Dr Willem (Willie) Pieter Maartens

Willie Maartens

Willem, known as Willie, was born on May 18th, 1950 in Roodepoort and his baptism took place in Pretoria North.  Willie's father was Choert Maartens and his mother was Maria Elizabeth Ras.  His paternal grandparents were Willem Pieter Maartens and Susanna Aletta Sofia Johanna Lemmer; his maternal grandparents were Willem Abraham Ras (Prinsloo) and Maria (Betta) Elizabeth de Kock. He had a brother and a sister, named Braam and Elize.  He is the oldest of the three children.

• General Notes

  Voortrekkerstr 55, Posbus 63, Dordrecht
  
  Government Gazette No. 18532 - 12 Dec 1997
  Section: Application for Rehabilitation
  Record Type: Legal Records
  T474/95 - Maartens, Willem Pieter, 18 Mei 1950, 5005185070004, senior lektor by Technicon, en Maartens, Johanna Susanna, 8 November 1955, 5511080056006, werkloos, beide woonagtig te Denyssenlaan 615, Mountain View, Pretoria. 14 Maart 1995, beide woonagtig te Markstraat 937, Claremont, Pretoria, W. P. Maartens, lektor by Technicon, Pretoria, en J. S. Maartens, werkloos. Transvaalse Provinsiale Afdeling, 3 Februarie 1998, 10:00. Artikel 124 (2) (a).
  
  99 Zonderend Rd., Glen Harmony, 9430. OFS
  
  Born in South Africa, Willie Maartens grew up on the gold mines of the ‘old’ Transvaal. He qualified as a Topographical and Engineering Surveyor as well as a Business Economist. He worked as a surveyor, economist, consultant, entrepreneur, lecturer, and freelance researcher. He retired because of poor health. He is married and has a son and a daughter.
  
  Willie Maartens
  
  Mapping Reality: A Critical Perspective on Science and Religion
  By Willie Maartens 
  Published: Jun-2006
  A critical perspective on science and religion, and specifically on faith (religion and science) and rational thought (science). An endeavour to illustrate (by means of examples) how inadequate human thought and senses are, and how humans never truly can understand reality.
  
  Book Description
  We must clearly distinguish between reality (the territory), and what we perceive to be reality (the map of the territory)! In our journey through life, we need something to guide us, to give us reassurance that we are on the right track. Modern science has done its best to take that reassurance away from us, telling us that there is no destination, no purpose, in life, and that in effect our lives are an accident of ‘Nature’. Religion, too, has become equally unhelpful: it has become dogmatic, sectarian, and self-serving. We have lost the core, the real message, of religion, but we still need true spirituality. Indeed, we need a map to the Truth.
  
  “In this amazingly comprehensive and thoroughgoing work, Dr Willie Maartens has produced a remarkable piece of work and I applaud his insights. He has certainly adjusted my own map of reality, or shall I say adjusted my perspective of it! Indeed, the major contribution to learning by Dr Maartens’ book is that it tells us not to confuse our own personal maps of reality with the actual world, or reality, in which we live, move, and have our being. If anything, this book takes off one’s blinkers — or at least makes one seriously think about taking them off and re-adjusting one’s perspectives.”
  
  Quoted from the foreword to Mapping Reality by:
  
  Wrote book Mapping Reality
  A critical Perspective on Science and Religion

Details of Willie's family with Johanna (Hanta) Susanna Holder