Faith

Teaching is a profoundly ethical and spiritual activity that demands courage and unflagging dedication. It affects the minds and spirits of students from pre-K through grad school in a transformative manner. As I reflect on my own life of teaching and that of countless colleagues, including several members of my immediate family, I am intensely aware of teaching's priceless value as well as the responsibilities it entails. In January, I began my 46th year of college teaching, 27 of them at Cal State Fullerton.

In my work in the interfaith community over nearly 30 years, whenever the subject of religion has come up, I've often heard this comment: "Well, I am not religious, but I am spiritual. " My immediate reaction was to wonder what the speaker meant by that. Was he or she raised in a religious environment but still considered themselves a "good person" after having rejected the teachings of their family's faith? Was that person rejecting "organized religion" generally? Did he or she see some who claimed to be religious as being hypocritical?

Years ago, while I was visiting a South American city's cathedral at a time when the country was under a brutal military regime, I overheard a tour guide complaining to his tour group that there were members of the clergy preaching politics. This was not the role of the church, he emphasized. "People don't come to church to hear politics," was the view he expressed. "The church should stick to religious matters. " Would you want to belong to a church that was content to sing hymns while people nearby were being tortured?

I have always been captivated by how humanity explains its presence in the world and how it views itself in the universe. If we go by most accepted historical facts, humanity as we know it, modern homo sapiens, began on the planet some 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, during which there were several ice ages, many floods and a lot of dark cold nights. Each generation had to feed itself, create communities to protect itself and figure out the cycles of the seasons, the sun and, most importantly, the moon.

Last week Hedy and I attended the memorial service for Jessica Joy Rees. The memorial was at the huge - and jam-packed - Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. Jessie is the remarkable 12-year-old Orange County girl who died Jan. 5 of a brain tumor. The seventh-grader battled the insidious disease for 10 months, and started a blog and a Facebook page to increase worldwide awareness of pediatric cancer. The service was at once tragic and sad, but also uplifting and inspirational.

Most atheists don't have faith of any kind. What they do have is hope — a natural hope that the important things in our life will go well. A believer's prayer is an atheist's hope. Concerning the age-old cosmological question about the beginning of the universe, an atheist would have confidence (no faith required) in the consensus of the professionals, otherwise known as astrophysicists, cosmologists and astronomers. They spend nearly their entire adult lifetime to try and explain how the natural laws work in the universe.

Question: How can one's belief and/or faith have any influence whatsoever regarding what either is or is not absolute truth and/or reality? Isn't the kind of reality or truth you speak of more like the reality and truth of Santa Claus? Certainly, our beliefs and our faiths influence our behavior, but aren't you saying that our beliefs essentially create the reality of God in our lives? If so, then are you also willing to say that without these beliefs, God ceases to exist? More directly, does God have any separate existence apart from our beliefs?

It's that time of the year again. After the holiday decorations have been taken down, the old-time ritual of the New Year's resolutions list is posted to the refrigerator. What's on your list this year? For most people, it is probably a reprinted list but with an adjusted new year: (1) lose weight; (2) eat healthier; (3) exercise; (4) get out of debt; (5) stop smoking, etc. Traditionally, people tend to make a resolution around the start of the New Year as they reflect on the old year and look forward to the new one. For many, the New Year symbolizes a chance for a fresh start and a new beginning in their life.

Editor's Note: As people in Newport-Mesa and Irvine prepare to ring in 2012, the Pilot thought it fitting to re print this column that appeared under the old "Spiritual Guidance" heading in December 2007. * May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your urologist, your orthopedist, your psychiatrist, your plumber and the IRS. May your hair, your teeth, your abs and your stocks not fall; may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol and your mortgage interest not rise.

It was almost the end of August, almost the end of summer. The tourists were all heading home. There was a good chance the national park would close in the next week until the following May. Snow was on its way. Summer's end was near. But for the park staff, it was a party. Maybe it should have been a goodbye party. Most of the staff would not see each other for nine months. They jokingly called it their city deployment. Or their pregnancy leave. So it should have been a time of tears and farewells, blended with vague promises to see you next season.