Why This Site?

Principally, it serves the following instruction of Srila Prabhupada:

“Realization means you should write, every one of you, what is your realization…You write your realization, what you have realized about Krishna. That is required… Whenever you find time, you write. Never mind, two lines, four lines, but you write your realization…This is one of the functions of the Vaisnava. You are hearing, but you have to write also. This is cultivation of Krishna consciousness.”

Secondly, the participating writers create a forum for exchanging ideas and insights, with the intent of helping one another in his or her appreciation of Krishna consciousness. Continuing with Prabhupada’s instruction, “Hear, write, remember, try to understand…So that intelligence will come if you try to understand Krishna.” To this goal, responses from the other participants are expected and a section of the site is provided for such comments.

Finally, contributors are encouraged to direct friends and acquaintances to the site. If the articles are compelling, then other devotees, or general readers, may find it beneficial.

Twenty Reasons to Visit India

By Nalinikantha dasa

1- Increase your chanting and reading.
2- Austerities (the grueling travel and expenses, for example) empower you materially and spiritually.
3- Rid yourself of sins by bathing in the empowered water from the spiritual world, at Kumbha Mela in Haridwar; on the day of Chaitra Purnima, for example, the planetary combinations hadn’t been as powerful in 785 years.
4- Visit saintly people, such as the 105-year old naisthika brahmacari at Uttarakashi who gave us his invaluable blessings.
5- Spontaneously rise early after ignoring TV at night.
6- Give in charity by feeding 400 brahmanas for only $100.
7- Live for a week in a spiritual city where everyone is doing their devotional services…it transcended Woodstock by far!
8- Go to holy places like Sri Radha-Kunda, which confer increased love of Godhead.
9- See Srimate Radharani at the Krsna-Balaram Mandir in Vrndavan, who is most merciful and is the most beautiful Deity on this planet.
10- No dealing with mail and phone calls and “duties.”
11- Eat lighter, eat less, feel stronger.
12- Bow down at Sri Goverdhana Hill, Who is Krishna Himself.
13- See Srila Prabhupada in his room in Vrndavana, and remember the good times we had with His Divine Grace, and pray that we can get back to be with him eternally.
14- Buy devotional items for your Deities, and for yourself, at much less cost than at ISKCON stores.
15- Share your commitment to Srila Prabhupada with younger, foreign-born devotees who think they don’t have a relationship with him.
16- Pray at the Samadhi of Srila Rupa Goswami, who is our spiritual master (Jayadwaita’s mocking of such devotion notwithstanding) and who helped inspire Srila Prabhupada to come and lift us out of our darkness.
17- Try to actually think of self-realization.
18- Avoid looking at the beautiful women in the West. Sex drive is automatically reduced by going there.
19- Spend your earned money in a divine way.
20- Remember that Sri Vrndavan is our real home. Back to Home, Back to Godhead, my friends!

Nalinikanta das, April 2010

PS… I was fortunate to travel there for almost three weeks, with my wife Ratnesvari dasi,with Guru das from Denver, and with Pragitam from Boulder. Thanks for your encouragement and wonderful company

About Krishna Bhavana

By Caitanya Candra dasa

I was visiting my brother who, like me, inhabits a body that is predominantly African-American. As such (and for reasons that I am unable to succinctly articulate), we share an ineffable affinity with others of similar hue. My sap-like spiritual awakening occurred simultaneously with my progressive understanding of the daily ramifications of race-consciousness in America, and of my belonging to a marginalized and resented part of that population. Understanding and managing an inbred, systemic, and crippling contempt towards one’s self and one’s “own,” produces a corrosive effect that is as alien to the perpetrator, as it is to the human condition, itself. This was our “surreality,” the constant reminder that we were the “perverted reflection” of Anglo perfection. With my parent’s help, I managed to avoid the pathological self-loathing that such systems foster in its victims. And, it was with no small satisfaction that I read Srila Prabhupada’s elucidation of the principle that we were, in fact, not these bodies.

