The trending line on facebook had an appalling headline. “Beheading in Oklahoma.” The link took me to a local OK television station. There was the story of a man who was fired from his job. He returned to his old work place with a large knife. There he stabbed and slashed one woman multiple times, severing her head. He was assaulting a second when he was shot by an employee of the company. Oh yes, the murderer had a past... Read more
The most common, the most popular framework for analyzing religion in America appears to be fear. Religion is complicated. It always amazes me when people think they can read a couple of books, check out a website or two, and then begin making strong assertions about this or that religion. Would they do that with quantum mechanics? Or genetic biology? Because religion is complicated, the hardest thing about teaching religion is working out how to approach that complexity so that... Read more
A summer of violence is winding to an end, with yet another war between Israel and Hamas, the rapid rise of ISIS and its reign of terror against every possible sectarian or religious minority, and nations from the Magrib to Southeast Asian slipping into failed state status. Two things have become clear. First that religion is central to human conflict to a degree unparalleled in recent decades. And secondly that classical inter-religious dialogue has no real role to play in... Read more
Is Islam a Religion of Peace? Yes and No. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and the other religions I know of all encourage peace, both personal and social. Yet at this moment in time members of all of these religions are not peaceful. By the billions they are afflicted with inner turmoil, sleepless nights, and broken human relationships. And by the millions they are directly engaged as both victims and perpetrators of violence between all sorts of social groups. How... Read more
Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Public Square 2014 Summer Series: Conversations on Religious Trends. Read other perspectives from the Patheos community here. A recent book by Timothy Keller made the New York Times Best Seller list. “The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism.” I suppose it has value for those for whom it has value; doubters who wish to believe. It is a nicely written, if somewhat condensed mashup of CS Lewis, Francis Collins, and Josh McDowell. ... Read more
Is agnosticism an tenable position in a religiously plural society? No. In my recent travels in Europe I fell into a conversation with a self-professed agnostic and a self-professed atheist, in which the atheist challenged the intellectual integrity of the agnostic’s position. The atheist’s argument was simple. The agnostic maintained that God’s existence was a matter beyond determination by either human logic or human science, and thus he preferred to take no stand on the matter. The atheist’s retort was... Read more
My last blog generated some interesting discussions. The interview below covers some of the issues raised in that discussion – and sheds new light on the arguments on both sides. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-stone/ Read more
Real dialogue is necessary, not over the important secondary matter of whether God exists, but over the primary question of what constitutes the basis for human knowing. Two ads in the most recent edition of Scientific American caught my eye. On page 24 is an ad called “Leaving Truth.” It promotes a book designed to “call the theist’s bluff at this deepest accessible epistemic level.” See more at www.poppersinversion.org. The second ad, larger, is entitled “In Reason We Trust” and... Read more
Face to Face with Jesus, by Samaa Habib and Bodie Thoene Let me start by saying that I support evangelistic efforts within the Muslim world, assuming they are carried out with the kind of discretion and care necessary for a full witness to God’s love. People of any religion who believe that faith makes a difference have a right and obligation to share theirs. Moreover every story of every convert to Christianity, indeed every story of every human who has... Read more
I wonder. Perhaps the West isn’t losing God. Perhaps it is just beginning to find out who God really is. How the West Really Lost God is something I’m not sure I know, even after reading Mary Eberstadt’s new book. She seeks to turn the common idea that the decline in religion led to a decline in the family on its head. So she offers considered evidence that in fact the decline in the family led to the decline in... Read more
Robert Hunt: Interfaith Encounters
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