by John Taylor; 2007 October 25, 10 Ilm, 164 BE
Yesterday I had promised to attend a fireside and take some pictures but was laid out by long bouts of diarrhea. Just like old times. That and the depressing content of my reading and writing lately combined to drag down my spirits. Especially saddening is the thought of millions of children living miserable, exploited lives in the vast slums and favelas of the world, permanently exiled to shanties on the outskirts of obscure but huge cities, most of whose names we have never heard but each with a population larger than all of Canada.
This morning, feeling after a day of depression a need for prayer to start the next, I woke our children from their slumbers by reading the part of Gleanings (XXIX) which assures us that God created us for a purpose, in order "to know his Creator and attain His presence;" for the morning prayer I came across in an old compilation a selection from the following prayer and tablet of the Master evidently written to a child. It was balm to one's heart.
"O thou darling dear!
"Turn thy face toward the Supreme Kingdom and chant thou this commune:
"O Thou Pure God! I am a little child; make Thou the bosom of Thy Gift a dear resting-place of comfort, suffer me to grow and be nurtured with the honey and the milk of Thy love and train me under the breast of Thy knowledge; bestow Thou freedom while in a state of childhood and grant Thou excellence!
"O Thou Incomparable One! Make me the confident of the Kingdom of the Unseen! Verily, Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful!
"O Unequalled Lord! (A prayer for children)
"For this helpless child be a Protector; for this weak and sinful one be kind and forgiving.
"O Creator! Although we are but useless grass, still we are of Thy garden; though we are but young trees, bare of leaves and blossoms, still we are of Thy orchard; therefore, nourish this grass with the rain of Thy bounty; refresh and vivify these young, languishing trees with the breeze of Thy spiritual springtime.
"Awaken us, enlighten us, sustain us, give us eternal life and accept us into Thy Kingdom!" (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets, vol. 3, p. 588)
I think of the Master and how He spent his days, morn to eve, the whole time between His morn and eve prayers and readings doing hands-on charity work, helping the poor in every way He could, financially and administratively -- just the fact that somebody lived such a life is a comfort in itself.
What can I offer?
Nothing but thoughts and words. Let us at least direct those words where they may do good. Puffs in the wind, wherever they are blown can at least be puffed in the right direction. And I do believe, depressing as they are, that climate and poverty are what I need to be thinking and talking about.
But the thing is this.
The world's climate would not be deranged and poverty would not be widespread if only we had been attentive to our purpose, which is, we have seen, to know and enter the presence of God. All this selfishness and evil come of mass rejection of God. That is why it is essential not to look only at the outer manifestations of evil, of what Baha'u'llah calls the "metropolis of Satan," but to pay attention to the inner cause, rejection, rejection of God, and especially rejection of religion, our way to God. I found the following video important in this respect, because it shows how even secular thinkers are beginning to recognize the importance of seeing that every child is taught at least a minimum amount of facts about the various beliefs of world religions.
Here is the blurb that the TED website gives for this lecture:
"In a direct rebuttal to Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, Tufts philosophy professor Dan Dennet presents the idea of religion as a natural phenomenon -- one that has evolved over millennia to meet humanity's changing needs. While acknowledging that this idea stirs up anxiety, Dennett asserts the importance of studying religions rigorously, even proposing that children be required to study world religions along with reading and math. Dennett, who followed Warren on stage at TED2006, goes on to criticize The Purpose-Driven Life for several claims -- among them a belief that in order to be moral, one must deny evolution."
Another fascinating high-profile debate going on is the controversy between the evangelizing atheist Richard Dawkins and fellow Oxford don Alastair McGrath, who weighs in on the side of theological apologetics. TVO's wonderful lecture television series, Ideas, recently featured a talk that McGrath gave recently in Canada, and you can find that on their website archive at tvo.org, specifically the episode of October 13,
Another lecture he gave in England, called "Has science eliminated God? Richard Dawkins and the meaning of life," is available at:
http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/cis/mcgrath/mcgrath_lecture.mp3
This site comes complete with McGrath on video, an Mp3 audio version, a text version, and even his PowerPoint slides. From our Baha'i point of view, the most significant part of his lecture is the following, which of course offers evidence for the principle I categorize as p03rmb, Religion as Mighty Bulwark. Let us give McGrath the last word for today.
"A 2001 survey of 100 evidence-based studies to systematically examine the relationship between religion and human wellbeing disclosed the following:
1. 79 reported at least one positive correlation between religious involvement and wellbeing;
2. 13 found no meaningful association between religion and wellbeing;
3. 7 found mixed or complex associations between religion and wellbeing;
4. 1 found a negative association between religion and wellbeing.
"Dawkins' entire worldview depends upon precisely this negative association between religion and human wellbeing which only 1% of the experimental results unequivocally affirm, and 79% equally unequivocally reject. The results make at least one thing abundantly clear: we need to approach this subject in the light of the scientific evidence, not personal prejudice.
"I would not dream of suggesting that this evidence proves that faith is good for you. But I need to make it clear that it is seriously embarrassing for Dawkins, whose world seems to be shaped by the core assumption that faith is bad for you - a view which is unsustainable in the light of the evidence." (http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/CiS/mcgrath/lecture.html)
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