Not Of This World

The other day, my friend was saying that nothing is forever. I looked at him and suggested, "Love?"  He shook his head. If we look at the world around us, it definitely looks like love is not forever. You don't have to look far to see relationships falling apart. Divorce is now so common that there is discussion about whether marriage should have an expiry date. But this is not what the Bible teaches: " [Love]   always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres .   Love never fails . But where there are prophecies,   they will cease; where there are tongues,   they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." (1 Corinthians 13: 7-8 NIV) Is this just a romantic notion, wishful thinking, an impossible ideal? I do not think so. The problem is that our love is an imperfect love, a human love, a broken love. It is tainted by our insecurities, our sin, our mortality. But the love of God has no such restrictions. "The life of...

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forego their use."  -Galileo Galilei (as quoted  here ).  Recently, there has been this idea in our culture that science and religion are opposed; that either you can understand the world through reason or through faith, but not both. But this is a relatively recent idea that developed during the Enlightenment. In my opinion, it is also a false idea.  This debate is of great importance to me. On the one hand, I am a scientist of language, while on the other, I am a person of faith. Some people might assume, then, that I experience a great deal of cognitive dissonance--that I have two conflicting views that I need to juggle in my head. But although I do experience cognitive dissonance in some areas, this is not the case at all when it comes to science and faith.  Faith can inform science and science can inform faith, but faith has no p...

I wasn't really in favour of the Occupy movement. It's not that I don't think that wealth should be equitably distributed. But rather, although the protestors were part of the 99% from the perspective of North America, most would be in the 1% from the perspective of the world.  (You can calculate where you stand in terms of global wealth  here .)  And how can we ask others to do for us what we're not willing to do for others who are in even greater need? “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?   How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." (Matthew 7: 3-5 NIV) In the back and forth between left and right, there is a recurring debate. Should we have a big government...

This weekend I went to a beautiful and thought-provoking art exhibit that was part of Canada's sesquicentennial (its 150th year as a country). This exhibit, though, was not a celebration, but a rebuke. It chronicled 150 years and more of oppression of the First Nations people of Canada perpetrated as part of the colonization of this land. Christian symbolism was rampant in the exhibit--from the obvious (angels in the sky, priests and nuns, a rosary with a beaver on the crucifix) to the details (a Jesus fish license plate)--and Christianity was obviously a target of rebuke. The angels in the sky overlooked abstract, dehumanized forms, lying in the street. The priests and nuns, along with RCMP officers, ripped children away from their parents to take them to residential schools.  (Read more about the exhibit and see pictures of some of the art  here .) Religion, Christianity included, can and is and has been used as a tool of oppression, countless times, in countless ways, all...