« Rebuilding Biloxi | Main | Podcasting in Elementary Education »
October 19, 2005
Resisting a God King?
Oh my! Neuroscientists protest a theocrat? Can it be so?
I was beginning to think that the Dalai Lama's claims were the last to go unchallenged; I find the bizarre intersection between self-styled American progressives and pro-theocrats inexplicable by criteria involving argument or evidence (our local Progressive Student Union sponsored a Free Tibet week recently, complete with Dalai Lama adherents).
I first bothered to look into the actual claims-on-paper the Dalai Lama makes when he spoke at my graduation from Emory; I was bemused when some friends of mine who were otherwise remarkably antireligious swooned over the being offered the opportunity to meditate in his presence and decided I should go to some reference works and look him up. I recommend the exercise. It's not at all as though the Pope were being offered the chance to talk as though the living incarnation of Jesus was doing so -- and as though there were another living incarnation of Jesus (as so often there is!) was operating in the next county over.
I'm also interested by the academic programs in Buddhism offered by Antioch College. Does any Christian educational institution in America offer credit-bearing programs for non-believers that include required practice of Christian prayer? Read the curriculum for Buddhist studies in India and for Buddhist studies in Japan and wonder what a Catholic version would be. I could design one - and it would produce students far more capable of understanding western art and architecture from 300-1800, but I can't imagine what college or university would offer credit for students chanting the daily liturgy of the hours.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 19, 2005 12:22 AM