Eye on Faith

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Religion: Not an excuse to discriminate

(USDA photo)

Long ago, a notorious apple was involved with the Fall of humankind. These days, another type of Apple is becoming involved with uplifting folks instead.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, recently wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post titled Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous.

Cook explained that these laws, “recently introduced in more than two dozen states,” basically state that “individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law.”

How does this translate into real life? In Texas, for example, legislation is “being considered” that “would strip the salaries and pensions of clerks who issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples – even if the Supreme Court strikes down Texas’ marriage ban later this year.”

Although Cook was raised as a Baptist, and has stated that “faith has always been an important part” of his life, he emphatically believes that religion is not “an excuse to discriminate.”

Even from just a business standpoint, Cook asserts that such discrimination is destructive. He explains that Apple strives for “just and fair” dealings, having recognized long ago that “discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business.”

Bad for business, and bad for the business of life itself…

Resources

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pro-discrimination-religious-freedom-laws-are-dangerous-to-america/2015/03/29/bdb4ce9e-d66d-11e4-ba28-f2a685dc7f89_story.html

Monday, March 30, 2015

Bees: Many disappearing

Bee Goddesses, 7th Century BCE (Public Domain)

Once upon a time, bees were revered and protected.

Minoan and Delphic priestesses were referred to as “Bees.” The honeycomb was looked to for inspiration. Greek mythology speaks of a nymph named Melissa (“Honey Bee”) who fed Baby Zeus (“King of the Olympian Gods”) honey instead of milk.

Wikipedia tells us that domed “beehive tombs” were quite popular within certain ancient cultures of the Mediterranean and West Asia. Beehive-shaped houses “are some of the oldest known structures in

Ireland and Scotland.”

Bees are no longer held in such high esteem. Many are now fast disappearing, due to mankind’s disregard for their overall welfare.

Brad Plumer of Vox explains that some wild bee species have “undergone big range declines, and some species have gone globally extinct.” This means that “we’re becoming more and more dependent upon a smaller number of bee species” for pollination of our crops.

These population declines have been linked with the following: an international trading of honeybees, thus contributing to the spread of “parasites and pathogens.” Imported pollen (nourishment for these bees) also contributes to the spread of bee killers.

Couple this with the wide use of pesticides, then add the mass conversion of wildflower fields to farmlands, and the result might be an extinction of Melissa’s many marvels.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_%28mythology%29

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/9/8174949/bee-decline-parasites-pesticides-flowers

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Imprisoned minds: Liberation education

Beware the revolving door... (PD)

Teaching philosophy within a prison really ups the ante.

Students inside those walls are not just mulling over concepts. More than most who move freely about, inmates are subject to the daily rigors of society’s views (or lack thereof) about morality.

That is why it is so essential to provide a "safe space” in which prisoners can mull over life’s finer points. In the absence of that, they may simply be steeped in life’s coarser moments.

Christia Mercer of The Washington Post reports that she has been teaching Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” to a group of incarcerated women. These women, “who have spent years in prison,”

responded vibrantly to this opportunity. Some asked insightful questions; others bristled with excitement.

Mercer does this as a volunteer because funding for post-secondary courses has been slashed from prison budgets since the 1990s. She puts forth this question for all to consider: If our job as educators is to nurture intellectual growth and contribute to a

thoughtful future for our country, what could be more obvious than to help those who are educationally under-served?

Mercer adds this encouraging Rand Institute statistic: Recidivism goes down by 43 percent when people are offered education.

Resources

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/24/i-teach-philosophy-at-columbia-but-the-best-students-i-have-are-inmates/?tid=trending_strip_3

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Little Mogadishu: Dream turned nightmare

DID Ambassador (by SusanLesch)

On the tough streets of Minneapolis, young people have been lured into joining terrorist groups for years.

Joyce Hackel of PRI reports on one family’s anguish, which began in November 2008. When young Burhan Hassan didn’t come home that night, his family was worried sick.

