buddhism. The Universe in a Single Atom tries to legitimize Buddhism in an intellectual climate dominated by a scientific worldview. In so doing, the Dalai Lama attacks scientific materialism and its adherents, going so far as to liken science itself to a religion. Both approaches make philosophical presuppositions and metaphysical
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Notes 1 Stoljar, Daniel. Physicalism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , URL = <http:// plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/>.
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In the fall of 2009, members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at Columbia University. They held up signs that read God hates fags1 and Mourn for your sins. Children stood among their ranks. Opposite them stood members of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship holding up counter-protest signs. One sign read, God is love, and another, Speak the truth in love. Pictures of the protest and counter-protest were quickly posted online as part of a Bwog article2, eliciting a shower of harsh comments, one of them dismissively calling the Westboro protestors assclowns. Another commentator wrote, I feel for the children who got sucked up into this clusterfuck of irrationality against their will. The debate surrounding the morality of homosexuality is much larger and subtler than this striking confrontation between the Westboro Baptist Church and students from Columbia University. Yet the debate is often treated in terms as unforgiving as the aforementioned Bwog comments. Any traditionalist
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Notes 1 Catherine Newhouse, Luke Udstuen. Westboro Baptist Church protests around Columbia. The Maneater. 3 Oct. 2009. <http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/10/3/westboro-baptist-churchprotests-around-columbia/> 2 Westboro Protests at JTS. 24 Sep. 2009. <http://bwog.net/2009/09/24/westboro-protests-atjts> 3 Romans 1:25-26; Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:9-10 4 Genesis 1:27 5 Ulrich Mauser. The Bible and Homosexuality by Ulrich Mauser. <http://www.godweb.org/ mauser.htm> 6 1 Corinthians 7:8 7 2 Corinthians 3:18 8 Ephesians 5:25-32 9 2 Corinthians 11:2 10 Matthew 25:1-12 11 Christine E. Gudorf. The Bible and Science on Sexuality. Homosexuality, Science, and the Plain Sense of Scripture, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 131. 12 Matthew 22:30 13 Genesis 2:17-18 14 Mark 10:7-9 15 Genesis 9:7 16 Sarah Sumner. Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 269.
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Central to any sociological discussion of modernity is a theory of secularization. Though some theories of secularization focus on the quantitative and qualitative decline of religious belief, or the extent to which religion has become privatized and insulated from politics, a discussion of modernity is more closely engaged with the general idea that religion has ceased to function as a master narrative. Indeed, the past century has seen religion denuded from all other spheres of life in a manner unforeseen in millennia. Though the effects of this sort of secularization and the subsequent emergence of value-pluralism (the condition of competing value-systems) have proliferated into all facets of public and private life, perhaps most compelling is the extent to which
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Notes 1 Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2007, p. 26 2 Max Weber, Science as a Vocation, in From Max Weber, eds. Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, New York: Oxford, 1946, p. 139. 3 Ibid, p. 139 4 Ibid, p. 148-9 5 Ibid, p. 149 6 Ibid, p. 155 7 Ibid, p. 13 8 Taylor, A Secular Age, p. 9 9 Taylor, A Secular Age, pp. 9, 52 10 Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, in From Max Weber, p. 128. 11 Max Weber, Science as a Vocation, p. 151
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For its first 100 years, Columbia had the mission of not only educating the intellect but also the moral foundation of its students. In 1896, N.Y. mayor and Columbia alum Abram Hewitt asserted in his address dedicating the new Columbia Morningside campus that the Universitys purpose was to train a free people in the virtue and knowledge on which their liberty depends.1 Despite this oft stated objective, Descartes theory of dualism between mind and body separated the intellectual realms of science and the humanities from the seventeenth century onwards. The advent of the modern research university widened this disjunction as science became the most legitimate path to knowledge. Years later, however, Columbia students insisted that ethics be reconnected with the acquisition of knowledge within the University. Students during the 1960s rebelled against traditional gender, class, and race divisions, andperhaps counter-intuitively radical students at Columbia in 1968 insisted that the long-forgotten moral imperative of the University be reassumed. They contended that Columbia had abandoned moral scrutiny of its role and mission.
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Renaissance had captivated the West with the idea of humanistic autonomy: the proclaimed and practiced autonomy of man from any force above him.3 Man became intrinsically good and at the center of his universe. This tenet, he thought, had taught the American psyche to regard self-sacrifice and self-denial as an anathema to the founding ideal of the pursuit of happiness. Because we answer only to ourselves, American materialism dictates as essential the gratification of our desires over the good of others. Another legacy, then, of todays intellectual standards is that they yield citizens complicit in a corrupt corporate culture and a broken political system run by special interests, in which individuals are adrift in a haze of materialism. Another unintended but logical result is Americas dependence on the Law as its best expression of moral judgment. Solzhenitsyn observed that American jurisprudence had become the highest form of compliance to moral behavior and had led to an emphasis on human rights rather than human obligations.4 A belief in the humanistic and benevolent concept according to which there is no evil inherent in nature5 meant that there was no restraint on selfishness, no restraint based on the obligation to anything higher than the Law. Without a concept of a Supreme Complete Entity6 there is no basis for serene self-restraint.7 When Man acts as his own moral compass, he deduces that legal acts are ethical acts and can therefore act in his own selfish interest regardless of any larger consequences. Mistakes leading up to the recent fiscal crisis involved financial practices that were entirely legal, though with even the slightest inspection unwise, unscrupulous, and driven by unencumbered greed. No community or societal consequences appear to have been contemplated. A lack of ethical consideration in education and reliance Photo by Zahava Mendelbaum on the law alone have led to acquisition
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