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“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.” Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003 p.231)  “. . . when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God.” Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians 2:13 In his novel, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown argues that since the Bible “did not arrive by fax from heaven” it cannot be “The Word of God?” But what are words? How do random chemical reactions in a human body turn into rational theories explaining the cosmos, an “inspired” poem celebrating patriotism, a novel promoting parenting, or simply a sentence intended to hurt a sensitive soul? What is language? Is it an accidental product of blind chance or an essence of a spiritual being: mere dust turned into a “living soul” who can infuse meaning, values and judgments into physical sounds and symbols? The Bible is very different from other books that claim to be inspired, such as the Qur’an. Usually it does not use the phrase “the Word of God” in the same way as other ancient and contemporary “revelations” do. For example, unlike the Prophet Muhammad, none of the writers of the four Gospels claim that they received their information in a prophetic trance by revelation from God or from an angel. Nor do the gospel writers claim that a spirit entity used them as channels for “automatic writing.” Private revelations cannot be confirmed as supernaturally inspired unless they predict specific events that come true exactly as predicted. Most books of the Bible are not revelations received in a subjective, trance-like experience.1 The Gospels, for example, claim to be public truth. That is, they bear courageous witnesses to public events such as a crucifixion. They challenge the interpretations of Jewish scholarship and a brutal Roman state and open themselves to cross-examination. Matthew, Mark and John ask us to believe their writings because they claim that their eyewitness accounts are true. Luke asks us to believe his gospel because he claims to have researched the facts systematically and checked them out with eyewitnesses. This is a very human way of writing indeed! Muslim and secular critics (including Dan Brown) assume that Christians believe the Bible because the Roman Catholic Church decided that it was God’s Word. The reality, however, is that the Church believes the Bible because Jesus lived and “died according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:2-3, Luke 24: 44-48, etc.). The Gospels make it clear that Jesus did not have a martyr complex: he did not want to die (Luke 22:41). He could have escaped arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. In fact, at the moment of his arrest Peter gave Jesus an excellent opportunity to escape into the dark, but Jesus rebuked him (Luke 22:49). Jesus could also have saved his life during his trial, for neither of the two judges—Pilate and Herod—found him guilty. Yet, instead of trying to save his life Jesus laid it down. And he did it for one reason alone: so that the Scriptures may be fulfilled (Matthew 26:54, Mark 14:49 etc.). Why did Jesus take the Scriptures so seriously that he chose to die to fulfill them? From the very beginning, the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) reveal a God who speaks: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3). Thus the Jewish worldview sees language as a characteristic not of chemistry but of the spirit. Human beings speak because they are made in the image of a Spirit that said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26). Man became a “living soul” when God breathed his spirit (or “breath”) into a body of clay (Genesis 2:7). That is why the human language has both spiritual as well as physical aspects. The Bible teaches that God is love. Love includes communication. Both the Old and the New Testament teach that God speaks to us because He loves us. And He gave us the gift of language so that as His children we may know and love Him and one another. Love, Jesus taught, was the whole point of divine revelation or communication (Matthew 22:37). Thus, in Judeo-Christian understanding, love and language are aspects not of our chemistry but of our psyche or soul. Our chemistry is specifically designed to facilitate love, knowledge, and communication, including worship.  Jesus, Daniel and the Jewish Scriptures  Jesus treated the Hebrew Scriptures in the same way as did the Hebrew prophet, Daniel, who was an administrator in Babylon. Daniel was the younger contemporary of prophet Jeremiah. In his day, many prophets claimed to be receiving revelations from God. The prophets who predicted peace and prosperity for Jerusalem enjoyed religious and political patronage. Yet their prophecies turned out to be false. Jeremiah, on the other hand, called his nation to repentance. Otherwise, he said, God would bring doom and destruction through the Babylonians. Jeremiah was condemned for treason and almost killed, but later events had proved him right. Therefore, Daniel took Jeremiah’s predictions seriously. Decades after Jeremiah was gone, Daniel kept reading Jeremiah’s scrolls – even though Jeremiah was not included in the Jewish cannon. The more Daniel read, the more convinced he became that Jeremiah’s predictions had come true, therefore, he was a prophet from God. Finally, Daniel was so convinced that Jeremiah’s words were God’s words that he was willing to be thrown into a den of lions for the sake of those words. Here is what happened: One of Jeremiah’s prophecies was that Jerusalem would be rebuilt seven decades after its destruction (Jer. 25: 11-12). That was just about the time when the Medo-Persian coalition defeated Babylon. Jeremiah’s prophecy (in conjunction with dreams of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel himself) helped Daniel understand the significance of that momentous event. He believed “the word of the Lord given to prophet Jeremiah” (Daniel 9:2) and began to pray for rebuilding of Jerusalem. At that