They had cause to be. Hassan had been recruited by the Somali extremist group al-Shabab, and was on his way to the Horn of Africa. When Hassan later “refused to fight and or get the training,” he was

“killed by the son of the former al-Shabab leader.”

What makes teens vulnerable to such recruitment? Hackel explains that there are not enough opportunities for them to “find employment or join a positive programming like after-school.”

The "Somali enclave" in Minnesota's Twin Cities is called “Little Mogadishu.” About 40 percent of young men there face unemployment… compared to 3 percent statewide.

A chain is only as strong as its meekest links. Lest the American dream become a nightmare for all, the meek must be helped to peacefully inherit their fair share of Earth’s bounties.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/in-minnesota-isis-may-be-building-on-the-recruiting-networks-once-used-by-other-terror-groups/ar-AAa78Oy

Friday, March 27, 2015

If only: Betty White's sweetest regret

Ludden and White (Public Domain)

Sometimes it takes many decades to learn life’s toughest lessons.

In the meantime, regrets tend to pile up like compost. Yet within the dregs of “if only” are some seeds of the sweetest fruits imaginable.

At 93, Betty White can look back upon the years with wiser eyes. Onlookers might feel that she has experienced life to the fullest. Nevertheless, there is one sweet regret that haunts White today.

After two failed marriages (which she takes her share of responsibility for), White finally met the love of her life. However, hindsight is always sharper than foresight. When Allen Ludden first proposed, White came up with all sorts of reasons to refuse.

Star Pulse reports that White recently told Oprah the following: “…I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year, that Allen and I could have had together, saying no, I wouldn’t marry him…”

Because Ludden died from stomach cancer in 1981, White has greatly missed him ever since. Nevertheless, White was quick to add: But we made it. We finally did.

Resources

http://www.starpulse.com/news/Noelle_Talmon/2015/03/27/betty-white-tells-oprah-her-biggest-re

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Steppingstone to Mars: Bold and boulder

Little worlds unto themselves... (Photo by stu_spivack)

Let’s face it: Going from Earth to Mars is quite the undertaking, especially if you’re never coming back.

It is therefore best to get a little practice in under the asteroid belt before saying some fond farewells. That’s why NASA came up with the bold idea of creating a steppingstone to Mars.

This can be accomplished by yanking a boulder off an asteroid and nudging it into lunar orbit. NASA estimates that this will be done by 2025.

Once that “2- to 4-meter diameter boulder” is ready to roll (with a cost of more than $1.25 billion, per The Christian Science Monitor), astronauts can make it their temporary home.

This will allow NASA to “demonstrate capabilities” needed “for future human missions beyond low Earth orbit and then ultimately, to Mars.”

Talk about an adventure! Bring some Rocky Road, it’s going to be a while.

Resources

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0326/For-Mars-NASA-wants-to-orbit-a-small-asteroid-around-the-moon

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Muslims in America: Here right along

Abdul-Rahman (Muslim prince, U. S. slave)

Many Americans are unaware that Muslims have been in the United States since (and before) its earliest days.

Although the Founding Fathers themselves were not Muslims, Peter Manseau of The Huffington Post reports that “Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both owned copies of the Quran.”

Long before religious freedom became legalized, a 1682 Virginia statute referred to those with “Mahometan parentage and country” who “heretofore and hereafter

may be purchased, procured, or otherwise obteigned, as slaves.”

Manseau explains that the number of Muslims “far exceeded the number of Jews” in 18^th-century America. In fact, there were as many people with ties to Islam in post-revolutionary America as there were members “of Methodist or Roman Catholic churches.”

Why, then, do so few Americans seem to know this?

Although slavery was at first confined to non-Christians, a 1667 Virginia law guaranteed that baptism alone would not guarantee anyone their freedom. After that, there was a strong movement to convert all slaves (“whether Negroes, Moors, Mollattoes or Indians…”) to Christianity.

In other words, Muslims were then afraid to openly practice their religion. Hopefully, that part of American history will not repeat.

Resources

http://wwrn.org/articles/44124/?&place=united-states