I remember my first visits to the New Dwarka temple, in the early 1980’s. Unlike many of the religious institutions with which I was familiar, the Hare Krishna community was comprised of individuals from as diverse a swath of humanity as I had seen. And although I was not surprised to find a minority of “black-bodied” practitioners amongst the populace, I was impressed with the diversity of peoples at the weekly Sunday Feast, and by the easy and respectful manner with which Krishna devotees of all colors and cultures accorded one another.

One simple, yet poignant memory was the first time I attended mangla-arotik I stood outside the ornate wooden doors and listened to the call of the conch, and the indigenous rhythms of mrdanga, kartalas, and chanting inside. One or two devotees scurried past me, and into the temple. The opened doors momentarily emitted an eddy of transcendent sound, and a wave of aromatic patchouli. I was utterly dumbfounded. A soft, accented, and musical voice to my right aroused me from my reverie.

“Haribol, spirit soul, what is your name?”

I turned to see a bramachari of Jamaican origin. His entire face radiated peace, and he wore the most natural smile. Unlike other devotees, he had a full-head of thick wooly hair. His age could have been thirty, or it could have been fifty—it was impossible to tell. I don’t recall the particulars of our brief conversation, but I explained that I had read the Bhagavad Gita, and that I had begun chanting the maha mantra. He asked me if I had any japa mala. My quizzical countenance answered, and in no time, he produced a set of japa beads and instructed me in their use. He told me his name was Krishna Bhavana, and he guided me through the protocols of entering the temple.

After I joined the New Dwarka community, my younger brothers Jeffery and Jarrett visited periodically. Adolescents at the time, one was admittedly more interested in the prasadam, and the other, in the bramacharinis than either was in the philosophy. Still, I thought it important that they experience a truly integrated environment where one was not automatically categorized on the basis of one’s body. I made a point to introduce them to Krishna Bhavna. He welcomed them as “young prabhus,” and they basked in the warm approval of this gentle soul.

During the seven years that I lived in New Dwarka, it was only natural to see Krishna Bhavana regularly. We did not form the kind of close bond that I had with my sankirtan god-brothers. This was due, in part, to the respect with which I always accorded him. As time and circumstance required many from that era to leave the comfort of bramacharya, and embrace the duty of the grihasta ashram, so too did Krishna Bhavana and I, each in our own time.

So there I was, twenty-five years later, visiting my brother, (the one interested in the bramacharinis). He lives in a predominantly ethnic part of Los Angeles, known to many as “the hood.” We were famished at the time, and my brother mentioned that there was a Hare Krishna restaurant on Slauson, near his apartment. I found this difficult to believe, but as we wound our way to the location, there it was: a small preaching center and restaurant right in the heart of the “the hood.” The owner-operator was none other than Krishna Bhavana. The only evidence of age was the whitening of his beard and full head of woolen hair. His nonchalant smile recognized us as we entered, and we knew that we were as at home there as we were in New Dwarka.

He served us generous portions of Caribbean-styled vegetarian “soul-food.” As we reconnected and shared our respective circumstances, he explained that Krishna had guided his endeavors, and that he had been fortunate enough able to render “some small service to Srila Prabhupada.” With unassuming dignity and quiet wisdom, he had brought a little piece of New Dwarka to the African-American community where my brother and I had come of age. I was humbled that this simple soul had remained quietly committed to living the principles of bhakti yoga, honestly and without pretense. As important was the realization that, if practiced with grace and humility, Prabupada’s prescription for perfection is open equally to all, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, culture, race, education, or social status. I cannot think of one other secular or religious institution that has accomplished half as much.

Oneness

By Paratrikananda dasa

Is there ever a comprehensive unification of existence between living beings? Do we have any substantive connection other than a temporal proximity to one another? We band together for safety and companionship, and with great labor weave emotional bonds fated to be torn apart. We exist like survivors of a great shipwreck who converge and huddle in the ocean, but one by one succumb to hypothermia, or thirst, or aquatic predators, or madness, or are swept away by the thrashing waves, again to drift alone. When our time comes, no one can save us. In the beginning we’re alone. In the end we’re alone. In between we chase the mirage of friendship and love.

But in the illimitable sphere, there is umbilical affiliation between the self and our omnipotent counterpart. It is refulgent and inextinguishable. We two percipient beings—one, origin, the other, destination; one, subject, the other, object; one, energetic, the other, energy—though infinitely different, are kindred inseparables. Though not one, there is oneness.

