Man: The Measure of ALL Things?

If man is the measure of all things, as the Greek philosopher Protagoras said, we may be measuring “things” by a very small measure, something like using a yardstick to measure the distance from Chicago to Moscow.

Take our brains. Neuroscientists study the activities of the brain and the nervous system. Studies have focused on the functioning of the parts of the brain, such as how they interact and specialize. Some studies have looked at the reactions of the human brain to other humans. These social activities appear to occur on another level, a more complex one. It includes the parts of the brain, but is more than the sum of the parts, this interaction between two humans.

We can prove that humans exist in the scientific sense, but God cannot be seen or studied the way a human brain can. So what of the claims of those of us who are Christian that we can interact with God? We might look at this idea as one that leads us to yet another level, beyond human interaction, one that faith opens to us.

Social interaction moves a person’s focus from self to another. Faith changes the perspective even further, from examining the inhabitants of a thin atmosphere on a small planet to—what? Perhaps to a spiritual level that cannot be quantified but can be experienced.

The Joys of How and Why

A washing machine cleans clothes by the actions of the soap, water, agitator, spin, and other mechanical features. (The how.) An engineer wishing to invent a better machine or a householder looking for a newer model may profitably study these features. The ultimate reason that the machine cleans clothes, however, is because someone wants clean clothes, loads dirty clothes and soap into the machine, and turns it on. (The why.)

A computer math course taught me that we can have other number systems than the one based on ten. Computer systems, at least when I was studying them, are based on the binary system, the on/off properties of two. You go on up to four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, and so on. Presumably you can have a system based on threes or thirteens or three thousand and sevens, if you want to. In other words, the possibilities are endless.

A previous blog discussed systems that we, as yet, have no way to predict. The usual example given is the weather, which we still can’t accurately predict beyond two or three days.(In the Puget Sound region, even the prediction of a few hours can be in error.) The author theorized that these systems we can’t predict aren’t really chaotic, but we lack the knowledge to unlock them. And when we answer one question, we find a thousand more waiting.

The universe amazes us with its complexity. Humankind is equally marvelous. The study of both leaves us in awe and provides useful knowledge, but the ultimate why for these marvelous works is beyond science. That journey begins with faith that sends us in another direction.

The Rest of the Story

Critics of Christianity often criticize its followers for their failings: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the religious wars of the 1600′s and so on. What often is missed is the rest of the story, that is, what happens to the Christians when they fail so tragically to live the Christ way.

Before the spread of Islam, most Egyptians were Christians. Today, only about ten percent of the population call themselves Christians. Why did so many leave the Christian faith when Islam appeared? No doubt many reasons underlay the change. Some historians point to the Christian schisms that afflicted that part of the world before the Muslim conquest. Christianity lost its good name. The new religion may have struck many as more genuine than the old one.

The shoving aside of religion to the sidelines that began in the 1700′s was caused partly by the appalling religious conflicts of the century before. Pure reason seemed a better way, perhaps, than religious passion, than the killing and torturing of those who disagreed with you.

And for those of us today who call ourselves Christians? If we fail to live up to Christ’s teachings, should we expect any different judgement on us?

Religious Freedom: Going Deeper

The Institute for Global Engagement  encourages religious freedom worldwide. Robert and Margaret Seiple began the organization when they decided Christians should do more to foster religious freedom. Seiple, a former head of World Vision, was the first to serve as the U.S. State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, from 1998 to 2000. The organization encourages knowledge of one’s own faith and enough about another’s faith to respect it.

I lived for several years in foreign countries, including one in which I could practice my Christian beliefs only in private. When I returned home to the United States, I became aware of a lack of interest on the part of my fellow believers in the United States about other countries and cultures. Though Christians were called to go out into the world from the beginning, many American Christians, it appeared to me, fixated on domestic issues.

How do those of us who are Christians interact with other cultures and their religions? Do we want religious freedom only for, say, Christians in Saudi Arabia? Or are we also concerned when Tibetan Buddhists are persecuted in China? What about freedom for those who wish to practice no religion?

Baptists in Virginia after the American Revolution struggled for the freedom to practice their beliefs outside of the established churches. Are those of us who profess Christianity still as adamant for religious freedom as those early Baptists? Are we interested in religious freedom only as long as we are the odd ones out?

I would be interested in hearing from you, Christians and non-Christians alike, on this issue of religious freedom. The idea of publicly commenting on a blog may inhibit some of you. If this is the case, feel free to email your comments to me at islandfiction@hotmail.com. I won’t use your name or other personal information in my blog response; I’ll only comment on your thoughts.

On Looking Into Jane Austen’s World

I just finished reading Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James. It’s something of a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The book’s protagonists are a long way from Adam Dalgliesh, the investigator in James’ detective series. Yet the characters still engage in brooding inner dialog, in this case about honor and family loyalty.

Like many, I find enjoyment in Jane Austen’s novels, as well in the movies and Masterpiece Theater remakes. What is it about life portrayed in the Austen stories that accounts for the revival of interest in her work? Few of us would want to live in those days of rigid social systems, poor sanitation and medical practices, and lack of modern conveniences. Why, then, the appeal?

Perhaps we yearn for the order and civility that we lack in our lives today. Even more, the sense of family and of family loyalty, of honor and common values, appeals to us, I think.

Those times were brutal to the poor and vulnerable and stifling to others, such as women forced into limited roles. We have greater equality today and more enlightened views about women and class. We enjoy freedom of religion and are not forced by community expectations to sit through boring sermons in established churches, already calcifying even in those days.

Yet we have lost something, too, a sense of community and of belonging. We have lost standards of decency and behavior. Those in Austen’s day frequently fell from the standards they professed, but at least they had standards.

Dorothy Sayers And The Themes Of My Novels

Dorothy Sayers subtitled her book, The Mind of the Maker, as “An examination of God the creator reflected in the artistic imagination.” (Reviewed in From My Bookshelf on this site.) In this book, she dissects her own novel, Gaudy Night, a detective novel, into three parts: 1) A puzzle to be solved (the crime); 2) A human perplexity dealing with the relationships of the protagonists; 3) A conflict of values.

At novel’s end, the first, the puzzle is solved. In the second, the protagonists develop a new relationship, with possibilities for good or evil. Finally, the collision of values, is not “solvable” but the conflicting values, from their tension, may create a new, stronger value.

I applied Sayers’ ideas to my own novels. The romance, mystery, or other plot finds resolution. New relationships (both between the protagonists and between the protagonists and God) begin a growing process, that offer hope but not completion. Finally, a background theme in many of my novels is that of the Christian’s struggle in a postmodern world of shifting values.

In Singing in Babylon, the American protagonists feel exiled by their Christian faith within a country predominantly of another religion. When they return to the U.S., however, they sense exile from their consumer-hypnotized fellow citizens.

Quiet Deception unfolds in this country during the 1970′s, a boundary between a time of generally accepted common values and the time after, when those values changed and collided with others. Kim chooses a path already becoming less favored, one, in a cultural sense, of exile.

In Searching for Home, the protagonists constantly must exchange one home for another and eventually discover that the idea of home is at best a spiritual destination. No permanent home exists in this world.

My characters operate in a world that has lost its way, one in which values, including those common to most religious faiths, are questioned. Kate and Philip, Kim and Todd, Hannah and Patrick are remnant exiles. They struggle with the worth of old values as cultures collide.