ifdarwinprayed.com

When I was growing up I must have memorized thousands of songs. I don't have a memory of ever saying to myself, "I'm going to memorize every song that comes on the radio."  It seemed to be an unconscious passion. I remember walking with Gary Last to hockey practice in the middle of a Winnipeg winter, with our duffle bags full of equipment slung over our shoulders, and we'd be working on songs. It could be any kind of music. I had an old turntable beside my bed that stacked LPs one on top of the … [Read more...]

What is your instinctive response to this image of the church? If you lived in Vancouver, chances are that it wouldn't be positive. Which makes what happened this past Sunday quite remarkable. Eight wonderful souls decided to join our congregation. Five were by reaffirmation of baptismal vows, three were by adult baptism, and one was by transfer of faith. I mention this because there was a time, not so long ago, when virtually all new members would be by transfer. Adult baptisms would come along … [Read more...]

Dr. Daniel Siegel assures us that there is no such animal as immaculate perception. But there are evidenced-based practices that can move us in the right direction. While away in Tofino, B.C. for a few days of beach walking, Ann and I have been working our way through his book, The Mindful Therapist. Dr. Siegel is an MD, (pediatrician and psychiatrist), who has spent a lot of time doing brain research. Here's a two minute video where he offers a simple model of how the brain … [Read more...]

I was once asked to write a piece describing evolutionary theology in six hundred words or less. I know, it's ridiculous. But I gave it a shot anyway. Actually, I've expanded it a bit because it's my blog. In the song Lord of the Starfields Bruce Cockburn’s praises his God: “O Love that fires the sun, keep me burning”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWAVJJE8pM After 13.7 billion years, the love that fired the universe into being is still firing through an evolutionary process … [Read more...]

"I said I'd be your lover You laughed at what I said I lost my job forever I was counted with the dead" (You Have Loved Enough—Leonard Cohen) In most pursuits—sports, writing, preaching, cutting out sugar, keeping my body in decent condition—I can count on discipline to come through for me. I have a finally honed and heeled will. Once I put my mind to something, and truly make a decision, I usually "succeed" in accomplishing what I set out to do. That's not an entirely bad … [Read more...]

Recently, I heard biologist, Elisabet Sahtouris, offer a great analogy that helps me to interpret the Easter story. Noting that physicists talk about sound vibrations at various frequencies as constitutive of the universe, she employs the image of a cosmic keyboard. Science deals with the low and mid-range frequencies, matter and electro-magnetic energy. Religion plays on the higher part of the keyboard in the realm of Spirit. Spiritual folk tend to make sense of the world by starting at the top … [Read more...]

Principles of Evolutionary Culture[1]  I'm struck by how little emphasis there has been in liberal Christian congregations on teaching people the core principles and practices for how to actually love each other as communities of faith. Many congregations have "core values", but how are these to be enacted? In truth, congregations end up far too often being cultures of suffering, as our lack of skillful means for loving relationship all too often wreaks havoc in congregational life. Can you … [Read more...]

Find a friend who is willing to skinny-dip with you in the waters of the Eternal Now. Linger in the unspeakable beauty of eyes that have lost their fear. (Infancy may have been the last time you indulged in such extravagant pleasure). It's time to remember the Promise.   When you’ve maxed out on ecstasy, look behind the eyes, below the personal, and whoa, you are floating in Infinity’s Ocean. (Don’t worry, you’ll know when to come up for … [Read more...]

T.J. Dawes, over at www.beamsandstruts.com, referred to a book in a recent post, A Mind Of Its Own:How the Brain Distorts and Deceives, by Cordelia Fine. Intrigued, I downloaded it to my Kindle, and read it during a ridiculously wet holiday in Kauai. Despite her breezy and humorous style, Dr. Cordelia Fine, a cognitive psychologist, referred to experiment after experiment that collectively painted a rather unflattering portrait of the human condition. St. Augustine could well have used her … [Read more...]

 Abandonment to Divine Providence is considered a spiritual classic. Thomas Merton was asked about the  book’s author, Jesuit priest, Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751). His reply was short, but telling. “He’s a  spiritual genius”.  Chalk my ignorance up to a Protestant vacuum when it comes to teaching about spiritual  geniuses. His writing grew out of the Roman Catholic counter-reformation, concerned to correct the extremes  of Quietism (spiritual passivity) and a more severe … [Read more...]