{"id":78132,"date":"2019-09-14T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T00:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=78132"},"modified":"2019-09-14T22:33:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T04:33:02","slug":"atheism-and-its-scientific-pretensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/09\/atheism-and-its-scientific-pretensions.html","title":{"rendered":"“Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Noorda<\/a>
Utah Valley University School of the Arts opened the new Noorda Center for the Performing Arts on the UVU Campus in Orem, Utah on Thursday January 3, 2019. (Jay Drowns \/ UVU Marketing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had one of our comparatively rare meetings of the Interpreter Foundation board of trustees today, lasting from 9 AM until about 1:30 PM. \u00a0It could have been longer, but it was at my house . . . \u00a0and my wife and I had tickets for a play at 2 PM.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been difficult to get us all together \u2014 and not only because of my frequent travel. \u00a0One of our vice presidents is just back, with his wife, from their second assignment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission. \u00a0(It\u2019s somewhat easier to convene our board meetings when he\u2019s not off serving in Central Africa!) \u00a0There are many good things happening and, once again, I want to express my thanks to all of the donors and volunteers who make these things possible.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Racing over after the conclusion of our board meeting, my wife and I saw a play in the still fairly new Noorda Center for the Performing Arts<\/a> at Utah Valley University. \u00a0It was an afternoon performance of a new musical entitled Fly More Than You Fall\u00a0<\/em>in the Noorda\u2019s Scott and Karen Smith Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The official opening of the Noorda was at the end of March \u2014 and, what with April final exams at BYU and then, commencing in late April, a travel schedule kept us away until almost September, this was our first time to visit it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beautiful new facility with multiple halls and theaters, including one named after our very much missed neighbor and friend Melanie Laycock Bastian<\/a>. \u00a0I\u2019ve always thought that one of the great things about living where we do, near BYU, is the continual availability of theater, international films, concerts, and plays. \u00a0But BYU is a whopping ten or fifteen minutes\u2019 drive from our house, so it\u2019s a bit of a hardship for us to get there. \u00a0Now, though, the Noorda is maybe five minutes away. \u00a0So not quite as horribly difficult.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And \u2014 in another piece of neighborhood news \u2014 Melanie\u2019s former home\u00a0will shortly become Utah Valley University\u2019s art museum<\/a>. \u00a0Within easy walking distance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A couple of nights ago, I watched a roughly 42-minute-long interview by Peter Robinson<\/a>, of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, with the Paris-based secular Jewish philosopher, mathematician, and writer David Berlinski<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Berlinski vs Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I couldn\u2019t help but think that viewing it might cause cardiac arrest in at least one of my readers. \u00a0(Maybe I\u2019m misspeaking: \u00a0He may or may not actually be a reader of mine. \u00a0However, he\u2019s definitely a frequent commenter on my blog.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 We had one of our comparatively rare meetings of the Interpreter Foundation board of trustees today, lasting from 9 AM until about 1:30 PM. \u00a0It could have been longer, but it was at my house . . . \u00a0and my wife and I had tickets for a play at 2 PM. \u00a0 It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1014,5478,289,5454,5463,5475,837,5472,5457,243,5460,5469,5466],"class_list":["post-78132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-bastian","tag-darwinism","tag-david-berlinski","tag-hoover-institution","tag-melanie","tag-new-atheism","tag-noorda","tag-peter-robinson","tag-science","tag-stanford","tag-utah-valley-university","tag-uvu"],"yoast_head":"\n"Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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