Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this: that all reality hinges on moral foundations. In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the physical laws.(1)” He helped build the Civil Rights movement upon these moral laws: whites are not superior to blacks and … [Read more...]
The Danger of Overstating Conclusions
Have you ever played the electronic game 20 Questions? If you haven't, this is what it is: You think of an object and the computer will ask you "yes/no" questions until it narrows down what you are thinking about. If you answer 20 questions, and it can't figure out what you're thinking about, you win. I've tried it a few times, and I've been able to stump it a couple. :) What … [Read more...]
Do We Have a Soul? (Part 1)
Up until the last two centuries, the vast majority of people (philosophers, theologians and laypersons) have believed in the existence of the soul. The legacy of this view stretches from philosophers such as Socrates and Plato (who both considered the soul as the essence of a person) to Aristotle (whose virtue ethics explained morality as the character development of the soul) … [Read more...]
7 Tips on Engaging Skeptics Like Paul Did in Athens [Part 2]
3 More Cultural Engagement Tips Today, we’re moving on in my new series of posts called, “7 Tips on Engaging Skeptics Like Paul Did in Athens.” In part one, we took a brief look at some historical background and focused on two simple lessons from Paul’s encounter in Acts 17: Care About People Prepare for Insults and Interest In this article, I’ll share 3 more cultural … [Read more...]
What CSI Tells Us About Our Desire for Truth
I recently read a post by Jill Carattini of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. In the post she discusses the reason for the popularity of forensic criminal science dramas on television such as CSI, NCIS and Bones. The shows center around the desire to find out what really happened to the victim and to bring the murderer to justice. The investigators are driven to solve … [Read more...]
Exon Shuffling: Evaluating the Evidence
Yesterday, I introduced the subject of exon shuffling and gave a few reasons why such a mechanism cannot explain the origins of the earliest, most ancient proteins. Now I want to offer an evaluation of the arguments, pro and con, for the role of exon shuffling in accounting for the subsequent origins of novel protein folds. … [Read more...]
Convince Me There’s A God – Archaeology 2
Solid evidence. Something an investigative journalist can sink his teeth into. That’s what I needed to see in 1971. Christians I had invited on my radio talk show to intimidate and make fun of were turning the tables on me. Me! A well-known, hard-core atheist talk show commentator, I was actually listening to Christians talk about why they believed in the existence of God. … [Read more...]
Exon Shuffling, and the Origins of Protein Folds
A frequently made claim in the scientific literature is that protein domains can be readily recombined to form novel folds. In Darwin's Doubt, Stephen Meyer addresses this subject in detail (see Chapter 11). Over the course of this and a subsequent article, I want to briefly expand on what was said there. … [Read more...]
A Response to the Friendly Atheist (Part 2)
This post continues a response to the July 30 CNN opinion piece article by Hemant Mehta, “The Friendly Atheist”, entitled “Why are millennials leaving church? Try atheism”. In Part 1, we looked at a number of arguments Mehta makes that I believe are either flawed or weak. Let’s now examine a few more. … [Read more...]
GOD: The Best Explanation? Part 2
Can Atheism Explain the Existence of our Universe? Part 1 In this second installment of our new miniseries, "GOD: The Best Explanation?", we begin to investigate whether a personal Creator God might or might not be a good explanation of the features we observe about our universe and reality in general. In this video we will take a look at Feature #1 that needs to be … [Read more...]