Over at Salon the MIT physicist and novelist Alan Lightman recently asked whether God exists, a question he poses in the service of reconciling science with religion and lambasting Richard Dawkins. Although he is an atheist, Lightman’s accomodationist query prompted a predictable response from Daniel Dennett, to which Lightman has responded.
It is a thoughtful exchange [...]
Tags:Abrahamic God·Alan Lightman·atheism·Christianity·Daniel Dennett·deism·existence of God·God·god concept·interventionist God·Islam·Judaism·monotheism·monotheistic God·Richard Dawkins
It is no secret that economic debates often have a religious flavor and similar passion; sometimes this flavor is metaphorical but other times is direct. Indeed, there many people — especially in the United States, who explicitly equate their economics with morals and religion.
Some worship at the altar of gold (the gold standard to be [...]
Tags:Adam Smith·Ben Friedman·Bill O'Reilly·David Ricardo·deism·deist·economics·Economics as a Moral Science·economy·free markets·Friedrich von Hayek·Glenn Beck·gold standard·invisible hand·Ludwig von Mises·Mike Huckabee·Milton Friedman·morals·Ron Paul·Rush Limbaugh·Sarah Palin·Theory of Moral Sentiments·Wealth of Nations
The British government has, after a lengthy vetting process, recognized Druidism or Druidry as a religion and granted it charitable status. The commissioners in charge of such decisions apparently had a hard time getting their collective heads around the idea that not all religions are monotheistic, textual, dogmatic, priestly, hierarchical, institutionalized, or systematic.
As the Toronto [...]
Tags:Anglican·animism·animist·anthropomorphic deities·Celtic·Charity Commission·city-states·deism·divine kings·Druidism·Druidry·Druids·Gallic·Great Britain·human sacrifice·megalithic structures·Melanie Phillips·nature worship·neo-pagan·Neolithic Revolution·pagan·polytheism·Stonehenge·United Kingdom
Stephen Hawking’s new book, The Grand Design, is generating a fair amount of press because of his claim that the laws of physics explain the Big Bang and remove the need for a Prime Mover. God in the Gap theists have thus been pushed further back in time to nothingness, which is the non-state that [...]
Tags:bellum omnium contra omnes·Big Bang·Deepak Chopra·deism·design·designer·Enya·God in the Gap·Leviathan·Natural Theology·New Age·physics·Prime Mover·spiritual realm·Stephen Hawking·The Grand Design·theism·theodicy·Thomas Hobbes·transcendent reality·watchmaker analogy·Where is the Design·William Paley·Yoga
Among scientists, physicists seem to be the most likely to believe in some version of an all powerful sentient being or force. While very few of them are willing to say what such a being or force might be, religionists are always keen to claim such statements as “evidence” for their gods.
I have always understood [...]
Tags:Big Bang·deism·design·laws of physics·physicists·Richard Dawkins·Stephen Hawking·theism
