A well known mason around Niagara, Dr. Charles Sankey donated his entire collection to Brock University at St. Catharines. The collection is used by requesting a book, manuscript or paper which is signed out for use in the library itself.
On May 10 a rare opportunity will take place when Mr. David Sharron, Director of Archives and Special Collections and Dale Graham, Alumni Association Chairman have arranged a tour.
A select group of 15 masons will receive a talk by Mr. Sharron about the collection and be allowed access to the entire collection.
The outing will conclude with a "de-briefing" at a local Niagara landmark before disembarking. For the serious student of the Craft, this is wonderful opportunity should not be missed.
Spaces are going quickly. To reserve or with questions, please contact: me at graham-hall@sympatico.ca or call 519-372-9321.
Tour details: 10am Saturday May 10th Brock University Gibson Library
Dale
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Friday, 15 February 2008
College Royal- An Enjoyable day with Science
http://www.collegeroyal.uoguelph.ca/
March 15th and 16th
Each year the doors are thrown open at the University of Guelph to the public along with an invitation to experience science first hand. It is a special experience that every year attracts thousands. To find out more about the event, visit the College Royal website.
This can be a part of your daily advancement as a freemason.
Dg
March 15th and 16th
Each year the doors are thrown open at the University of Guelph to the public along with an invitation to experience science first hand. It is a special experience that every year attracts thousands. To find out more about the event, visit the College Royal website.
This can be a part of your daily advancement as a freemason.
Dg
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Ignorance: The Failing of the Idle Mind
From a prologue within a degree of the Scottish Rite...
"There is no place in a good world for the idler and the drone. They are worse than useless: they are harmful because they hold back the wheel of progress..."
I suggest, the speed of our progress toward a universal goal is held back by ignorance. But for a freemason, when we locate ignorance, we have discovered an opportunity for learning. I think the opportunities are treasure maps not visible to all, waiting to be discovered. The clearest clues to finding the maps are events in our world that define intolerance.
Here is an example of what I mean. The other day a stranger came by and we passed the usual Canadian greeting about weather. One of us, (me) said something about global warming and that is when things became interesting. The other, who I will call friendly man, declared comfortably, there was no global warming; that scientists were spinning a line and it was all about ownership of Arab oil. That was the moment I realized I was in the presence of genius, so in true masonic fashion, I quietly listened. Friendly man went on; explaining in ernest that by the time a muslim child was 5 or 6 years old, he already had been taught by his parents to hate people. He added, Southern Baptists in Texas were also crazy and hated black people...etc. My well dressed, distinguished friendly man, within 2 minutes was into a monologue about world intolerance being caused by other people. I was amazed friendly man was so oblivious to his own ignorance. And I walked away puzzled.
Since we have sworn to build a world of tolerance and enlightenment we have the absolute freedom to explore by casting our net over the four corners of the earth and beyond. The scientific process frees us to replace our current beliefs when new information is known to us. The quality and length of life has improved for us because of the gradual evolution of knowledge applied.
As children, many of us were taught discovery of North America was by Christopher Columbus the Anglicization of the latin Christophorus Columbus. He was probably born in Genoa and his real name was Cristoforo Colombo. " in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue". We now know there were fully developed, sophisticated cultures in place when the italian sailor landed. He didn't discover and he wasn't first. (see vikings and templars).
Who was credited first to climb Everest? Until relatively recently western cultures were taught it was Edmund Hillary. But that modest man ensured the world acknowledged a man who wasn't of our culture, his Tibetan guide and companion Tenzig Norgay who also amazed the world 29th May 1953.
Jim Al-Khalili is a professor of pysics at the University of Surrey; he is the 2007 recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize. (Some of you will recall the link between freemasonry and the Royal Society, but that's a topic for another day.) Jim was raised by a Protestant Christian mother and a Shia Muslim father and has an exceptional world view. I mention him here because of his quote:
"There is no place in a good world for the idler and the drone. They are worse than useless: they are harmful because they hold back the wheel of progress..."
I suggest, the speed of our progress toward a universal goal is held back by ignorance. But for a freemason, when we locate ignorance, we have discovered an opportunity for learning. I think the opportunities are treasure maps not visible to all, waiting to be discovered. The clearest clues to finding the maps are events in our world that define intolerance.
Here is an example of what I mean. The other day a stranger came by and we passed the usual Canadian greeting about weather. One of us, (me) said something about global warming and that is when things became interesting. The other, who I will call friendly man, declared comfortably, there was no global warming; that scientists were spinning a line and it was all about ownership of Arab oil. That was the moment I realized I was in the presence of genius, so in true masonic fashion, I quietly listened. Friendly man went on; explaining in ernest that by the time a muslim child was 5 or 6 years old, he already had been taught by his parents to hate people. He added, Southern Baptists in Texas were also crazy and hated black people...etc. My well dressed, distinguished friendly man, within 2 minutes was into a monologue about world intolerance being caused by other people. I was amazed friendly man was so oblivious to his own ignorance. And I walked away puzzled.
