Reading Time: 2 minutes Enough already. How many times do we have to take public issue with some chapter and verse in the Bible? How many times do we have to contest a theological story and say it makes no sense? Animals upon an ark. Talking donkeys. God-men. Water into wine. Sacrificial deaths. Subterranean torture chambers of eternal duration. […]
Deep Dive
Exploring the big questions—life, death, morality, consciousness, meaning—from a secular point of view.
Posted inSexuality
Just beat it: Celebrating National Masturbation Month
Reading Time: 3 minutes We all do it, at least most of us do. And yet we all pretend we don’t. Who me? Why I never… Why the denial? Why is this very natural, human, and healthy activity such a source of embarrassment? Assuming you’re keeping it strictly to yourself, it doesn’t affect anyone except the person doing it. […]
Posted inReligion
Harvard doesn’t require faith statements. What does that tell you?
Reading Time: 4 minutes William Lane Craig says HE’s cool with faith statements, so where’s the problem?
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
There is no ‘crisis of meaning’
Reading Time: 3 minutes Over 80 million. That’s how many hits a Google search for “crisis of meaning” generates in the past year alone. It makes sense that “crisis of meaning” would be in people’s minds. We are worried, and with good reason. Here in the US, the pandemic saw a surge in anxiety, depression, and other mental health […]
Posted inReligion
How identical twins can cause serious problems for ensoulment
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ensoulment is the proposed process of a soul becoming attached or associated with the physical matter of a human at some point in their development. For religious people, this is commonly understood to happen at conception when the sperm and egg combine. We’ve already seen that IVF, with embryos being frozen by the million, can […]
Posted inIt Kills Me to Admit This
The treasured atheist idea that reason undercuts faith just doesn’t hold up
Reading Time: 9 minutes “Can we actually win a war of ideas with people? Judging from my email, we can. I’m constantly getting email from people who have lost their faith and were, in effect, argued out of it. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was either one of our books, or some other process of reasoning.” […]
Posted inLaw
Lies the Supreme Court tells about religious liberty
Reading Time: 6 minutes Since its adoption as the national motto in 1956, the inclusion of the phrase “In God We Trust” on the American national currency has faced legal challenges, leading to unlikely judicial claims about the phrase’s secular intent and meaning. In response to a lawsuit against the government in 1970, the Ninth Circuit ruled that “It […]
Posted inReligion
Baptists think they know exactly how to avoid deception
Reading Time: 11 minutes Back when I was Pentecostal, I found myself debating a pair of Southern Baptist guys. At the time, I believed in speaking in tongues, and I rejected the Trinity. They were deeply concerned that I’d go to hell over this huge deception, so they sought to persuade me I was wrong. I’m sure you’ll be […]
Posted inParenting & Family
How do we explain gun violence to our kids?
Reading Time: 3 minutes How do we strike a balance between honesty and shielding when we discuss Sunday’s mass shooting in Buffalo?
Posted inReligion
William Lane Craig replies to my attack on faith statements
Reading Time: 3 minutes I attacked faith statements, and Christian apologist William Lane Craig replied. I have a few things to say in response.