Last week’s Time featured an article on The Biology of Belief. One of the points made in it was that faith can heal:
The Biology of Belief
[...] a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that faith may indeed bring us health. People who attend religious services do have a lower risk of dying in any one year than people who don’t attend. People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it’s hit with a double-barreled blast of belief. “Even accounting for medications,” says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief, “spirituality predicts for better disease control.”
02-24-2009 |
3 Comments »If you had to choose between someone with good character and no faith (no belief in God) or someone with faith and no character which would you prefer?
If Jesus had to make that choice which do you think he’d prefer (if you have an opinion about that)?
08-25-2008 |
37 Comments »As I mentioned, I was at the Alban Institute yesterday for a one day Faith and Technology Conversation.
Anne Van Dusen did a wonderful job of organizing this event. There were about 25 of us: the Alban and Congregational Resource Guide staff and about 20 visitors. Two thirds of the visitors were from out of town. There were about the same number of men and women and the ages ranged from about 30 to 60. There were journalist/writers, priest/minister/pastors, technology professionals and researchers. The group felt diverse but there was no racial diversity – it was 100% white. I’m sure this was a ramification of who was there rather than there being any attempt to avoid racial diversity. But it would have added an interesting element had we not all been white.
Most of the people there were associated with mainline denominational forms of Christianity. Some as a personal vocation; some as writers/technology professionals/researchers whose work involves them with it. Andrea, the journalist taking notes to produce the guide based on yesterday is a former Christian who has converted to Islam, but I only knew that because someone mentioned it to me one on one on Monday evening. (And because she did mention ‘in my Mosque’ once) In one of the breaks I told Andrea I’d just heard Ingrid Mattson and was very impressed.
There were two evangelicals there: Read the rest of this entry »
04-30-2008 |
2 Comments »I’m in Virginia today for a one day Technology and Faith Conversation at the Alban Institute.
About twenty people are here to participate in the conversation, mostly from out of town. Looking at the participant list, some are pastors, some work with online content related to religion/faith communities (bloggers, editors) and some are web 2.0 developers. Some were already known to the Alban Institute. Others were invited based on referrals. At least one was invited because their site came up in a Google search (me :)).
The day will be part presentation, part group discussion. A guide for faith communities will be produced based on it, to help faith communities use web 2.0 more effectively. I think it will be online on the Congregational Resource Guide site (CRG is part of the Alban Institute). Read the rest of this entry »
04-29-2008 |
3 Comments »Nick was kind enough to tape an interview with me a few weeks ago which just went up on the Nick and Josh Podcast site. The topic is Mental Disorders and Faith Communities. Nick also asked me about being almost an atheist.
It was fun to talk with Nick a little after the podcast and find out what’s going on in his life.
Josh wasn’t involved in this particular interview – but I know him a little because he’s been helping us with various Off The Map web design projects. Josh completely redesigned our Off The Map and Doable Evangelism sites and created a Jim and Casper page. Josh has been great to work with and we’re very pleased with everything he’s done. If you need some design work check out his business site, Red Cowboy Designs.
Here are some links where I’ve written about some of the topics covered in the podcast:
01-06-2008 |
Comments OffGlenn Hager tagged me to comment on “How would you define simple faith?”
Glenn writes
What is simple faith? Believing God (and living like it) when darn near everything in you and around says that you should deny him.
That definition seems fine to me, but it’s the last thing I would want to have, since I don’t have a belief in God.
I’m used to the concept of ‘faith in God’ separating me from Christians since they think it’s good and I absolutely don’t want to have any. I was pleasantly surprised to find a definition of faith that worked for me in Brian McLaren’s latest book Everything Must Change. (Brian didn’t say this faith replaces all other forms of faith it’s appropriate for Christians to have – he simply suggested this is a meaningful definition in the context of his topic) In the book Brian defined faith as ‘faith that I really can make the world a better place, so it’s worth trying‘.
That’s a kind of simple faith that has meaning and value to me.
I’m supposed to tag 5 people…ok, Benjamin (if you want to post about this – I had mixed feelings so I understand if you don’t), Rachel, Lainie, Bill and ‘anyone else who wants to be tagged by me’.
11-28-2007 |
10 Comments »I ran across this article in the New York Times (you need a free subscription required to read original article – here’s a copy of it on a blog). Here’s an excerpt
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”
Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts.”
But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials – all in the name of preventing terrorism.
09-12-2007 |
7 Comments »Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs asked me a question in a blog comment that I thought was quite interesting. Here’s his question and my answer. If any of you feel I have misrepresented the Emergent/emerging church (or Off The Map) in my response to him, feel free to say so here. If you decide to post a comment on his blog I recommend reading the rules first because they do delete comments and ban people who violate their posting rules.
Phil wrote:
Do most of those who identify with the Emerging/Emergent conversation seem to want to try to help you regain your faith, or would you say they spend more energy encouraging you to feel comfortable with your doubts?
That’s a serious question. I’m not trying to start an argument. I’m interested in a candid answer.
That’s a serious question. I’m not trying to start an argument. I’m interested in a candid answer.
Phil, I’m happy to give you a serious answer. Especially since this is one of the more interesting questions any Christian has asked me lately (no offense intended towards anyone else who asked me a great question which isn’t presently springing to mind)
I still don’t know what to call you so I’ll go with VCC – Very Conservative Christian – to avoid picking fights with people in the EC who self-identify as Conservative Christians.
On the whole, VCCs and ECCs (Emerging/Emergent Church Christians) are equally uncomfortable with me being almost an atheist. Most ECCs I run into value their relationship with God highly and can’t imagine how not actively engaging in a relationship with God can be better than doing so. Read the rest of this entry »
08-29-2007 |
34 Comments »Laura posted this in a comment on “Is the scientific method overrated?”
For me, faith is something you can explain logically, but not rationally, to those who don’t have it. And never did have it.
It’s a bit like trying to explain the colors of the rainbow to a person who’s been blind their entire life.
Sure, you can logically explain how light rays bounce of objects… yada, yada, yada. But how do you explain the beauty of light and colors and nature? You can describe it, but how much meaning will it have for a blind person?
When folks talk about their faith to me, I feel like I’ve been blind my entire life. I can logically understand and appreciate the effect on their lives, the peace and joy and love and the sense of awe and wonder and commitment they have. That’s because I have these feelings too.
But I still have no clue what faith looks like. I can’t see it at all. Not even a blurry outline.
I don’t think it would make sense for the blind person to think all the people who are not blind (so many, many of them) are not rational, just because they share an experience he doesn’t seem to be capable of sharing.
On the other hand, I don’t get why the sighted folks would get mad at the blind guy and tell him if he can’t see it, he must not be looking hard enough.
08-24-2007 |
52 Comments »Last week, Benjamin posted this response to something I said about belief in the afterlife:
(quick update added by Helen: in comment #2 Benjamin mentions that it was actually his wife Meg who posted this question, not him)
it seems to me that, to believe or not believe anything takes similar risk, leap, assumption, faith!
Thanks for bringing this up, Benjamin, it’s a great topic. I wanted to offer the viewpoint of a skeptic (me) on it, but I didn’t have a chance last week. Thanks to Helen for allowing me to get back to it.
So, do belief and nonbelief in the afterlife require similar “leaps of faith”? Very simply: No.
Let me explain. I said I’m a skeptic. What’s a skeptic? Read the rest of this entry »
11-29-2006 |
53 Comments »