They began to embrace Krsna to their hearts’ content, and the distress of separation was mitigated immediately. They were just like great sages who, by their advancement of knowledge, merge into the existence of the Supreme. As the Supersoul living in everyone’s heart, Lord Krsna could understand their minds; they had come to Him despite all the protests of their relatives, fathers, husbands, brothers, and all the duties of household affairs. They came just to see Him who was their life and soul. They were actually following Krsna’s instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā: one should surrender to Him, giving up all varieties of occupational and religious duties. The wives of the brāhmanas actually carried out the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā in total. He therefore began to speak to them, smiling very magnificently. It should be noted in this connection that when Krsna entered into the wives’ hearts and when they embraced Him and felt the transcendental bliss of being merged with Him, the Supreme Lord Krsna did not lose His identity, nor did the individual wives lose theirs. The individuality of both the Lord and the wives remained, yet they felt oneness in existence. When a lover submits to his lover without any pinch of personal consideration, that is called oneness. Lord Caitanya has taught us this feeling of oneness in His siksastaka: Krsna may act freely, doing whatever He likes, but the devotee should always be in oneness or in agreement with His desires. That oneness was exhibited by the wives of the brāhmanas in their love for Krsna.

KB, 1.23
Delivering the Wives of the Brahmanas Who Performed Sacrifices

Prabhupada Festival in Alachua

By Nalinikanta das

Ratnesvari dasi and Nalinikanta dasa’s house, recently expanded with the addition of a nice-sized Temple room, was “initiated” with a festival to honor His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada on Feb. 27, 2010. More than 200 devotees participated, and all acclaimed the ecstatic atmosphere.

Joy spreads wherever and whenever Srila Prabhupada is glorified. By his mercy we know of Lord Krishna, Lord Caitanya, the disciplic succession and the divine path of going back to Godhead through chanting the Holy Names in love of God. Without Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, we are destined to wander in the covered shell of this dark universe, seeking sense gratification through millions of life-forms, and repeating the never-ending cycle of birth and death.

Who can sufficiently honor such a great pure devotee and acharya? Certainly it is beyond our power, but on this wonderful evening we joined together to try. Badahari and Purusartha Prabhus led an ecstatic bhajan, while Prabhupada’s murti was bathed by all the devotees in milk, honey, sugar water, Ganga jal and yogurt. Then, Balavanta, Trivikrama Swami, Ambarish dasa, Samapriya dasi, Adwaita Acharya das, Hamsavatara, Nalini, and Haripuja all told short stories about His Divine Grace’s lila in different areas of the world. Remembrances were followed by a great feast of at least ten large preparations cooked by different devotees who volunteered their services.

After 375 plates were distributed (I guess many Hare Krishnas take two plates!), our featured speaker, Guru das from SF, talked for 1 1/2 hours on Srila Prabhupada’s pastimes in SF, London (with George Harrison) and in Vrndavan.

The festival ended with a bhajan and abhiseka christening the new Srila Prabhupada Memorial Hall. The Memorial Hall is a lovely room decorated with pictures of Srila Prabhupada, plaques honoring him for various accomplishments, and a glass case filled with items he personally used during his lifetime among us.

Without question, a great time was had by all, and Ratnasvari and I are committed to holding it again next year—so put it on your calendar! It will be held Friday March 18, the day before Gaura Purnima. And remember, the day after the Srila Prabhupada Memorial Festival the Alachua ISKCON Temple celebrates Gaura Purnima, a wonderful event with hundreds of devotees attending throughout the day. So make your travel plans early to be here next spring—-the more people who participate, the more service we can do for Srila Prabhupada!

Titanic Worms

By Visvamrtra dasa

Surprisingly, the man who discovered the sunken wreckage of the
Titanic declares a different discovery to be his greatest claim to
fame. Bob Ballard says his most significant ocean-floor-finding is
not the legendary passenger ship, but instead massive tube worms
that silently inhabit the bottom of the sea.

