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Recently, the Spaniel and I sat down for a two-on-one [imaginary] conversation with renowned atheist Prof. Richard Dawkins. The following is a transcript of our conversation.* *The answers come from his essay and the accompanying transcript in The Four Horsemen, Random House, 2019.[1] Of course they’re taken out of context – that’s the nature of…

“Pride is the first sin that ever entered into the universe, and it’s the last that is rooted out. It is God’s most stubborn enemy.” - Jonathan Edwards Traditionally, Christians have been of the persuasion that sins are bad, and some sins are worse than others. What do you think is the worst sin? Murder?…

Oh, wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,That has such people in ’t                  -(William Shakespeare, The Tempest) We yearn for a day when all disease is eradicated, human power and intelligence transcend our feeble frames, and death is vanquished. The…

The Intelligence Trap: why smart people make dumb mistakes. David Robson, W. W. Norton, 2019 Western society reveres intelligence, or at least pretends to. A leading political figure boasts he's "a very stable genius” - which, presumably, is superior to an unstable one. Yet no one stops to ask, “does it matter?" According to this…

Late in life, atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell received this challenge: if, after death, he found himself face to face with God, what would he say? Russell replied, “I probably would ask, ‘Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’”¹ Theists contend that though evidence for God is both present and sufficient, bias can fog…

Although it's been out now for 13 years, The God Delusion  by Richard Dawkins still sets the standard for 21st century atheist polemics. Both lionized by atheists and demonized by some believers, he is deserving, I think, of neither. I've followed Dawkins for a while, mostly because of his particular pronouncements on the "improbability" of God.…

The State of the Evangelical Mind Reflections on the Past, Prospects for the Future  Edited by Todd C. Ream, Jerry A. Pattengale, and Christopher J. Devers Intervarsity Press, Dec 11, 2018 Mark Noll's 1994 "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" addressed his perceived lack of intellectual rigor in the American Evangelical community of the early…

"Do not be wise in your own opinion." Romans 12:16 Breaking news! Most of us think we're smarter than most of us.In recent surveys, 65% of Americans rate themselves more intelligent than average. Furthermore, we are often quite certain in our beliefs. But is that confidence warranted? Intuitively, we suspect not. After decades of research…

Can you define envy? Is envy bad? Would you know if you had it? The classic “seven deadly sins” were lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, pride, greed, and envy. According to the proverb, “a sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones.” Explain to me, if you can, the difference between…

Most of us think we are better than most of us. As a consequence, we are sometimes tempted to advertise our moral superiority through public expression. This is known as “moral grandstanding”. There’s nothing wrong with issuing public moral pronouncements; it’s not merely a right, but sometimes a duty. The issue here is motive. It…

It is early spring of 1943. The Axis powers are beginning to crumble against the massive and unrelenting Allied onslaught. Plans for the imminent invasion of Sicily are underway, establishing a base for the invasion and liberation of continental Europe. Meanwhile, back at US military intelligence, a tightly knit group of outliers have been poring…

Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder. Basic Books, June 2018. Reviewed by Steven Willing, MD “Physical laws should have mathematical beauty”. Paul Dirac, Nobel Laureate* Way back in 1973, the world of theoretical physics reached a dead end. That year marked the last successful prediction of any elemental particles - the…