riviersonderend

Ons het die gedig in matriek gedoen. Ek dink steeds soms daaraan, soos byvoorbeeld vandag.

Move him into the sun -
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it awoke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds -
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, – still warm, – too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?

Wilfred Owen

Die afgelope paar jaar het verskeie boeke die lig gesien wat geloof ongenaakbaar aangeval het. Terme soos “militante ateïs” en “fundamentalistiese ateïs” word gebruik vir skrywers soos Richard Dawkins en Sam Harris. Myns insiens het twee gebeure aanleiding gegee tot die opkoms van die sg. “militante ateïsme”: 9/11 en die verkiesing van George Bush tot Amerikaanse president.

Nadat George Bush, ‘n wedergebore Christen, president geword het, het hy dadelik begin om mense te polariseer rondom geloof. Dit het gou duidelik geword dat hy ‘n president vir fundamentalistiese Christene sou wees, en nie die hele Amerika nie. Dit het gepaardgegaan met minagting vir die wetenskap.

Die gebeure van 9/11 en Bush se gevolglike optrede het godsdiens in die spervuur geplaas. Dit is geen wonder dat daar soveel reaksie was nie. Mense reageer op ekstreme posisies (soos dié van Bush en sy ondersteuningsbasis van fundamentalistiese Christene) met ekstreme standpunte.

Neem vir Bush uit die Withuis en vervang hom met ‘n gematigde president en dit sal ook die einde wees van militante ateïsme. Dawkins en Harris sal nie naastenby soveel boeke verkoop soos nou nie en die debat oor die onversoenbaarheid van godsdiens en wetenskap sal sy dringendheid verloor.

Dit maak ‘n mens eintlik benoud om te besef hoeveel mag die Amerikaanse president het. Baie van George Bush se mislukkings is reeds bekend, alhoewel dit nie maklik gekwantifiseer kan word nie. Hoe plaas mens ‘n prys op Iraki’s se lewens? Ek wonder egter of toekomstige geslagte sal terugkyk en die skade wat Bush geloof aangedoen het, kan meet?

***

In die onlangse Scientific American verskyn ‘n gesprek tussen Richard Dawkins en Lawrence Krauss oor hoe die wetenskap godsdiens en sy volgelinge moet benader. Krauss verdedig ‘n rustiger gesprek tussen die groepe, in vergelyking met Dawkins se meer onverdraagsame aanslag.

Krauss vra ‘n interessante vraag aan Dawkins in die gesprek: “Kan wetenskap geloof verryk, of moet dit geloof noodwendig vernietig?”

The question came to me because I was recently asked to speak at a Catholic college at a symposium on science and religion. I guess I was viewed as someone interested in reconciling the two. After agreeing to lecture, I discovered that I had been assigned the title Science Enriching Faith. In spite of my initial qualms, the more I thought about the title, the more rationale I could see for it. The need to believe in a divine intelligence without direct evidence is, for better or worse, a fundamental component of many people’s psyches. I do not think we will rid humanity of religious faith any more than we will rid humanity of romantic love or many of the irrational but fundamental aspects of human cognition. While orthogonal from the scientific rational components, they are no less real and perhaps no less worthy of some celebration when we consider our humanity.

Waarop Dawkins as volg antwoord:

As an aside, such pessimism about humanity is popular among rationalists to the point of outright masochism. It is almost as though you and others at the conference where this dialogue began positively relish the idea that humanity is perpetually doomed to unreason. But I think irrationality has nothing to do with romantic love or poetry or the emotions that lie so close to what makes life worth living. Those are not orthogonal to rationality. Perhaps they are tangential to it. In any case, I am all for them, as are you. Positively irrational beliefs and superstitions are a different matter entirely. To accept that we can never be rid of them—that they are an irrevocable part of human nature—is manifestly untrue of you and, I would guess, most of your colleagues and friends. Isn’t it therefore rather condescending to assume that humans at large are constitutionally incapable of breaking free of them?

Watter geloof groei die vinnigste in Australië? Boeddhisme, natuurlik! The Voice of America report said Buddhism was now moving beyond Asian immigrant communities and spreading as a mainstream religion. The report said, “Experts who study religious trends in Australia say many converts to Buddhism found the teachings of some Christian churches too rigid and intolerant of questions about the faith.”

In Chile het ‘n ysgletsermeer verdwyn. Die meer was 2 hektaar groot en het tussen Maart en Mei verdwyn. Niemand is presies seker waarom dit gebeur het nie. Sommige spekuleer dat ‘n aardbewing daarvoor verantwoordelik was.

Marlene van Niekerk het die Sunday Times Fiksie Prys gewen met haar deurstopper Agaat. Geluk!

Studies bewys wat almal nog altyd vermoed het: praat oor jou issues en jy voel beter.

Aung San Suu Kyi het die week 62 geword. Sy is steeds onder huisarres, ten spyte van verskeie beroepe deur regerings vir haar vrylating. China en Indië steun die militêre Junta wat Birma onwettig regeer.

Jerusalem se gay pride optog het voortgegaan, ten spyte van besware en dreigemente van ortodokse Jode. Polisie is ingeroep om die vrede te bewaar. ‘n Man is gearresteer, nadat hy met ‘n tuisgemaakte bom betrap is.

Die Kreasioniste museum in Kentucky het onlangs sy deure vir die publiek oopgemaak. So hoe dink julle het Adam en Eva gelyk? Wel, hulle lyk maar baie, uhm, Europees vir my.

Die New York Times berig:

It could be like any other natural history museum, luring families with the promise of immense fossils and dinosaur adventures.

But step a little farther into the entrance hall, and you come upon a pastoral scene undreamt of by any natural history museum. Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away.

‘n Trip down memory lane… Wie onthou hierdie fliek (of die boek)? Ek haal uit die boek aan.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters.

‘n Nuwe feature op hierdie blog. Elke week gaan ek een van die skakels uitsonder waarna hierdie blog link deur ‘n oorsig te gee van die webwerf en die rede waarom die skakel hier verskyn.

Vandag se webwerf is Religious Tolerance. Die webwerf se doelwit is om godsdienstige verdraagsaamheid te bevorder. Hulle siening oor godsdiens:

Religion is a unique force in society. It motivates individuals to do both good and evil. Historically, it has promoted: an end to slavery, racial integration, equal rights for women, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. It has motivated individuals to create massive support services for the poor, the sick, the hurting, and the broken. Conversely, it has been used to justify slavery, racial segregation, oppression of women, discrimination against homosexuals, genocides, exterminations of minorities, and other horrendous evils.

Religion motivates some to dedicate their lives to help the poor and needy. (e.g. Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa.) It drives others to exterminate as many “heretics” as they can. Over the past two decades we have seen religiously-motivated mass murders and genocides in Bosnia, East Timor, Indonesia, India, Kosovo, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tibet, etc.

Religion has the capability to generate unselfish love in some people, and vicious, raw hatred in others.

Vyf vrywilligers is betrokke by die inisiatief en verteenwoordig vyf verskillende sienings (Agnostisisme, Ateïsme, Christendom, Wicca en Zen Boeddhisme).

Op die webwerf is verskillende artikels oor die wêreld se gelowe (byvoorbeeld die Christendom se siening van slawerny), etiese kwessies (byvoorbeeld aborsie, doodstraf, genadedood). Geen religieuse denkwyse word verkondig ten koste van enige ander een nie.

Besoek hulle gerus.