Ballard, it turns out, accidently uncovered these six-foot long
worms while leading an expedition off the coast of the Galapagos
Islands of Charles Darwin fame. The huge worms dwell 8,000 feet
below the surface of the ocean, where they live in total darkness,
thriving by a process called chemosynthesis, or deriving life
energy from chemicals. Whereas plants synthesize sunlight to
produce energy (photosynthesis), in a previously unknown process
these worms draw their life-sustaining energy directly from the
earth. Discovering these worms and their means of surviving at
these depths has rocked the boats of biology and chemistry, and
required standard textbooks to be revised to encompass these
findings.

Beyond a basic interest in the discovery, I found the interview
with Ballard to be an excellent confirmation of Srila Prabhupada’s
Vedic teachings. One definition of knowledge is “acquaintance with
truth or fact”. Real knowledge must explain the nature of things
as they are, rather than simply speculate on how they might be. It
never fails to amaze me how so much information is presented as
fact, when it is in reality an “authority’s” guesswork. It is an
observation made via imperfect senses and then speculated on via
limited intelligence—but nevertheless it is presented as “fact”
and “truth”.

Information based on imperfect sources will always need revision,
because only perfect knowledge is free from defects. But one can
never have perfect knowledge from imperfect sources.
The ancient Vedas offer inquisitive minds a source of eternal,
unchanging knowledge. Discoveries such as Ballard’s are
anticipated by the student of the Vedas, because the Vedas explain
that life exists everywhere. The the living force (atma) is
present everywhere, and the physical body is manifested from the
five elements, namely, earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Since
these elements are available everywhere, the atma can draw upon
them to form a physical body anywhere in the universe. As such,
the Vedas describe how there are 8,400,000 different species of
life, which are the number of various combinations of these
elements. Some of these species have bodies suitable for living in
environments that scientists would not conceive as possible,
because they are limited by the idea that matter can produce life
only in very limited circumstances. But Ballard’s tube Worms are a
shining example of how life can exist anywhere, because life
creates the body, rather than the body creating life.

The more I witness the follies of the modern scientist the more my
faith grows in Srila Prabhupada and the Vedas. I prefer to accept
knowledge from a person of impeccable character who has
demonstrated his realization of the Absolute Truth, rather than
rely on “highly educated” sources who are constantly revising
their knowledge claims and who are so flawed in character. When it
comes to reliable information, i prefer to have “cash-in-hand” as
opposed to the meaningless “post-dated check”.

National Treasure

By Raghu G

Many less developed countries in Asia and Africa have increasingly come to embrace their National Treasures such as wildlife parks or magnificent temples of yore. Although these sites may have commercial prospects, these governments recognize the greater economic benefit gained through tourism by protecting the original charm of these places. Such preservation also enhances the cultural history of these nations.

Vrindavan is India’s Disneyland of Vedic Times, and Vrndavana’s Keshi Ghat is the Gateway to that Magic Kingdom, heralded for generations in tales, poetry, paintings and, more recently, photos of its mystic wonder. It is the entrance to the charmed land of Vrindavan. But presently, plans are underway to degrade the grandeur of Vrindavan by constructing a traffic bridge right in front of Kesi Ghat. Imagine putting an ugly commercial bridge in front of Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom Castle! Or Agra’s Taj Mahal! Or the Eiffel Tower!

Many devotees are opposing this construction for many reasons, religious, cultural, etc., but one important objection can actually be made on economic grounds. This is a good approach because the bridge is being built in the name of commerce. So to appeal the issue from an economic angle is perhaps the most convincing argument against it.

For decades, Vrindavan has enjoyed a steadily increasing flow of tourism. Such tourism brings foreign currency and long term investment. All of this depends on Vrindavan’s draw as a unique pilgrimage site. In fact, it has been the prime source of Vrindavan’s economic development for the last few decades. The growth of the tourism industry has proven more reliable than any other regional economic investment program over the past 50 years.

India’s economy is booming today, yet to find a economic program surpassing the success of Vrindavan’s is difficult to find. Remember, Vrindavan has 5,000 years of history to market, along with 5,000 temples, many of architectural splendor. At the same time, the expanding interest in Vaishnavism is another source of increasing interest in Vrndavan.