Last night (Sunday, March 6, 2011) BBC and CNN began what FOX News has been doing for a while – discuss the perceived decline of Western civilization. Fareed Zakaria served as the anchor in the CNN special, “Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to #1.” It will be broadcast again on Saturday, March 12. Britain’s Channel 4 also launched a six-part series based on Harvard historian, Niall Ferguson’s book, Civilization: The West and the Rest. Ferguson is the prime witness also in the CNN program and in TIME magazine (March 14, 2010) that preceded the shows. Fareed Zakaria is one of the finest products of the secular West. He agrees with Ferguson’s pessimism: “When I look at the world today and the strong winds of technological change and global competition, it makes me nervous.” Why should the most innovative and entrepreneurial nation in the world be so nervous about technological change and competition? Zakaria explains that “the most unsettling” aspect of the problem is that Americans (that includes TIME’s Editor-at-Large, David von Drehle) “seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that face us.” Why can’t secular Americans comprehend?  Zakaria takes statistics seriously: America’s 15-year olds rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. In the “Developed” world, Americans have slipped from #1 to #12 in college graduation and 79th in Elementary School enrollment, and yet, for every $1 that America spends on young people under 18, it spends $4 on senior citizens. This, Zakaria says, proves that a self-centered generation now controls the American political system in its own self-interest. It invests in its present but not in America’s future. The main legacy this generation will leave to its children is the burden of guns and debts. How do Zakaria and Ferguson understand these statistics? Interestingly, Zakaria agrees with FOX host Glenn Beck that the problem is political. However, while Beck thinks that the solution lies in returning to the 18thCentury Founders such as Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, Zakaria, on the other hand, considers that to be “unreflective ancestor worship.” In his opinion the solution lies in discarding the Constitution that no one understands now. He writes in TIME “. . . the Constitution was one of the wonders of the world – in the 18th century. But today we face the reality of a system that has become creaky. We have an Electoral College that no one understands and a Senate that does not work, . . . We have a crazy-quilt patchwork of towns, municipalities and states with overlapping authority, bureaucracies and resulting waste. We have a political system geared toward cease-less fundraising and pandering to the interests of the present with no ability to plan, invest or build for the future.” So, what is the solution? Following economist Mancur Olson’s thesis in The Rise and Decline of Nations,Zakaria feels that America may need what happened to Germany and Japan: Before the World-Wars, Great Britain was the super-power. It won the Wars, but the nations that lost and were virtually destroyed quickly overtook Britain after WWII. They surpassed Britain because their destruction gave Germany and Japan the opportunity to get rid of past and build their future. Conclusion: A catastrophe is needed to destroy a “sclerotic” America, and give it an opportunity to reinvent itself. As an academic, Niall Ferguson has had a bit more leisure than Zakaria to analyze the problem. He understands that the problem is not American but “Western.” Therefore, his series is more detailed. Britain’s Channel 4 launched it last night and will continue for five more weeks. Ferguson’s thesis is that 500 years ago, following the Protestant Reformation, the West “patented six killer applications that set it apart” from “the Rest” of the world. These were “competition, modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society and the work ethic.” Japan was the first non-Western nation to download these killer applications, but now many nations, including China and India, are downloading them. China’s size enabled it to easily surpass Japan. Soon, India will surpass them both. But why should others progress be a problem for America? In an article in The Telegraph published today (March 7, 2011), Ferguson gives one of his conclusions: “we are already living through the twilight of Western predominance. But that is not just because most of the Rest have now downloaded all or nearly all of our killer apps. It is also because we ourselves have lost faith in our own civilisation.” I suspect that Ferguson will be very embarrassed if someone told him that his conclusion is virtually identical with what Glenn Beck has been saying on FOX News. One difference is that while Beck tends to blame this loss of “faith” on some political conspiracy, Ferguson perceives that the West’s loss of faith in its core assumptions is linked to the secularization of its universities. It was (pre-secular) education, he writes, that nurtured Western civilization: “In Britain, public school boys and Oxbridge men (and it was mostly men) were expected not only to have read the classics of the ancient world (Western civilisation’s first incarnation) but also to have a good grasp of the West’s revival after the Dark Ages and subsequent rise to global dominance. “Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, French and American Revolutions, Industrial Revolution, Electoral Reform – the big “Rs” of the West’s ascent – were noted, memorised and then “discussed” in innumerable essays.” Secular education, Ferguson goes on to lament, was not able to sustain this older tradition of Christian education, . . . “And then something changed. After around 1960, the word “civilisation” slumped in popularity. Universities – beginning with Stanford in 1963 – ceased to offer the classic ‘Western Civ’ history course. To the generation that came of age protesting against the Vietnam War, Mahatma Gandhi had been right when he implied that ‘Western civilisation’ was a contradiction in terms. It was nothing more than a euphemism for a blood-steeped, bomb-dropping imperialism. “In British schools, too, the grand narrative of Western ascent fell out of fashion. Thanks to an educationalists’ fad that elevated ‘historical skills’

