Skeptical Faith

Google Image I was recently on a week-long eco-tourist expedition to the Amazonia region of Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. I saw and did lots of interesting things and among them was extended contact with indigenous communities. I listened to a couple of legendary stories, one of which is widely known in the communities around the small city of Inírida in the department, or state, of Guainia. The city is surrounded by wide, fast-flowing rivers, thick jungle and broad savannas. For most of the year, the only way in or out is by plane or boat. The rivers are full of fish which are continuously chased by frequently breeching river dolphins. The stories I heard had striking similarities to those in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and I was struck by the similarity in their moral messages as well, as in the story of Princess Inídira. "Little Mirror" According to the legend of the Puinave people, Inídira, whose name means “Little Mirror of the Sun,” ...

Google Image Tiffany Haddish was “the breakout star of last summer's raucous hit movie, Girl's Trip, and last month became the first African-American woman stand-up comedian to host Saturday Night Live ,” according to a recent article on the National Public Radio (NPR) web site. In an interview, she recalled times of struggle. "Life happened for me," she said. "But I just kept pushing 'cause I know what I'm supposed to do here on this earth." Imagine what “this earth” would be like if more people had a sense of purpose. I haven’t read the  “The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?” by Rick Warren – which Amazon calls the  “best-selling non-fiction hardback in history” – but I like the title. It asks a question everyone should ask, but few do. The question is intimidating. But it must be asked because it has so much to do with our search for God. Among those searching for God in the Christian tradition, we should, perhaps...

Google Image This blog is published every Thursday. But for the first time in five years, I won’t be publishing Skeptical Faith next Thursday, Jan. 11. I’ll be on a week-long expedition to an ecologically rich area on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. I hope to publish again on Jan. 18. As a graduate student in Journalism/Mass Communications in the late 1970s, I surveyed Catholic students about their religious beliefs and practices. I partnered with the Catholic student parish and fortunately, with a professor in the Sociology Department who was the university’s expert on polling. In the process, I learned a lot about sampling, most of which I’ve forgotten. But I was much more interested in how students would respond. In general, the results were encouraging for the parish. The students were fairly orthodox in their beliefs and by today’s standards, conservative in their practices and behaviors. Most attended Mass regularly. Most were drug-free. Most agre...