I am proud to announce the release of my second book Meta: On God, the Big Questions, and the Just City (An Uncommon Exchange), written by myself and Adam Lee, published by Cascade Books, an imprint of the Oregon publishing house Wipf & Stock, devoted to “books that combine academic rigor with broad appeal and readability”. Included are the links to the publisher and Amazon pages. The foreword was written by William Jaworski, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University and author... Read more

A modern Psalm revealed in one of my favorites scenes: The quietness of God, the problem of evil and suffering. It’s a timeless theme. We believe in a benevolent, all-knowing, all-powerful God, yet life often throws us harsh, cold, and cruel circumstances. Enter the free will response – God allows evil to allow free will. For good could not be good and love could not be love, if forced. But on the quietness of God, the supposed needless suffering of... Read more

Jordan Peterson is deep. I came across a fascinating dialogue between him and Sam Harris on Harris’ podcast. It was a very interesting and respectful exchange of ideas. Harris’ background is in neuroscience and he’s a very prominent New Atheist author. Peterson is a particularly progressive Christian, and has an interesting perspective as a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology – he’s specifically interested in underlying archetypes of behavior and belief. Both Harris and Peterson are realists and feel there are mind independent truths,... Read more

Blood Diamond is a powerful and moving film. One scene in particular, I vividly remember. The backdrop is that an innocent young child, the apple of his father’s eye, was taken captive by warlords, and forced into labor to harvest diamonds. Like all forms of slavery and human trafficking, the goal is to break the captive’s identity and self-worth, and turn them (via drugs, forced labor, prostitution, etc.) into an entirely new person. The theological parallels are striking. The film depicts the shattering of innocence... Read more

Robert Jastrow is one of my favorite agnostic authors on the big questions. As founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a popular author, I’ve very much appreciated his insights on the intersection of science (specifically cosmology), philosophy, and theology. The combination of his knowledge and humility are rare, especially among today’s skeptical scientists who write on these topics (like Lawrence Krauss who wrote A Universe from Nothing). To Aristotle and Liebniz’s timeless question, “Why is There Something... Read more

My written exchange (turned philosophical road show) with Adam Lee on the nonreligious channel has culminated into a book! The working title is Meta: On God, the Big Questions, and the Just City (An Uncommon Exchange). It’s being published by Cascade Books, an imprint of the Oregon publishing house Wipf & Stock, devoted to “books that combine academic rigor with broad appeal and readability”. The goal of our book (and live events) is to raise the bar on the how the... Read more