Since we have sworn to build a world of tolerance and enlightenment we have the absolute freedom to explore by casting our net over the four corners of the earth and beyond. The scientific process frees us to replace our current beliefs when new information is known to us. The quality and length of life has improved for us because of the gradual evolution of knowledge applied.
As children, many of us were taught discovery of North America was by Christopher Columbus the Anglicization of the latin Christophorus Columbus. He was probably born in Genoa and his real name was Cristoforo Colombo. " in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue". We now know there were fully developed, sophisticated cultures in place when the italian sailor landed. He didn't discover and he wasn't first. (see vikings and templars).
Who was credited first to climb Everest? Until relatively recently western cultures were taught it was Edmund Hillary. But that modest man ensured the world acknowledged a man who wasn't of our culture, his Tibetan guide and companion Tenzig Norgay who also amazed the world 29th May 1953.
Jim Al-Khalili is a professor of pysics at the University of Surrey; he is the 2007 recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize. (Some of you will recall the link between freemasonry and the Royal Society, but that's a topic for another day.) Jim was raised by a Protestant Christian mother and a Shia Muslim father and has an exceptional world view. I mention him here because of his quote:
If there is anything I truly believe, it is that progress through reason is a good thing-knowledge and enlightenment are always better than ignorance.
He thinks and is right that in the west, many think of Islam as a radical, intolerant culture and do so because we are unaware of the major Islamic contributions to knowledge and a philosophy of tolerance. Here are some stirring samples of what he means which for an open mind, is rather enlightening.
One of the greatest rulers the Islamic world has ever seen: the ninth-century Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Abu Ja'far Abdullah al-Ma'mun. He came to power in AD813 and launched the golden age of Arabic science. He created the greatest centre of learning the world has seen, known as Bayt al-Hikma: the House of Wisdom.
The history of science acknowledges the valuable contributions of the ancient Greeks that would not be matched until the European Renaissance and the arrival of Copernicus and Galileo in the 16th century. But the scientists and philosophers whom Ma'mum brought together sparked a period of scientific achievement that was just as important as the Greeks or the Renaissance and we cannot simply project the European dark ages on the rest of the world.
The Persian philosopher Avicenna-born in AD980 is famous as the greatest physician of the middle ages. His Canon of Medicine was the standard medical text in the Islamic world and across Europe until the 17th century, a period of more than 600 years. But Avicenna was also the greatest philosopher of Islam and one of the most important of all time in medieval philosophy. In his shadow came along Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, theologian, encyclopedist, linguist, historian, geographer, pharmacists and physician. He is also considered the father of geology and anthropology. The only other figure in history whose legacy rivals the scope of his scholarship is Leonardo da Vinci. And yet Biruni is hardly known in the western world.
Copernicus' genius is undisputed however many of his calculations were taken from the manuscripts of the 14th-century Syrian astronomer Ibn al-Shatir. We know nothing of this man.
William Harvey was the first to correctly describe the blood circulation in 1616. Not so. The first was a 13th-century Andalucian physician Ibn al-Nafees.
Issac Newton continued the work begun 700 years earlier. For one of the greatet of the Abbasid scientists was the Iraqi Ibn al-Haytham born AD965 who is believed to be the world first physicist and the father of modern scientific method- long before the Renaissance scholars such as Bacon and Descartes.
Even more surprising is that a 9th-century Iraqi zoologist al-Jahith developed a rudimentary theory of natural selection a thousand years before Darwin. In The Book of Animals he speculated that the environment cold effect the characteristics of species, forcing them to adapt and then pass on those traits to future generations.
What does this matter to Jim today? Because at a time of increased cultural and religious tensions, misunderstandings and intolerance, the Islamic world needs to be seen through new eyes. (Remember what we owe to Arab science. Jim Al-Khalili. Comment * Debate- The Guardian Weekly 08.02.08 pg 20)
Why in the world are people so hesitent to acknowledge the greatness of other minds. Is it ignorance? Are we really like sheep, so easily lead by those who would stir discontent for their own purposes, that we cannot reserve judgement for ourselves? If that is the case, woe are we.
Strange names, strange language are no surprise to we of celtic heritage. I am of the antient clan Graeme or Graemoch and they did not speak English nor read or write. They were called paegan and barbarian. But they made a contribution as any Irish or Scot will remind us. You and your culture will have a similar sense of persecution and struggle which is revealed in history. And look at us now. Brethren of different cultures, languages, colour blind to differences.If we can achieve the same sense of familiarity with other cultures and understand that all good men share a common goal, we move one step closer to our goal. We are not the risk takers even comparable to our antient brethren who handed us a library and a mindset of liberal thought. Our beliefs are so a-political that some think we are dreamers or have a secret agenda. Maybe they are right. Maybe the secret agenda is the believe we are more alike than dissimilar.
Dg
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