If I understand my Catholic friends and scholars correctly, God created the cosmos, earth, and life. This God sparked the original organism and designed an evolutionary process that has resulted in endless forms most beautiful and wonderful. But of all these forms, one stands out and one was the goal from the beginning: humans. When [...]
Tags:adaptation·Catholic·Christian·creationism·design·evolutionary theism·Gobekli Tepe·God·intelligent design·John Haught·Klaus Schmidt·Matt Rossano·Michael Blume·Panglossian Paradigm·Simon Conway Morris·teleology·theology
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
By now you surely have heard about Colton Burpo (he is a real kid from Nebraska, not a character from an Upton Sinclair novel). When Colton was 3 years old, he allegedly went to the Christian heaven during an appendectomy. Young Colton “miraculously” lived to tell about it, and now at age 11, he and [...]
Tags:Buddhist·Colton Burpo·God·Gretchen Carlson·Heaven Is For Real·Hindu·Jesus·John the Baptist·Julie Bosman·Lynn Vincent·Muslim·NDE·near death experience·Robert Trivers·Sarah Palin·self deception·Todd Burpo·William von Hippel
It should surprise no one that Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck, who is Mormon, does not believe that humans evolved and we are primates. It is surprising, however, that he is proud of his ignorance and would be flippant with God should he meet the Maker and learn evolution is fact:
How many people [...]
Tags:apes·bipedal·Bishop Wilberforce·creationism·creationist·Fox News·Glenn Beck·God·human evolution·ignorance·language·monkeys·Mormon·Soapy Sam·symbolic thought·the Maker·Whatever
Over at WaPo’s Faith section, Martha Woodroof has posted a dreary piece that discourages people from asking religious questions or seeking answers. Here are some of the more defeatist excerpts:
As people of faith, should we concern ourselves with God’s nature, relatives, ways and history? I, for one, think we should not. It seems to [...]
Tags:acceptance·blind faith·faith·God·God is unknowable·ignorance·ineffable·inscrutable·Martha Woodroof·mystery·mystery of God·people of faith·the great Whatever·unknowable·Washington Post
In a splendidly illustrated and nicely argued open access article appearing in the journal Neurosurgery, Ian Suk and Rafael Tamargo contend that Michelangelo included a portion of the human brain on God’s neck in his Sistine Chapel fresco, “Separation of Light from Darkness,” which was painted in 1511. I have used another of those frescos [...]
Tags:anatomy·brain·Creation of Adam·excommunication·fresco·God·god concept·heresy·Ian Suk·imagination·Ludwig Feuerbach·Michelangelo·neurobiology·Neurosurgery·projection·Rafael Tamargo·Separation of Light from Darkness·Sistine Chapel·supernatural thinking·The Essence of Christianity
