Annie Dillard tells a story of a certain rabbi in her book on writing The Writing Life. He would leave his home before prayer in case he was struck down after saying "Lord," before "have mercy." His was a fear of the presence of God, the presence of the maker. Today I sat through a
I can't get past Jesus. Science can say what it wants about millions of years ago, but 2000 years ago the world fundamentally changed. Was it actually today? Who knows, and does it really matter? The world is fundamentally not right. We all know this. We all feel the brokenness permeating everything, just below the
I have been waiting a little while to weigh in on this one. My good friend Matt, not to be confused with other Matts, who has become my most regular commenter here asked my thoughts on this. For those who don't know about it, Canada's minister for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, refused to say
This thought has reoccurred to me a number of times. It is kind of simple and definitely in need of refinement. It is essentially related to the problem of evil. When you ask nonbelievers why they don't believe in God, especially those who once did, you frequently get an interesting response. "If there is a
Today in my History of Psychology class we were discussing (or perhaps being discussed to) Neitzsche. I'm fascinated by his view of the consequences of atheism on ethics. So far as I can tell from Beyond Good and Evil Neitzsche* believed that when ethics meets relativism right is decided by the most powerful. So
Evolution and God are not necessarily incompatable. It's been interesting reading a few interviews with Dr. Francis Collins who is a leading biologist (head of the Human Genome Project) and also a believing Christian. It's comforting to think that even though I'm not quite sure where I stand on the extent of evolution I'm in
Thinking is only thinking if it's challenged, only then is it a verb. Unchallenged thinking is only a thought and that, left unchallenged, is prejudice. If you enter a conversation and there is no chance of anyone changing their perspectives it is a pointless exercise. Where is this coming from? Over the past few days
Here's a thought that just struck me while reading this. Whoever a Christian calls his enemy he has to love. This is the basis of true revolution. The successful revolutions of the 20th Century, Be it Martin Luther King's civil rights movement, Mandela's anti-apartheid movement, or even Gandhi's movement to free India were love revolutions.
The title is stolen from Brian McLaren's new book. Which I am now excited to read. Especially in the context of a lecture I attended last night. Lecture may be too strong a word. It was instead a conversation between Chris Frazer, one of St Francis Xavier's History professors, and Sam Webb, the leader of