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Apologia Report 16:15 (1,065)
May 6, 2011
Subject: The "Tibetan Book of the Dead" hoax
In this issue:
BUDDHISM - The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a 1927 hoax blending "theosophy and Celtic folklore"
FREEDOM OF RELIGION - Family Research Council named "hate group"
ORIGINS - new book argues that human genome shows "non-intelligent design"
SCIENCE - its need to recognize that "the world itself is ambiguous and cannot be seen clearly"
YOGA - Newsweek uses the word "cult" to describe modern yoga
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BUDDHISM
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography, by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. [1] -- reviewer James F. DeRoche reports: "The Tibetan Book of the Dead is not really Tibetan, as Lopez (Buddhist & Tibetan studies, Univ. of Michigan) points out here, but an American publication of 1927 by Walter Evans-Wentz. Lopez provides a history of this Western book, whose shape was heavily influenced by Evans-Wentz's interests in theosophy and Celtic folklore. Evans-Wentz, never a Buddhist, believed that spiritualist teachings were universal. His book's prefaces, commentaries, and addenda make up more than twice as much material as the translation of the Tibetan text. Thus Evans-Wentz misled many American readers, who assumed there was one definite Tibetan text, transmitted from an Indian teacher named Padmasambhava, but this is inaccurate. For one thing, Tibet's original Bardo Thodol wasn't a written but an oral recitation passed down by monks, any of whom may have added to it or omitted portions. Lopez instructs us on all of this, some of which may be heavy going for lay readers. He reminds readers that there are many varied Tibetan exemplars; we aren't sure when they were first written down. No exemplar is widely known in Tibet. VERDICT: A scholarly and informative short read, very useful as a reminder that religious books are not necessarily fixed entities." Library Journal, Feb 15 '11, p112.
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FREEDOM OF RELIGION
"Family Research Council Named 'Hate Group' by Watchdog Organization" (no byline) -- "Leaders of the Family Research Council (FRC) are seething over the Southern Poverty Law Center's designation of the prominent Religious Right outfit as a 'hate group.' ...
"In November, the organization issued a new bulletin analyzing hate-crimes data spanning 14 years. The report included crimes against gays and listed 18 groups with virulently anti-gay records. "Thirteen of the 18 anti-gay organizations were designated hate groups, and the FRC was on the list.
"CNN reported that the SPLC said the 13 groups made the list 'based on their propagation of known falsehoods - claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities - and repeated, groundless name-calling." Examples are cited.
"Robert Knight, a former FRC employee, has a long history of extreme anti-gay activism. He once wrote, '[T]here is a strong current of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture. [T]hey want to promote a promiscuous society.' ...
"Among the other Religious Right organizations designated as hate groups by the SPLC were: the American Family Association, ... and the Traditional Values Coalition. Two 'Christian Reconstructionist' groups that have called for imposing Old Testament law on America were also listed: American Vision and the Chalcedon Foundation." Church & State, Feb '11, p17. <www.j.mp/gqG8uT>
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ORIGINS
Inside the Human Genome: A Case for Non-Intelligent Design, by John C. Avise [2] -- Stephen F. Matheson notes in his review that "Avise's first goal is to detail the myriad ways in which the human genome - in function and in architecture - is an exemplar, not of intelligent design, but of its apparent opposite: a 'Byzantine contrivance' with features that were 'accumulated stepwise by sloppy tinkering forces.' Mere proneness to occasional disastrous mutation would not establish that conclusion, but Avise takes his case much further and to greater effect, pointing to fundamental features of the organization of the human genome that encourage and even facilitate dysfunction on various scales. ...
"Nevertheless, the book should not be taken as a new or particularly effective rebuttal to typical claims of intelligent design theorists.
"Avise's second project, however, is less valuable. Having shown that he human genome's deep flaws lead to widespread suffering and death, he moves to conclude that this fact brings some significant resolution to Christianity's struggle with the problem of evil....
"While some may agree that natural causation rules out the work of God's 'direct hand,' the suggestion that this shifts responsibility away from him completely, does not follow." Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Mar '11, pp58-59.
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SCIENCE
The Blind Spot: Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty, by William Byers [3] -- "Science has been under siege during the last quarter century, first by critics who charge that science itself is a cultural construct and that scientists import their own belief systems into their research. Retired math professor Byers (How Mathematicians Think) argues that much of the problem lies in what he calls the 'science of certainty,' 'in which the need for certainty, power, and control are dominant.' Instead, Byers says, scientists need to recognize 'uncertainty, incompleteness, and ambiguity, the ungraspable, the blind spot, or the limits to reason.' These blind spots are embedded in the scientific method, because the world itself is ambiguous and cannot be seen clearly. Scientists ignore this at their peril. Ancient Greek mathematics, for instance, suffered from a refusal to accept the ambiguous concept of the square root of 2. Byers parses his subject methodically, although his dense subject and style may appeal more to students of the philosophy of science than average science buffs. Star Trek's Spock probably best summed up the fallacy of scientific certainty: 'Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.'" Publishers Weekly, Feb '11, n.p.
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YOGA
"Bow Down to the Yoga Teacher" by Casey Schwartz -- after quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita's authority on how an enlightened person should live, the author contrasts the current setting: "In America, yoga has become a mainstream and marketable cult - 20 million people practice regularly, according to some estimates - and its teachers are, in a sense, performers. That's why the narcissistically inclined can be drawn to the job, says Miles Neale, a Buddhist psychotherapist based in New York. Becoming a yoga teacher allows an insecure person to act spiritually superior." This too is reminiscent of the path to cultic development. Newsweek, Feb 28 '11, p8. <www.j.mp/iit4ia>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography, by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton Univ Prs, 2011, hardcover, 192 pages) <www.j.mp/kE9Ps1>
2 - Inside the Human Genome: A Case for Non-Intelligent Design, by John C. Avise (Oxford Univ Prs, 2010, hardcover, 240 pages)
3 - The Blind Spot: Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty, by William Byers (Princeton Univ Prs, 2011, hardcover, 224 pages)
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