Banquet at Delmonico’s Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America by Barry Werth Reviewed by: Terrell Clemmons Post Civil War America was looking for a new belief system, says social historian Barry Werth. Across the Atlantic Charles Darwin had proposed a new theory of biology, but had left the popularization of it to others. In Banquet at … [Read more...]
Signs in the Stars
"Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Thus was the question posed by the Magi upon arrival in Jerusalem, presumably to Herod, the king in situ at the time. What had they seen? Why did they come to Jerusalem? It makes sense that, if they were looking for the King of the Jews, they would go to Jerusalem. … [Read more...]
Darwin's Quantum Leap
Early in 2009, the International Year of Darwin got underway in Shrewsbury, England, the birthplace of Charles Darwin. As part of the celebration marking both Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, a sculpture was unveiled in Shrewsbury’s Mardol Quay Gardens. Nearly forty feet high, sixty feet long, … [Read more...]
An Encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses
It was a bright and cold December morning and I was up to my elbows in bread dough when my doorbell rang. The dog barked at full volume, and my preschool daughter zipped past me as I brushed the flour from my hands and followed her to the door. There waited a tall, professionally dressed, blond young woman, smiling confidently as if she were arriving for a job interview. She … [Read more...]
Analytical Apologetics: AA for the Inebriated Mind
“Don’t be surprised to find out that there are atheists and agnostics in your midst,” Ted said to me. He'd been railing against the evils of organized religion. I got the impression he expected some kind of shocked reaction from me. But he didn't get one. He’d already said he was a humanist, and I knew the two kind of go together. Besides, I’m not horrified over atheists. I … [Read more...]