What We Can Learn from the Africans

If you read last week's edition of the Wayfarer, you know my perspective on the need to come together as a nation to begin the healing process. I've been accused in the past of being an idealist; believe me, I have enough years of experience in the real world to have had plenty of time to yield to cycnism from time to time, so I'm no Utopian.

After a long and bitter election season in the U.S., there is a concept from Africa that comes to mind. It's called ubuntu. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said, "Ubuntu speaks of the very essence of being human.... Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate.... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.'"

Other summarize ubuntu as concisely as this:

"I am because we are."

Kind of flies in the face of American individualism, doesn't it! Sociologists generally agree that American culture is the most individualistic in the world. I am conditioned from childhood to follow MY dreams and pursue MY own success. When asked what we want our lives to look like, other people often don't even enter the equation. Thanks in large part to the Enlightenment and the whole series of revolutions that ensued, we are laser focused on individual rights and freedoms.

In most African cultures, what I do is directly connected not just to my own desires and dreams, but to who we are. In other words, my good flows from the common good.

The common good. Seems to me a phrase largely absent from much of our rhetoric these days.

I'm not suggesting that we all pick up, move to the country and form rural villages and call everyone in the village "Auntie" or "Uncle", as is often the case in Africa; I just can't help wondering if ubuntu isn't a part of the healing we so badly need to move forward.

A few years back I interviewed a brilliant Zambian doctor of infectious diseases whom I met here in Nashville. I asked him to explain how ubuntu is lived out in his home country. You can listen to that interview here.

How can you and I put ubuntu into practice? Is there a (greater) place for the common good?

In Search of Truth

evolution

At times over the years I have been a part of discussions on human origins and the ongoing debate between the scientific and religious communities. This is of course not simply a two-sided debate (see my post on binary thinking here) -- there are multiple scientific theories, biblical interpretations and opinions -- more than enough to choose from. The debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ken Ham in February 2014 was an unfortunate parade of two extremes, and an excellent example of asking the wrong questions. The one thing these two gentlemen and the camps they represent have in common, however, is this:

They are seeking the truth.

So in that same pursuit, I say to the creationist community:

Good science and good scientists are not necessarily out to disprove anything; they are seeking the truth. You trust them to vaccinate your child or treat your ailing parent, based on what they have learned through research. You trust them to provide you with what are now basic services (electricity, running water) as a result of advances using the scientific method. And yet, when it comes to delving into our distant past, whether the age of mankind or the planet he inhabits, you become defensive and fearful. Fearful that what you believe to be true will be undermined, and -- worse yet -- the foundations on which you have built your life will crumble. I would humbly suggest that we're asking the wrong questions. Perhaps the right question, or at least one of them, is not "Is the Bible true or not?" but "How should we read and interpret the Bible?" If only all of life's answers were Yes or No.

To the scientific community I would say:

What if we were to let go of the notion that all reality -- all truth -- had to be or could be proved? What if some things simply surpassed our understanding? What if the inexplicable were to be placed in the category of Someone who knows better than we do? To quote 17th century French philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal, what if "the heart has its reasons that reason knows not of"?

In his book The Language of God, scientist Francis S. Collins brings these two worlds together in a masterful way. Also check out his organization, BioLogos.

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." - Carl Sagan

Chewing the Meat and Spitting out the Bones: How to Learn from Just About Anyone

It would be interesting to know just when this tendency started in our culture, but it goes something like this: if I am going to learn from someone, I must believe everything they believe. So often I hear remarks such as, "Yes, I agree with that, but..." and what follows is a distancing from the person who spoke the morsel of truth. For example, a politician may have a particularly insightful opinion on a specific subject, and many are afraid to admit they agree for fear of being mistaken for a supporter of said politician. Why can't we just learn what there is to learn, no matter its source?

I would be hard pressed to name a single politician, preacher, or pundit whose opinions I agree with 100%. That does not keep me from gleaning where I can. This is much of what critical thinking is: learning to chew the meat and spit out the bones. I would go as far as to say that it is possible to learn from those whom we generally consider our adversaries. Corrie ten Boom said our critics are the "unpaid guardians of our souls".

well-water

To use another analogy, I learned many years ago the principle of drinking from a diversity of "wells". If I drink from the same well continuously, I am more likely to have a skewed world view and an unbalanced perspective. Whether we're talking about news, business advice, teaching methods, or spiritual principals, it is important to absorb information from a variety of sources in order to have a well rounded perspective. Then we form our own opinions based on the information we've gathered.

Couldn't our culture benefit from a good dose of critical thinking, with a dash of humility?