Skeptical Faith

Google Image As a child, I recall being a bit confused about the word “trust.” There was a bank in our town – I believe it was called Empire Trust – and I didn’t understand what trust has to do with banking. Now, of course, I understand that it has everything to do with it. Aside from federal, state and local laws, we have to trust our bank or we wouldn’t put our money there. Then there was the popular TV program called “Who Do You Trust?” The show was timed for kids coming home from school but English teachers were aghast at the title, pointing out that it should correctly have been titled “ Whom Do You Trust?” Johnny Carson was the show’s initial emcee and Ed McMahon was the announcer, starting a career-long relationship between the two. Here’s Wikipedia’s description of the show. More Interviewing Than Quizzing “Three couples competed on each show, nearly always a man and a woman chosen for their unique backgrounds; the announcer would introduce couples one at a time, and C...

Google Image I recall as a child riding in our car’s back seat with my father’s Aunt Josie, a usually kind and gentle woman who visited us occasionally. As we passed a church, she asked, “What kind of church is that?” My father responded, “Protestant,” at which she made a face of disapproval because it wasn’t Catholic.   Though we’ve a way to go, religions have come a long way toward eliminating sectarianism and embracing ecumenism. For many years, major American religions, at least, have lived in peace, supporting one another in every way that doesn’t negate our differences. Unfortunately, we can’t say that about American politics nor their adherents who engage in the culture wars. I can’t remember a time when we were more polarized as a nation. Not About Doctrine That’s not to say that religion has been unaffected. It’s just that the differences, between evangelicals on one side, for instance, and mainline Protestants and Catholics on the other, aren’t now about doctrine or...

Google Image  This blog exists because I misread a headline in a story on the online version of National Public Radio (NPR). The headline read, “ Stressed? Instead of distracting yourself, try paying closer attention.” I read “paying” as “praying,” and thought, “Wow, you don’t see that kind of headline often.” Anyway, the story was an interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus of medicine and creator of a stress reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. According to Wikipedia, Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Buddhist teachers. From a very early age, he told the interviewer, he was “interested in the whole question of "Who am I? Who are we? What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be able to think and feel, and what kind of ways do we have to navigate our own lives, chart our own path….” Deciding What Matters Those are questions, in my opinion, that everyone needs to ask, and contemporary culture especially values “navigating our ow...

Google Image Studies consistently show a relationship between faith and better mental health. But it doesn’t appear to be a simple cause-and-effect relationship, and some skeptics may acknowledge the relationship but say it’s a case of religion being an emotional crutch for believers. Whatever the case – and we’ll come back to the observation about religion-as-crutch – the studies I’ve seen are pretty uniform, including a recent one called Attachment to God and Psychological Distress: Evidence of a Curvilinear Relationship ,  authored by Matthew Henderson and Blake Kent and appearing in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Newsweek magazine identified two important contributions of the research to the study of religion and health. Better Psychological Well-Being The first is confirming that people with a secure attachment to God are predicted to have better psychological well-being. Says Blake Kent, the study’s co-author: "Attachment to God has emerged as on...