This is part VIII of the series, “Why Are We Backward?” published by FORWARD Press, a bilingual, monthly magazine for India’s “Backward” Castes. For reprinting rights, contact editor, Ivan Kostka Aspire.Prakashan@gmail.com or email info@revelationmovement.com The 9 million people of Haiti, largely of African descent, living in approximately 10,000 square miles in the paradise-like Caribbean island of Hispaniola, constitute the only nation in the world which gained its independence through a successful slave rebellion in 1804. Sadly, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas. Its independence was inspired by the secular idealism of the French Revolution and launched in a voodoo ceremony on August 14, 1791 that included sacrificing a pig, drinking its blood and making a pact with the demonic supernatural. In 200 years, none of its 32 coups, multiple dictatorships and democratic elections has succeeded in building political freedoms. Lawlessness, insecurity, instability, and dependency permeate Haitian society, preventing their independence from attaining either the economic potential witnessed during the colonial period or that of Caribbean tourism today. On January 12, 2010 Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was devastated by an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude: as many as 200,000 people are estimated killed and now, more than a week later, 20,000 people are reported to be dying every day due to lack of food, water and medical aid. The Disaster: Natural or Cultural? On 17 October, 1989 an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude also struck the San Francisco Bay Area in California in the United States of America: Only 63 people died. At that time the Bay Area had over 5 million residents; Port-au-Prince has less than a million.   Why this difference? The Bay Area was built on a culture of law, justice, freedom, and consequent trusting social order which makes prosperity possible. In contrast, in spite of many wonderful exceptions, Haitian society is built on a culture of immoral corruption, oppression, social mistrust and resultant poverty. Builders routinely disregard the rules for constructing safe buildings because political, bureaucratic and law enforcement institutions move on the wheels of bribery.  In plain words: while Haiti’s earthquake was natural, its disaster is cultural. Therefore, even though individuals need immediate relief, the only way to rebuild Haiti is to transform its culture. Can the Avatar Save Haiti from its Corruption? In order to overcome its culture of corruption and poverty, Haiti needs many heroes like Jake, in James Cameron’s megahit movie Avatar. Jake was an outsider but, like Jesus Christ, he incarnated among a people in great need and became one of them. He chose to sacrifice his own life in order to save a vulnerable people that he dearly loved.  The Avatar’s hero is ideal but its scriptwriter is naïve. The people of Haiti practice Voodoo spiritism because they understand and know reality better than Hollywood’s romantic idealists.  The Haitians know that they do not know the supreme creative spirit, they call Bondey. Since they cannot know or reach Bondey, they assume that the Creator is also incapable of reaching them, revealing Himself to them, loving them enough to discipline them or to incarnate in their midst to save them. French Roman Catholicism had tried to convert their slaves in the 17th century; therefore, some Catholic trappings adorn Haitian Voodoo. Yet, because most Haitians believe that the Creator does not care enough to interfere with human affairs, Haitian Voodoo does not fear or serve the unknown, absentee Creator. Nevertheless, the Haitians do not think that only the material world is real. They know that spirits exist:  some of them get possessed and spirits communicate with their religious leaders. Their devout priests claim to receive certain supernatural powers from the spirits. The Haitians call these spirits Lwa or loa and fear and serve them. Like many Indians as well as the Na’vi people in Avatar, the Haitians believe that these spirits govern nature. Disasters, such as the present earthquake, have taught Haitians that the spirits that govern nature or possess individuals are not always good and benevolent. They may contribute to life, but they also bring disease, disasters and death.  As the movie puts it the Mother Earth Force doesn’t take sides between good and evil. It is amoral. It merely restores balance – for example, if you turn forest into desert, you take the consequences. Indian Tantriks (occult priests) know well, no god or goddess sacrifices his/her life to save others. Quite the opposite. They may demand the blood of your neighbor’s child before they grant your petitions. Therefore, just as many of our “holy” tantriks and ascetics become demoniacs, many Haitians have also become like the gods and goddesses they worship – capricious, greedy and unpredictable. Haiti is different than the Bay Area because Haitian society is built on a worldview the universe is not cosmos ruled by the Word of One benevolent and just Creator. They think we live in a multiverse – a chaos – governed by many unpredictable deities. This worldview does not encourage a systematic study of nature (science) or an attempt to govern and manage nature (technology). Since the multiverse has no Law-Giver who will hold us accountable, there is no need to be a law abiding citizen – especially if you can bribe human rulers just as your priests bribe the gods.  Could Cameron’s Portrayal of America be Prophetic? Cameron’s Avatar portrays secular America as a brutal super-power, ever-ready to sacrifice simple, nature-worshipping people at the altar of amoral economic greed. America has had ugly moments in its history. Haiti, however, is seeing a very different America – a nation that is quick to sacrifice billions of dollars in aid; a nation filled with churches that are sending thousands of volunteers to serve the helpless; an army that will spend its resources to rescue the trapped and save aid workers from mobs of greedy, spirit-worshipping Haitians who will loot food from the mouths of lonely elderly and vulnerable orphans. Unfortunately, James Cameron’s Avatar could turn out to be a prophetic portrayal of 21st century America. Following the European Enlightenment, American intellectuals also learned what Indians and Haitians have always known—the human mind, by itself (without divine revelation) cannot know the Creator, His moral law or His saving grace. (However, does our inability to reach Him, prevents Him