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It's nice when a living apostle of the Lord reiterates something that you have been saying. I am talking about Elder Oaks' recent warnings of growing secularism in academia.

For the past few years I have been raising a warning signal of rampant secularism. I have spoken out against this problem in my science classes at BYU to the delight of many students and, unfortunately, to the dismay of some. I also spoke on this issue at the Mormons and Scholars in Humanities conference in Spring 2009 to the delight of a few conference goers and, surprisingly, to the dismay of several others. I’ve also written on rampant secularism in this blog to the displeasure of a few, not surprising given that many who post comments on my articles disagree with my conservative views.

Well now an apostle of the Lord is saying some of the same things I have been saying.

In a recent talk to a group of Harvard University students and faculty, elder Oaks warned that our nation’s superficial attitude toward Christianity is being exacerbated by secularism in the American university system. He stated that “with but few exceptions, colleges and universities have become value-free places where attitudes toward religion are neutral at best. Some faculty and administrators are powerful contributors to the forces that are driving religion to the margins of American society.” 

Elder Oaks stated some points in his talk that I’ve made in my presentations, namely acknowledging belief in the reality of God and spiritual existence, and acknowledging God as an arbiter of absolute truth. This last point is especially pertinent to modern science. By failing to recognize even the possibility of a supreme fundamental arbiter of truth, science is becoming increasingly relativistic in its search for truth.
 


Comments

Ron Krumpos

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 4:52:00 pm

Elder Oak's comments were taught to me in 1960 by Swami Nikhilananda in New York. In his book, "Hinduism," he wrote:

“The nearer we are to God, the closer we shall feel toward other religions. In God we all meet. In order to promote religious harmony, let us deepen our religious consciousness. Let us come nearer to God by following our respective faiths and not by jumping from one faith to another. Let the Hindu, the Moslem, the Christian, the Jew emphasize the spirit and not the letter of their scriptures, and
all religious quarrels will stop. All religions are challenged today by a common enemy: the rising tide of skepticism and secularism.”

 

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