13194: Corbett replies to Senou on Voodoo

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Senou, I think your questions on those various aspects of Vodoo are
misguided.  You seem to talk as though you were looking for the sort of
evidence one seeks on how many birds of a certain sort live in the
Plateau Central.  I submit that religious questions are NEVER like that nor is
religiouis evidence of that sort.  Faith plays a major role in religion.

Suppose one were considering another dominant religion in Haiti -- Roman
Catholicism.  Are there really angels and reall devils?  Well, if there
are or aren't, they aren't there on video in any way that will pass the
tests of ordinary evidence.  And do a radical chemical analysis of a
consecrated host and you find no DNA of Jesus Christ.

The existence and behavior of angels and devils, the reality of the body
and blood of Jesus in communion are not matters of scientific evidence,
but of religious faith.

Similarly with your charge that the lwa or the religion of Voodoo itself
has or has not brought independence to Haiti and has or has not now not
done what it should -- that's an age old debate, and I would argue, a cop
out, in that it asks about God or the gods or spirts of any religion --
who running the world: is it God's job to do the daily acts of running the
world or do we humans have the responsibility and do we bear the praise or
blame?

In no way do I demean the faith of those who within Voodoo or Catholicism
or any other religion have a deep faith in the participatory acts of
transcendental beings in everyday life.  But if there is such intervention
it is a matter of faith, not science.

Historians and anthropologists can show that the FAITH people had in the
lwa and the organizing and rallying force of Voodoo played an important
role in the revolutionary war, but they cannot give serious rational
evidence of the ACTUAL existence of such beings or forces at all.

I welcome clarification and genuine evidence from anthropologists or
anyone who can help both the faithful and others of us to better
understand the religion since it is clearly a crucial force in the lives
of many many Haitians both in Haiti and out.  But the sort of evidence
you ask for and the strong hint of disapproval and negativity in your
question seems to me to grow from a misconception of what serious evidence
is all about when applied to ANY religion.

Bob Corbett