Much of the planning of this bridge has been pinned to the old sectarian
sub-plots of Muslim or other anti-Hindu prejudices, but such notions distract
from the broader issue of the extraordinary opportunities Vrindavan offers.
The world’s appetite for India’s ancient histories is growing dramatically, and all things associated with the personality of Krishna are gaining from this and taking an ever larger share of this fast developing market. What a shame to destroy the mystique of Vrindavan’s ambiance just as it is moving center stage to these global developments!

Vrindavan’s international standing exceeds the local nature so typical of
India’s other communal conflicts. The historical reach and cultural treasure
trove that is Vrindavan, lends itself to that exclusive club more reflective of World Wonders like those of the Great Pyramids of Egypt or the Vatican of Rome. Imagine Italy undermining the beauty of the Vatican with similar traffic bridge—it is absurd. And doing such a thing in Vrndavan should seem equally absurd.

So the construction of this bridge needs to be stopped in the interest of India’s heritage, and also for the economic benefit of the area. But opposition to this bridge can be seen as a starting point for even greater plans to promote the glory of India’s spiritual heritage. Even something as simple as a policy of formal recognition would be an important step forward. It is critical to strengthen the protections for these irreplaceable sites. But for the immediate future, let’s return Keshi Ghat to its former glory as a step in preserving the ancient treasures of Asia.

The Gold Standard

by Bhutatma dasa

Deconstructionism is a theory of textual interpretation that challenges the belief in ultimate or objective meaning. It rejects claims to objective truth by asserting there is no direct, single interpretation of a literary work, but rather many valid interpretations, as the meaning of literature is dependent on the reader’s experiences and the impersonal forces that surround the work’s creation. At its core, it is decidedly “anti-metaphysical,” and is therefore opposed by anyone who accepts the principle of absolutes, including the belief that bona fide religious texts are dictated by a supernatural being.

In the view of the deconstructionist, the author’s intent is not particularly significant, as the work’s meaning is defined by the reader’s perception. Srila Prabhupada was not on board with this sort of open interpretation, “The author of a book knows very well what is the purpose of (his) book. That is my statement.” In a lecture in Vrndavana in 1976, he elaborated on this point by referring to the book Shah Jahan by D.L. Raya. Shah Jahan appears to be the story of the Shah’s son, Aurenzab. However, because Raya’s intent was to show how all the exploits of Aurenzeb tortured the soul of his father, it is the Shah who is the main character and therefore the book is named Shah Jahan. Prabhupada quotes the author, “Because Shah Jahan was living, sitting in the Agra Fort as a prisoner, and all the reactions of Aurangzeb’s activities, the killing of his other sons, usurping the empire, that was beating on his heart; therefore he was suffering. He is the hero.”

This endorsement of direct, objective understanding of a text does not mean that there is no scope for new spiritual insights. These insights are invigorating and encouraged by Srila Prabhupada, and as such, he approved philosophical speculation. “Anyone may read Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagawatam repeatedly throughout his whole life and yet find in them new light of information.” (SP purport SB 1.1.19) However, he carefully distinguished philosophical speculation from mental speculation by insisting such contemplations never lose their grounding in the clear explanations of the acaryas. The authorized meaning of the text must not be lost in the process. The deconstructionist, however, is really only limited in his interpretation of a book or passage by his own imagination.

The impropriety of relying on a reader’s subjective perception to create new and fanciful meanings for a religious text is certainly familiar to all devotees. Nevertheless, over the years I have seen the same mistaken idea promoted (sometimes overtly, sometimes tacitly) in relation to creatively defining a person’s spiritual position. As deconstructionism calls for the observer (reader) to be the arbitrator of what a text means, the same flawed practice of “constructing meaning” has been used as a process for determining a person’s spiritual qualifications. As a result, devotees who lack the objective qualifications for accepting an exalted spiritual position are nevertheless “awarded” such transcendental status and heedlessly forge ahead on the “strength” of their followers’ perceptions. But if anything is to be based on objective standards, would it not be the credentials for assuming the most esteemed spiritual posts? Without objective measures, every devotee swiftly becomes a “law unto himself”, with the awesome power to create a spiritual master by his or her individual fiat.

