Anyone interested in knowing more about Fay Martin’s work in Afghanistan and her sudden and unexpected death may like to read the blog posted by her family, at http://thelifeoffaymartin.blogspot.com
As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, his influence on the world is as enormous as ever. Whatever you think of his ideas, there’s no doubt that they have shaped science and profoundly affected many aspects of contemporary culture. Darwin’s meticulous work established the natural sciences as a serious scientific discipline for the first time. If this was Darwin’s only legacy, he would still be a towering figure in the history of science. But for most people, his name is linked only with On the Origin of Species.
The new film Creation tells the story of how Darwin finally came to publish it in 1859, and the struggles that led up to that point. He had arrived at the essentials of his theory at least seventeen years earlier, but kept his ideas to himself and a few friends. One reason he delayed was because he wanted much more supporting evidence. Earlier evolutionary ideas had been highly controversial; Darwin feared the response to his work, so he wanted to be sure he was on solid ground. He spent eight years studying barnacles.
Creation shows that Charles Darwin was also concerned about upsetting his wife, Emma. She knew his Christian faith was dwindling, and was concerned that his scientific desire for hard proof was making things worse for him. The film also stresses two other factors: the ill health that plagued him for the second half of his life, and his grief over the death of his beloved daughter Annie, shortly after her tenth birthday in 1851. This event brought to a tragic climax Darwin’s questions about the place of suffering in God’s creation and he eventually became an agnostic.
Creation. The initial disagreement over On the Origin of Species was not primarily about what theological implications it may have had, but about whether or not the science was true. There were Christians and scientists on both sides of the debate.
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In the Orissa state, 50,000 Christians were forced to leave their homes, 300 villages were destroyed and over 120 people died. Please consider visiting this link to sign a petition to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to urge him to seek justice for our Christian brothers and sisters and help them practice their faith without fear.
An insightful friend of mine posted this note on Facebook a few weeks ago.
We are told by the media that modern Britain is a secular society. I suggest that such a claim doesn’t square with the facts – a large proportion of modern Britons may no longer have any interest in or understanding of faith as our grandparents might have understood it, but our so-called secular society longs for something or somebody to worship, adore or idolise.
Celebrities have become the new Gods and Godesses. We idolise and lionise them. They are both unreal and inaccessible and yet at the same time, the constant presence of the media surrounding them and inviting us to seeming intimacy, sells the impression that we truly ‘know them’. No areas of their lives are hidden from us. We even eavesdrop at the booth of their Secular Confessor – be it Jonathan Ross, Martin Bashir, or Frank Skinner as they bare their souls.
We strip away normal rules of formality and speak of them as Richard and Judy, Peter and Jordan, Paris, Britney, Kylie, Jade, Davina – as if we truly knew them. We will never meet them, but to many they become ‘almost friends’.
Stories of their lives distract us from the everyday hardships of our own. We watch their tragedies play out – their relationships fail, their illnesses and treatments progress, and their neuroses spill over. We weep with them, Google them, and keep vigil with them. We greet their pregnancies with happiness, their weddings with joy and their awards with applause. We empathise with them and take them into our hearts.
We flock to see their personal appearances at Department Stores, book signings or public performances for which they are famous. When we see them in the flesh we go weak at the knees and our throats are left raw.
We respond to their exhortations to act. If Oprah or Richard and Judy say read, we read. If Bono says give, we give.
In this media-saturated world, celebrity is a growing new power. It manipulates taste, fashion and advertising. Our celebrity icons give structure to our lives and meaning to our engagement with what goes on around us.
This is not a harmless side effect of fame in the modern world. This is religion – a Cult of the Celebrity.
No wonder we cry at their gravesides. No wonder their passing causes a wave of uncontrollable emotion. They have become the common touchstones of our collective life, bringing meaning and colour and excitement to what is otherwise humdrum, empty and mundane.
We mourn their passing as loved ones and sweethearts, companions and friends, as our gods and goddesses.
Perhaps then, we ought not to be too harsh or dismissive toward those who weep when a beloved icon or heroine dies.
In the case of Michael Jackson, we need an even greater level of care before we speak. Whatever his eccentricities, shortcomings or alleged depravities, he was a musical legend whose genius changed the generation in which he lived. I’m certain that I don’t need to list the effects he has had upon the music video, airplay and confidence for black artists, dance choreography, his espousal of racial and environmental issues, the listening habits of the global market to which he addressed his voice… and so on. He is woven into modern culture in a way that few entertainers can ever hope to emulate. His passing may seem to some no more the inconsequential death of just another African American, one of 146 thousand other tragic deaths yesterday, but such a view shows no regard for the impact he has made. He may not have been a Mozart or a Da Vinci whose now unwritten works may be mourned, but he was undoubtedly a Presley, a Chuck Berry, or a John Denver whose unique contribution now lies prematurely silent.
For many, Jackson’s music accompanied the significant moments in their lives, and was a soundtrack to their emotions.
However Stoic or emotionally in control we may be, it behoves every one of us to shed a tear at this sad time for what has been lost and to act with understanding toward those who feel that a treasured friend has died.
