Cheers to Bryson for directing me to an essay, which I discovered was one over several over at The John Templeton Foundation.
The essays are comprised answers to ‘big questions’ from a variety of perspectives – theist, atheist and agnostic. They make for interesting reading whatever your beliefs are.
Two of the ‘big questions‘ essays were of [...]
Thanks, Ian Luxmoore…
…for a friendly, respectful, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable conversation about life, god, the universe, morality and all the rest.
Blamentations (pronounced: Blah-men-tay-shins; combining the words ‘blog’ and ‘lamentations’).
What Genesis 1-3 is not: a play-by-play, atom-by-atom historical and scientific account of creation. The author/community which produced the text clearly had other things in mind than producing such a thing.*
This is widely accepted by people who should know: scholars in fields relevant to Genesis 1-3 (biblical scholars, ancient near east religion scholars, hebrew linguists, [...]
miscellaneous thoughts…
if the time we spend is to be at all worthwhile, we need to accept that words matter enough to use them and work at our use of them (some key words in science/faith include: ‘knowledge’, ‘evidence’, ‘explanation’, ‘natural’, ‘reality’, etc).
it occurs to me that aiming for mutual understanding is infinitely more helpful than [...]
I’ve checked out a book from the Carey Baptist library that’s proving to be very interesting:
The Future of Atheism: Alister McGrath & Daniel Dennett in Dialogue
It’s essentially a written copy of a 2007 conference including the McGrath/Dennett debate and the other papers presented – plus a few additional chapters and an introduction by the author/editor, [...]
((note to non-New Zealand-ers – the phrase ‘yeah right’ in the title is intended not so much in a ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ kind of way, but rather in a Tui [NZ brand of beer] billboard [quite a well-known NZ cultural phenomenon] kind of way.))
In a 2007 debate with John Lennox (viewable here), Richard Dawkins vocalises [...]
I’ve quite enjoyed reading through “Is Nature Enough: Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science“, by John Haught. One of the many points he articulates well is what he refers to as “layered explanation”.
Obama’s recent statements on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, remind us all (like it or not) of the immensely divisive issue of abortion. The article says…
Obamas turn has come to rule the American empire.
Will it continue to be a mass-consuming empire of greed?
Only time will tell.
Here is a thoughtful, timely and read-worthy critique by Brian Walsh entitled:
Barack Obama: A Post-Imperial Presidency?
And yes, the same question could’ve/should’ve been asked had McCain won the election…
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