It is essential to maintain unassailable objective standards, based on qualities of consciousness, as the basis for representing the Divine at the highest level. For example, a person must have manifestly transcended the four defects (“without trace of mistake, illusion, cheating, and imperfection” SB 1.3.25). If we abandon these, out of either expediency or vanity, and gauge a person’s spiritual status via subjectively constructed measures, we are left with a form of spiritual anarchy. Consider it in this light, if we should take such a notion seriously, it would also necessarily work in the other direction— meaning, the self-realization of exalted souls such as Narada Muni would be somehow dependent on our acknowledgement!

The qualifications of a spiritual master, such as the above mentioned freedom from the four defects, are true and objective standards that require one to possess a state of consciousness untouched by the material energy. Real standards have nothing to do with what a conditioned soul believes or doesn’t believe. In this domain, there is no place for the “construction” of anything, specifically none via a perceiver who sees the world through a conditioned mind and imperfect senses.

If I can be allowed to make a poetic leap, the entire enterprise all seems sadly akin to Berkeley’s idealism, a philosophy that can be debunked, as they say, with a wooden bat in a dark closet. The point being, there is a world that exists independent of our perceptions. Imagining doesn’t make it so. Krishna defines what is real and we are well-served to follow His guiding principles. True knowledge is reality distinct from illusion, and so it is that both the objective standards for understanding sacred texts, as well as the objective standards for recognizing people of super-consciousness, must be eternally preserved and treasured. It is non-negotiable.

The King of Heaven

by Paratrikananda dasa

He watched the small insect venture cross the desk toward his lunch. Poising to swat it out of existence, he abruptly remembered something he read:

If you don’t attain Krsna in this life, then again you go back to the process of birth and death. That’s all. And in that process of birth-death, sometimes you become Indra and sometimes you become that small bug, that’s all, according to your karma.

He broke off a bit of cookie and shared it with his tiny brother creature. Then, slouching upon a spongy, synthetic draped throne he repaired to his digital domain. This was his kingdom. Here, in a sunlight hampered cubicle, he reigned over an infinity of binary vassals. With his mighty mouse scepter he commanded an involuted mesh of petrochemicals, processed sand, and spun metal, to flick little sparks of fire from one point to another. You wouldn’t know it, but he used to chuck lightning bolts across the skies in grand fashion—he was once the king of heaven.

Did Intelligent Design Happen by Chance?

