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Apologia Report 17:42 (1,134)
December 5, 2012
Subject: Scientology attracts the Nation of Islam
In this issue:
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY - its telling origins and "kooky aspects" noted by secular scholar
NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS - Scientology and the Nation of Islam "join forces"?
ORIGINS - surprise, surprise: scientists reverse themselves on junk DNA
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For openers this week, we received an unprecedented number of encouraging responses to our most recent requests for feedback from all of you who are served by Apologia's ministry. Your input is greatly appreciated.
We were surprised by the evidently high number of readers who remain unaware of our back issue database, the Apologia ARchive. In spite of featuring it prominently on our web site, which was updated this year, and including a reference to the ARchive in every issue of AR, a number of you asked if there is an online collection of the content generated by Apologia. Be assured that there is. We believe it's the most important resource that Apologia has to offer. Check it out!
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HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self, by Jessica Grogan [1] (PhD in American Studies, the University of Texas at Austin) -- "Rising out of the tumultuous political and cultural climate of the 1960s, humanistic psychology, an approach centered on self-actualization, burst onto the scene in the latter part of the decade; the charge was led by psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, and though the movement sharply declined at the end of the 1970s, Grogan ... shows that it had a dynamic effect on its cultural moment. As the concept gained momentum, it broadened to include not just the individual but the community as well, culminating in Esalen [esalen.org], a free-thinking enclave on the Pacific coast whose ethos embraced encounter groups, an approach intended to help individuals work through issues, connect with others, and engage in productive introspection, but which soon morphed into a means to feed one's ego at the expense of others with the expectation of self-actualization in a weekend's time. Grogan insists that the era of humanistic psychology has had a profound impact on the American psyche, even as Rogers acknowledged in 1986 that 'a lot of the kooky aspects ... have fallen by the wayside.' Spot-on reporting, an unbiased presentation, and an admirable attention to detail make this a valuable resource for psychologists and scholars of American counterculture movements." Publishers Weekly, Nov '12 #1, n.p.
Many specialists in the New Age note that humanistic psychology lives on with a huge presence in that movement. See <www.ow.ly/fKci6>, and <www.ow.ly/fKcxC>.
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NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
"The Mothership of All Alliances: Scientology and the Nation of Islam: America's two weirdest sects join forces" by Eliza Gray -- How's this for strange? Gray begins by describing how Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI) for more than three decades, "came to embrace" Scientology in 2005. She tells of the first "large-scale introduction of Scientology to Nation members [which] took place in August 2010." It was here that "Farrakhan told the group he wanted everyone in attendance to become a certified auditor." The result? "[A]ccording to [NOI's] newspaper, Final Call [www.ow.ly/fPDDp], as of this spring, more than 1,000 members have become certified auditors and another 4,000 were studying 'some aspect of Scientology.'"
For those not familiar with the NOI, Gray explains "the Nation was explicitly conceived as a black separatist organization and a repudiation of Christianity, which Nation leader and prophet Elijah Muhammad derided as 'the slave master's religion.' Farrakhan himself has called white people 'a race of devils' and the Nation teaches that the apocalypse will involve a UFO, or 'mother plane,' that will eradicate all Caucasians." Gray goes on to describe "some striking theological overlaps that might help explain how Farrakhan came to adopt a religion invented by a white man."
Gray reports that in a video clip "posted recently by Anonymous, dated fall 2010, Farrakhan addressed a small dinner crowd in a building identified as Scientology's Celebrity Centre. The 79-year-old minister talked of his plans to build a training center in Chicago just like the one in Clearwater. 'Nobody can lead in our Nation until and unless they become clear,' he said, referring to Scientology's most enlightened state. The alliance with the Nation, he hoped, would be a 'long and beautiful relationship.'"
What is going on? Perhaps there is a connection to "the American Religious Identification Survey, [www.ow.ly/fPDI3, which states that] Scientology is shrinking; between 2001 and 2008 it estimates that the number of Scientologists in the United States fell from 55,000 to as low as 25,000. (A spokesperson for the Church dismissed this survey, claiming steady growth and millions of members worldwide.)" Stay tuned. The New Republic, Oct 25 '12, n.p. <www.ow.ly/fK67s>
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ORIGINS
"Debunking Junk: Researchers are showing that the old Darwinian ideas about 'junk' DNA were simplistic. Welcome to the new genome." by Daniel James Devine -- Until recently, scientists believed that "Out of 3 billion [DNA] bases, less than 2 percent actually manufactured the proteins making up the human body. The remaining 98 percent were apparently useless—discarded byproducts, some said, of millennia of evolution." Devine reports on "a discovery revolutionizing our understanding of the genome: At least 80 percent of human DNA - perhaps more - is biochemically active. With the help of new DNA sequencing technology, researchers have identified functions for millions of DNA segments previously dismissed as junk. Their findings, announced on a raft of 30 scientific papers released Sept. 5, reveal a genetic code breathtakingly more complex than we ever imagined, and one that challenges Darwinism.
"The papers result from a nine-year project called the 'Encyclopedia of DNA Elements,' or ENCODE [www.ow.ly/fPDOK] for short. ...
"The discoveries of ENCODE are a fulfilled prophecy in the eyes of Stephen Meyer, the director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute [discovery.org/csc], the nation's leading intelligent design (ID) think tank. Meyer said ID proponents predicted back in the 1990s that much so-called junk DNA would turn out to be functional, and 'that's exactly what's happened.'"
Devine reviews the history behind the junk DNA debate. In doing so, he mentions "Jonathan Wells, a senior fellow at the Center for Science and Culture. Wells documents the debate in his 2011 book, The Myth of Junk DNA [2]." (Unsurprisingly, Devine neglects to mention that Wells is a follower of the late Sun Myung Moon, the false messiah of the Unification Church <www.ow.ly/fKaHB>.) Cover story. World, Oct 6 '12, pp34-39. <www.ow.ly/fKaNO>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self, by Jessica Grogan (Harper, 2012, paperback, 432 pages) <www.ow.ly/fKaYH>
2 - The Myth of Junk DNA, by Jonathan Wells (Discovery Inst Prs, 2011, paperback, 150 pages) <www.ow.ly/fKaU7>
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