This week Ann Coulter stirred the political pot yet again. On the CNBC show “Big Idea”, Coulter was asked for her views on the perfect American society. At first she spouted off the idea that it would be a Republican society, shifted so far to the right that Joe Libermann would be viewed […]
How do we know what is true and what is not? How do we weigh the validity of another’s opinion, or even the validity of our own?
Some time ago, Julia made a post on the comfort of knowing the truth. This resulted in a comment discussion on the nature of truth, […]
Recently I came across this photograph of a billboard:
To give you some context, it is an advertisement for Answers in Genesis, the fundamentalist Christian organization which promotes Biblical literalism, including the idea that the universe was created about 6000 years ago, and that the immense diversity of animals we now see on the planet traces […]
I noted with interest that , after all the bad feeling and conflict between the Islamic world and the west, here is a story that shows mainstream America has something in common with Islamic thought. At Yahoo News, I read about how Turkey made the teaching of creationism mandatory in their schools back in […]
In this month of Harry Potter (the latest movie and the last book both debut in July), a short article in Time caught my eye. In it, the Harry Potter series is described as “radical” (compared to Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia) because there is no religion mentioned: “If […]
Early in my career I taught physics and astronomy at a private religious college in the heart of the Bible belt. I often found myself teaching students who were creationists. As a result there were times when I would find myself using terms such as “billions of years ago” or “over many millennia” […]
Recently Nightline held a “debate” on the existence of God. The debate was initiated by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, who claimed to be able to prove through science alone (without any appeal to faith or the Bible) that God exists. Representing the opposing team were Brian Sapient and Kelly of the […]
This isn’t about current events….more like ancient events, really. I just stumbled across something interesting when I was reading; it made me think, so I thought I’d share it.
I’ve been reading “Cross Bones,” by Kathy Reichs; the protagonist is a forensic anthropologist. She was studying some very old bones, and a reference was made to […]
If you ever take a drive through the heartland of America on Interstate 70 you will eventually come across the Effingham Cross, near Effingham, IL. This 200ft structure is located just a few hundred feet off the highway, surrounded by ten large plaques, each listing one of the Ten Commandments. A chapel is […]
The cover story of a recent Time magazine concerns one new version of anti-abortion/right to life advocacy. It focuses on compassion rather than condemnation for pregnant women seeking abortions in the U.S. The process is to set up women’s health clinics that strongly promote a woman carrying her child to term. These centers often […]