By Caitanya Candra dasa

I took the opportunity a few nights ago to watch the documentary entitled “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” The actor and dead-pan comedian, Ben Stein produced and starred, and was doing a fairly good Michael Moore impression as a neo-nebbish on the move. The documentary depicted Mr. Stein traversing the globe interviewing proponents and opponents of “intelligent design,” (ID). The conflict centered primarily on academics that had been denied tenure, or sanctioned in some way by their colleagues, simply for questioning many of the conclusions surrounding theories of evolution, and for propounding the possibility that something other than chance caused human life. Wow! The question with which I had been grappling for most of my life was going to be debated by the most educated people on the planet. I was in.
Full-disclosure requires that I mention that I majored as an undergraduate in Mass Communications and Broadcast Production; I worked in radio and video production; I currently teach secondary English, writing, and debate; I have a doctorate from UCLA in the field of Education; I worked and taught in academe for twenty years; and, I am a Vaishnava who allows for the possibility of the Vedic version of ID—despite (or perhaps, as a result of) my post-graduate training as an empiricist. My interest and understanding of the subject and methods flow from several founts. And, I have found myself arguing aspects of both sides at various points in time.
The documentary’s Ph.D proponents of ID contended that the universe is much too complex and ordered to have happened by chance. Proponents claimed that they were not suggesting religious “creationism,” per se. Some think that alien intervention in our early history might account for evolutionary processes (or gaps). Scientist and writer Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 novel 2001 A Space Odyssey spoke to this directly—but the text is located in the fiction section. Nor did proponents of ID suggest that they might use scientific methods of inquiry to prove their claim. Instead, proponents seem to be trying to find the holes in evolutionary theory as propounded initially by Charles Darwin. Of course, this isn’t hard given that Darwin himself noted a number of the inconsistencies (as would any good researcher). Academic opponents (primarily objectivists who believe nothing that cannot be empirically verified) dismiss the design premise as unsupported superstition. Curiously, many appeared to accept evolution as absolute fact, despite the persistent gaps in understanding.
Stein’s piece did a half-hearted job of trying to appear “fair and balanced” for the first hour. It allowed the proponents to appear to be bitter at not making the academic fit. After all, denial of tenure after fifteen years of work is pretty much a show-stopper for an academic—almost no other institution will touch you. It made the opponents of ID appear to be self-righteous, pompous egoists (which they probably were). The alleged “persecution” of IDs may well be a response to the early days of scientific inquiry when the church persecuted scientific thinkers with imprisonment, torture, and death (in that order). In this regard, academics may be somewhat gentler than their religious counterparts.
Still, it took the better part of an hour to discern on which side of the debate Mr. Stein’s self-described “conservative” sensibilities lay. In the last thirty minutes, however, the piece began likening opponents of ID to Nazi’s—literally. Stein visited a Third Reich concentration camp and droned in a voice-over how Hitler used Darwin’s theories to support the notion of eugenics and “genetic cleansing” of “inferior races.”
It is fair to say that my background has given me a comprehensive understanding of the art of using mass-media and rhetorical techniques to manipulate an audience, but I still felt disappointed that Mr. Stein chose to be so blatant in his manipulation (and yes, I have taken Michael Moore to task for as much). The unfortunate aspect is that Stein seemingly wasted an opportunity to actually have the polemics identified and discussed. None of the interviewees from either side elucidated a single fact that supported their premise. Given the manipulation addressed above, I suspect that this had more to do with the nature of the questions and the editing decisions of the producer.
The primary problem with this debate is the limitation of the Judeo-Christian concept of creation, which, although allegorical in nature, has been treated as if it were factual by a larger number of Americans than I am wont to admit. Unfortunately, due to more reasons than space and time allow, American society remains cruelly ignorant of most other explanations, including the Vedic and scientific explanations. This has led proponents of ID to distance themselves from biblical revelations, which has led to, frankly, other conjectures that are as unlikely and unsustainable (aliens..indeed). Again, full-disclosure: I am not a fundamentalist. I do not accept as fact anything that I have not been able to verify using both empirical and metaphysical methods of acquiring and analyzing data. I, however, am open to the possibility of anything that has not been roundly disproved. This, again, is another anomaly, given that scientific method posits: one cannot prove that something isn’t. I cannot verify that Lord Brahma exists, nor can I verify otherwise. Therefore, it behooves me to be open to either perspective so long as the matter remains unsettled.
It seems clear that both sides of the debate carry a vested interest in obfuscating an understanding of absolute truth, even as both claim to raise the standard in support of such an understanding. It would be too easy to write off both columns as flat caricatures, as Stein has done when both neo-religious proponents and academics have used methods of persuasion that curiously result in both being elevated to positions of prestige and power far above the masses to whom they administer said understanding. Most of the atrocities that have occurred over the first 1900 years AD have been perpetrated as a result of, or, sanctioned by religion. Most modern-day atrocities have been the result of, or sanctioned by scientific inquiry. A review of the history of religion and its bastard off-spring, academe, suggests that this makes perfect sense. Academe is a direct secular product of religion, and as the old folks say, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Regarding my own inquiry into the matter, I can say that I have been open to and I have considered every opinion, fact, revelation, conjecture, speculation, and lie that I could find on the subject. Unfortunately, my own debates on the matter often included boisterous exchanges wherein I used my knowledge of methods of persuasion to dominate whatever viewpoint I espoused. These included speaking with an air of absolute certainty even when wrong, (a method that I learned in ISKCON, and perfected at UCLA), and using other methods to discredit the opposing perspective. But, I have never found one fact that validates what I feel.
After forty-five years of said consideration, I came to the same conclusion that I did at the age of four. “Something caused all of this, and it wasn’t me.” It would be nice to say that after years of alternating between rigorous inquiry, prayer, meditation, austerity, research, reading, celibacy, yoga, and outright begging, that the absolute truth of the matter has been revealed to (or at least understood by) me. It hasn’t. I don’t know, nor is it likely that I will. But then, I seek to clarify, not to obfuscate; I can admit that I don’t know perhaps because I am neither a religionist, nor an academic and I think it a good chance that neither is our intelligent designer.