Listening to talk radio recently, I got a glimpse of how some people see the future. It's pretty scary. A professor from Carleton University, touring Canada to promote his book, said its theme is "a rant about economics", contrasting "turbo-capitalism" with "eco-centred" economics and culture.

Dr. Ian Prattis is professor emeritus of Anthropology and Religion at Carleton. What kind of religion, you ask? Well, he speaks and writes a lot about yoga, karma, "medicine" spirituality and Zen Buddhism. On his blog, he describes himself as a "peace and environment activist and Zen teacher." No mention of Biblical faith. Why am I not surprised?

Alan Watts (1915-1973) who held both a master's degree in theology and a doctorate of divinity, is best known as an interpreter of Zen Buddhism. The name comes from the Japanese zazen, which means "seated meditation"—but Alan Watts says it expresses the idea of having "no mind." Mindlessness—an odd idea to come from a university, hmmmm?

Dr. Prattis is also a passionate believer in "global warming"—in spite of the evidence that for eight years the earth has been getting cooler. Well, mindlessness never lets facts get in the way of a zippy idea, does it?

In his radio interview, he spoke about the "urgent need" for what he calls a "global mind-shift". He thinks President-elect Barrack Obama might propel such a mind-shift. Does that remind you a bit of Trudeaumania?

In Dr. Bill Gairdner's important new work, The Book of Absolutes, he examines that kind of moral relativism, and the damage done to the intellectual life of western culture during the 20th century by "anthropologists" like Franz Boas and Margaret Mead—the sort of intellectual chicanery that was brilliantly exposed by Donald E. Brown in his 1991 anthropology textbook, Human Universals. Cultural anthropology's relativistic beat goes on and on, apparently, well into the 21st century. Some people just don't want to learn, it seems.

If this is what is occurring at Carleton, one wonders how many other Canadian universities are riding this wave of mindlessness, and it reinforces once again that Canada needs the CHP more than ever, to shape proven Biblical truth into practical policies that can give this nation a real future.