I never have a pass on making a bad argument. No scholar should claim more certainty than is warranted by the evidence. Explanations are easy, but sufficient explanations are hard. We can show why something might have caused something else, but showing that it did? Not so easy. Even a scientist must take care. WVO Quine suggested, and I think he was correct, that many ideas in science are underdetermined by the evidence presented. The amount of certainty claimed is... Read more
The just will live by faith. Faith means we must be reasonable even when uncertain, we need substantial hope not just fantasy. We reject cockiness: we do not yet see. If I too cock-sure, then I have missed the Divine Word. This shadowland is full of mysteries. Whenever I read something that is hard, I look first for what is good, true, and beautiful. Sometimes I may think that something is wrong, badly argued, but the best response is to... Read more
Human reason, yes, but give us also the revelation of reason that comes from God. Against the demonic, unaided human reason is impotent. Too often thoughtful people prepare as if the worst critic they will face is human. Human reason aspires to logic, even if falling short. This is not, so far as history can be trusted, the truth about the manual of the monstrous. Human reason can be countered by human reason, but the diabolical will smash the merely... Read more
Wisdom cries out, but we often miss her voice. We are too busy and too content in our lives to listen. Good questions inspire deeper reflection, while great questions never leave a person. When I find a person who asks great questions, I try to keep them around! A sometime contributor asked for a quick answer (one or two lines!) in response, but the question is so good that words multiply. Hopefully error will be lacking. His question: Is a... Read more
Are you tired of losing? Good. Any Christian citizen or subject of any nation will seek justice for all God’s children. Who wishes to see injustice spread? There can be grift, a money making operation, that can overtake our job of doing justice. The grift feels like winning, since the bank account or ministry is multiplying. The rotten religious right and left in America are dominated with such types of organizations. Otherwise sensible people become grifters when they trade “amens”... Read more
I am thankful. I heard stories of what the polio vaccine was like, a bit before I was born: an amazing miracle that kept children from crippling injury or death. My Nana told stories about the pandemic after World War I and going to visitations and funerals for so many of her friends. I suffered from chicken pox, no joke that, and now am happy that no child need do so again. Vaccines are good. The vaccine for Covid is... Read more
Nessie waits. On the other side of the door is the human she knows as “Mom,” a bone treat, and water, but she waits. First, the leash will come off, then the door will open. I take off my shoes, having said as I do every time in humor that has built over the decades (in my mind) “Honey, I’m home.” She waits and hears: “OK.” and barrels in waggling with all her might rushing to Hope. Nessie is a... Read more
No matter how good things are: sometimes we are tired. No matter how good things are, in general, some bad things can make us even more tired in particular. Double tired, due to nature and evil, is very tired. We get weary by nature. Work and play lead to sleep. We get weary, because the world is broken. Hard times, the result of sin, lead to the need for even more sleep. Rest is sweet and so hard work makes us... Read more
If you are the Wonder Dog Nessie, you find a way to be loving. In her about-a-year-of-life the dog Nessie had never experienced such cold: 40 odd in the house, 8 outside. Houston got cold by Houston standards which would be laughable by Rochester, New York standards, but Nessie has never been to the Great Snowy North. If a man who had never run a lap was asked to run a mile, the marathoners should not mock. If a dog thinks... Read more
Going home is shorter, thank God, than we fear. The beach was there, so we walked, then the Gulf, so we went, and then the pier, jumping from stone to stone, so we wandered out to the edge looking for the horizon. The weather shifted and when we turned, suddenly home seemed far away. We made it, of course, and for those younger than the two-of-us, or for many of you, the way would not have seemed long at all.... Read more
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