Day 6: Take up your Lyre and Play

Hello everyone,

The silver thread that runs through this entire trip is music. This group really loves music. My roommate Mark is an athlete and a pretty tough guy. But each morning as we’re waking up he plays some worship music and quietly sings along. It’s great. Whenever we drive from one place to another we play worship music and sing along. I’m discovering a new world of worship music: different bands, concerts, favorite singers, and so forth. Sometimes Josh or Mackenzie (two teammates) just start singing as we’re walking around and others join in.

All this is refreshing considering the bleak state of mainstream music. If you listen to the top hits by the most popular artists in the world (especially rappers), the common theme might be “there is this desire (usually a lover or wealth/fame) which I really love, but it’s also killing me.” Worship music is a bit different. There’s nothing hopeless about it! It brings a person out of themself and sort of bonds them to their teammates and the divine. Even if one’s heart is dark by default, warped by sin or some painful memory, good worship music can lift it up and out of that darkness for a moment, just long enough to remind a person of their humanity. Indeed, this is what happened to old king Saul:

“Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him” (1 Samuel 16:23)

So it was with music in our hearts that we stepped onto the University of British Columbia campus this morning.

The UBC campus is among the most beautiful college campuses I have visited. It is half forest, half college campus. Broad walkways give ample room for foot traffic and big fountains serve as centerpieces. Some buildings look like castles (they are older, built from quarried stone, and laced with ironwork) and others look like spaceships (they are newer and they have exteriors of glinting glass which trace out perfect spline-parametric curves).

Morgan and I added a new member to our team today: a woman from the Philippines named Tessa. When we spoke with people, one of us held back and prayed while the other two had a conversation – so as to avoid overwhelming anyone. As with yesterday, I took rough notes on the people we met. You will notice that there are fewer people this time; that’s because several of our conversations were quite long and on several others I was hanging back and praying. At any rate, here are today’s field notes:

Mary: The first person we spoke to. She was eating lunch outside next to a flowerbed. She does not believe in a god, she thinks there is no purpose or meaning to life, and that human life is just as valuable as plant and animal life. She did say that it would be worse if a child were run over by a car than a dog. But she said maybe that was just her perspective. She went to Islamic school where she was told what to believe. Her father used to be very religious but he lost his faith in recent years and told her that she should come to her own conclusions about what is right and wrong rather than depending on an established religion.
Amelia: I was not present at this conversation. No religion. Open to conversation. Took our survey.
Max: Max was the highlight of my day. He was a young man who was sitting by a big fountain at the center of the campus. He had long hair and a strong Canadian accent. Big dreams and plans. Didn’t want to say exactly what they were. Said he doesn’t care about whether he goes to heaven or hell; he is pragmatically focused on this world and this life. Alluded to righting the injustices committed by governments and corporations. Talked about how humans are not born into this world evil, but made evil by their surroundings and by the cruelty of others. Studying physics and chemistry. I explained the dichotomy of the world of atoms and bits vs. the world of values: the problem is that even deciding what to pay attention to (what to look at) is a subjective action; it requires a value judgement. So there is a map of value overlaid onto everything we perceive and interact with. I give him this quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” This quote supposes that the world of value is more fundamental than the world of atoms and bits. Then I asked him: do you agree with that quote? Is the world of value more fundamental than the world of atoms and bits? He said yes and we had a discussion about that. Later on we returned to the question of whether humans have an innately sinful nature. I told him about a study involving a set of toddlers in a room with identical toys. The toddlers would always end up abandoning their toys and fighting over one toy. I suggested that this is because we operate instinctively on envy: we often want things simply because other people want them. He agreed that humans are innately greedy because of their evolutionary instincts. Then Morgan jumped in and pointed out that he wants to change the world through people and relationships – and that there’s a connection to Jesus because that is what Jesus did too. I talked about how Jesus exposed the scapegoating process (a Girardian theme) and how he came as a substitute for our sins and created for us a bridge back to God by way of the cross.
Girl waiting for admission to a multiple sclerosis study: Doesn’t believe in God. Very adamant about believing in science and logic. Emphasis on logic and evidence. Said that human life is not more valuable than plant or animal life. Said that humans might be worse because we are killing the planet. Said it’s unfortunate that we exist. Didn’t know where her concepts of good and bad came from, but suggested that it was from thinking things through rationally. I asked her the cathedral question (same one I asked Max). She said she understood why people are religious but it wasn’t for her. Said she was raised Catholic. We asked if we could pray for her (she was just heading to her multiple sclerosis study appointment) and she said no, she doesn’t put any stock in it.
Michael: Very logical. Did the survey with us. Think that the world came about by random chance. Cited the fact that millions of monkeys typing on typewriters would eventually write a play by Shakespeare, given enough time. Said that our world came into being kind of like that - by chance. Said he tries not to think about it, it’s best to play the cards you are dealt. Said there is no ultimate meaning. Said that he doesn’t think evil exists because the world came about by random chance. Said that human life is not more valuable than plant or animal life, again because the world came about by chance. I asked him the cathedral question as well. He liked it and thought it was interesting. He answered yes to it, just like Max had. I got his email.

This was a less religious group of students than the ones we spoke to at SFU. When we regrouped at the end of the day, I only heard two or three stories of people who met Christian students. Many UBC students are atheists, see science and religion as being fundamentally at odds with each other, and don’t believe that human life is more valuable than plant and animal life. I will say that most of them agreed that evil exists. However, they emphasized that “evil” is something that they know when they see, and not something that a religion can define for them. They emphasized the importance of deciding what is right and wrong for themselves.

I think that Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau and Descartes would be pleased. Late-Enlightenment thinkers like Nietzche and Freud would also be pleased (see Beyond Good and Evil and the beginning of Civilization and its Discontents), but they would also doubt the long-term stability of a society founded upon such principles. CS Lewis would not be surprised (see the end of Screwtape Letters), but he would tell us that such a view of the world does not lead to a good life for an individual or a stable society in general. He would also emphasize the beauty and uniqueness of the Christian life and the power and wonder of God.

I am more convinced than ever that our work up here is important. I feel for the students that I spoke with today. I know that it’s difficult to believe in God without any physical evidence. I know that there are tensions between science and religion. But I think that throwing out religion at the whim of science is just as dangerous as throwing out science at the whim of religion. I hope that some of the conversations we had today will encourage students to inspect their deepest convictions about the meaning of life and – yes – even the question of whether God exists or not!

Much love from Canada -

Sincerely,

Sam