It is interesting to compare the case of the recent book “by” Antony Flew with an article that appeared in Salon magazine today about the story that is usually told about how George Bush came to faith. In both cases, it seems to be those responsible for ghostwriting books and those responsible for press releases and publicity that in both cases have put words in the mouths of others. Mel White used to be a ghostwriter, and his book Religion... Read more

“It’s humbling to realise that the developmental gulf between a miniscule ant colony and our modern human civilisation is only a tiny fraction of the distance between a Type 0 and a Type III civilisation – a factor of 100 billion billion, in fact. Yet we have such a highly regarded view of ourselves, we believe a Type III civilisation would find us irresistible and would rush to make contact with us. The truth is, however, they may be as... Read more

Today in my religion and science class we discussed some readings from Richard Dawkins and Fritjof Capra, but mostly spent time talking about the more fundamental question of what God does, and how science has changed or could change the ideas of God that people have. One small group discussion moved onto the topic of miracles and ‘acts of God’. Apparently two students disagreed about whether to see God’s involvement in things like hurricanes. Not restraining my silly side, I... Read more

I’ve already talked about being a Christian. Lots of times. But I have also been mistaken for an atheist, and perhaps this isn’t surprising. Many of the same arguments that lead Sam Harris to be an atheist are the reasons I cannot be a fundamentalist. And I certainly disbelieve in Zeus-like deities, even if they bear Judeo-Christian monikers. If I had to choose, I would certainly prefer naturalism to superstition – but I’m not persuaded that those are our only... Read more

“I believe a mind is like a parachute. The more open it is, the better it works” (Deb, comment on a blog) Read more

CAROL STREAM, ILLINOIS, November 6, 2007 – A leading Christian publisher launches a new polling initiative to gauge the opinion of a broad range of Christians on theology, politics, and cultural issues in the United States. It is called NationalChristianPoll.com, and polling participants are being recruited now. The project follows national research commissioned by Christianity Today International and Zondervan Publishers that shows diverse approaches to faith among American adults who identify themselves as Christian. The research indicates that traditional nomenclature—including... Read more

This month’s The Writer Magazine’s short piece about a poll result indicating that “The United States is not a reading nation” (p.9) is not surprising. But one particular detail, if not necessarily surprising, is certainly striking and thought-provoking. In the poll conducted by Associated Press/Ipsos, it was found that over the past year, “Churchgoers read half as much as non-churchgoers did”. Disappointing – that’s the word I was looking for. Utterly disappointing. But at least I understand why so few... Read more

A colleague of mine, whose work on time travel has been reasonably successful, takes delight in sharing religious news from the future with me. Here is an op-ed piece from ten years from now that he brought back, which readers of this blog may find interesting: Our Lady Of Wisdom (November 6th, 2017) “History teaches us that history teaches us nothing.” I don’t know who said it, but the events that have been playing out before our eyes over the... Read more

In my Star Trek-related post I shared a link to a survey with Spock’s picture, since he was relevant to the post. But if you want to know who the survey identifies me as… Read more

The Notes From Off Center blog shared this with anyone interested, and I’ve been curious about it for a while, so I thought I’d try it and do what was done there – infect yourself if you so choose! These are some keyword combinations that, when entered on Google’s search engine, produce my blog as the top site listed: young independent dihydrogen monoxide creationism’s cartoon physics blog book smackdown casey luskin dishonest theological pileated woodpeckers oral tradition keywords antidisestablishmentarianistically-oriented founding... Read more