It’s rare that you find a newspaper article that actually addresses theology in depth, so I was surprised to see the Chicago Tribune Magazine article this past Sunday on “The New Theology” regarding theistic evolution. The article highlights several Christian scientists, physicist Howard Van Till and geneticist Francis Collins among them, who have reconciled their Christian faith with evolutionary theory by adjusting their view of God. “If your faith requires supernaturalism, or a God who wields overpowering control over nature,… Read more
Mark Erickson has a series of videos online where he gives you some helpful tips on a variety of subjects. His show, Infinite Solutions, is a bit cheesy graphics-wise, but you’ll be amazed after you see them. For example, here’s one where he teaches you how to get your YouTube video subscriptions sent directly to your iPod as a podcast: And here’s an even better one where he teaches you how to speed up your regular mail delivery without any… Read more
I’ve previously posted August Berkshire’s list of the 34 Unconvincing Arguments for God. But Ted Stoltz has something slightly different: A list of bad atheist responses to Christianity: Over the years of debating, I’ve noticed there are a number of arguments which atheists routinely present, but are ineffectual at convincing Christians that Christianity might have problems. The problem for atheists is that these arguments make perfect non-theistic sense, and so why anyone else shouldn’t see the logic is baffling to… Read more
You don’t see this every day. On Saturday in Los Angeles, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church of Thousand Oaks held a joint service with local Hindu leaders. Part of the service included the Christians apologizing for their past and present treatment of the Hindus: During the service, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, issued a statement of apology to the Hindu religious community for centuries-old acts of religious discrimination by Christians, including attempts… Read more
Efrique made me laugh 🙂 And I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually happened when a Creationist looked through a photo album… Flip. Flip. “Nice baby shot there.” Flip. Flip. “First steps. Kinda cute.” Flip. Flip. “Hey, I had a train cake for my 4th birthday too.” Flip. Flip. Flip-flip-flip. “Ooh, that graduation photo is out of focus!” Flip. Flip-flip. “Hang on, there’s no shots of her sixth birthday! What are you trying to pull?… None of these photos show… Read more
I get a lot of email from Christian fundamentalists. They tell me their miracle stories of why god exists, and I try to point out the rational explanations to their miracles, and so forth. It usually doesn’t get anywhere. Sometimes, they have nice things to say about the book, though, and I appreciate that. But this sentence from a recent email is my favorite one in a long time: Historical evidence supports the evidence of Jesus Christ, or we would… Read more
Nick Beam set up a prayer blog for me! By the end of [I Sold My Soul on eBay], Hemant tells us that the only thing he believes will convert him is a miracle. Well, I believe that the God that I serve is in the business of performing miracles, so I thought I would set up a prayer blog just for Hemant. Just go to the comment link and leave a prayer, that God would be gracious and reveal… Read more
Billy (A Liberal Disabled Vet), guest posting at Atheist Revolution, tells two stories of girls he has met in his life. Both are disturbing, but one has a slightly happier ending… One is about a girl who had exposure to the outside world; the other is about one who was seemingly sheltered from it: These two stories show (to me at least) what has changed in America over the last 25 or so years. The girl I knew in Maryland… Read more
Jason Torpy, the president of the Military Association for Atheists and Freethinkers, relates to me this (paraphrased) story of a disturbing military event. Fort Leonard Wood is a major training post in Missouri. It holds a number of different training programs, including Basic Combat Training (BCT). BCT is the first training where service members are taken from civilian life and trained in basic army actions. Therefore, during this training (approximately nine weeks), service members have essentially no rights. They are… Read more
XKCD points out the obvious: (Thanks to Beau for the link!) [tags]atheist, atheism, skeptic[/tags] Read more