Change: it's not as fast as you think

Do you Cherish a picture of the good old days when the horse and buggy were metaphors for the speed of invention and progress? Do those days have a certain appeal as you grapple with today's rapid change?

Well, don't get into your time machine just yet.

A report in The New York Times explains, "Swift as the pace of modern innovation may seem to those in its midst, the present rate of technological change [experts say] pales compared to the period of the late 1850's to 1903. Inventions and new products then included the Bessemer steelmaking process, the light bulb, the phonograph, the telephone, the radio, the automobile, rapid transit (subways and elevated trains), the diesel engine, mechanical refrigeration and the airplane."

This is not to say that today's inventions aren't important—but, as some experts put it, that better marketing is making us more aware of the changes as they happen and magnifying their significance.

Reported in
The New York Times
October 5, 1997

Does geography influence church attendance?

The Bible belt is aptly named. A three-year study of over six thousand adults confirmed that the rural South and Midwest tend to have the best church attendance. In general, the Far West and the six states of New England have the poorest record, according to researchers at the Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

It isn't all geography, of course. Among other influences, the family proved to be one of the biggest factors. Married couples with children tend to attend church more than singles. Sociologists speculate that parents want their children exposed to the moral values presented at church.

Reported in The Plain Dealer
September 28, 1997

Science and materialism

"If (As is currently the case) science is anchored in materialism, the problem is to explain how 'something' which has no mass, occupies no space and has subjectivity could ever evolve or emerge from something that was massive, spatial, and wholly objective to begin with. To achieve this feat—of getting mind from matter, subjectivity from objectivity—would require a miracle (the kind of miracle leading philosopher of mind Colin McGinn meant by 'turning the water of the physical brain into the wine of consciousness')."

"The Final Frontier?"
Christian de Quincey
Noetic Sciences Review
Summer 1997

Faith on a mission

The Rev. Donovan Drake of First Presbyterian Church in Morganton [,North Carolina,] watched as 17 white, middle-class teens from his church ministered to poor, black patients warehoused in an infirmary in Jamaica. ...

Drake speaks for Christian everywhere who know that some of our young people's best summer moments are spent in some of the most challenging places:

"It's a shock for the kids to see how blessed they are in their lives, what they have, how lucky they are," Drake said. "They come back from the trips saying, 'I've got to pray a little bit more.'" ...

Drake knows his Morganton kids—many kids everywhere—live within the narrow confines of their own wants and needs. ... They worship with people from their faith. They socialize with kids of their class, color and culture.

But then come those rare days in summer when they can break out of the box. See another side to life. ...

Drake loved watching his kids connect with the people of Mandeville, Jamaica, who gave them the gift of devotion to bring back home to the Carolinas. "These people don't have a lot," Drake said. "But yet they proclaim that God is something to behold."

The kids didn't have anything quite that spiritual to leave with their friends in Jamaica, so they offered what gift they could. As their way of saying thanks for making their summer mission trip a success, the Morganton youth left to charity groups the clothes they brought in their backpacks.

By Ken Garfield
Reprinted from and
copyright owned by
The Charlotte Observer.
First published July 26, 1997.

WHAT IMPROVES EACH DAY

"[Living your spirituality is] not something you do in a cave in India, it's something you do going to the supermarket, driving your car, raising your kids."

From an interview
with Susan Jeffers,
author of Thoughts of power and Love, Here's Health magazine
November 1997

Religion benefits seniors

According to a study done by Duke University, older people who attend religious services are "twice as likely to have strong, stable immune systems as those who don't."

"This is the first study that I know that tried to look at the pathways to translate religiosity [into] medical outcomes," commented Dr. Marcia Ory, chief of social science research at the National Institute on Aging, which helped to fund the survey of 4,000 elderly.

The study showed that even when researchers took into account factors such as age, chronic illness, ability to perform routine tasks, and depression, there still was a positive effect on health as a result of attending religious services.

Associated Press
October 23, 1997