Writings and Resources on Religion, Science, and Politics
Three weeks ago, my family bid farewell to Austin and made a long pilgrimage to Boston, starting a fresh chapter of life in New England.
My wife was born and raised in Texas. I moved around more during childhood and lived in a number of states, but Texas has been home for the bulk of my life, about 35 years. All four of our kids were born in the Lone Star State. And the bulk of our extended family lives there. So our relocation is, in many ways, a substantial dislocation.
[Read more…]
Happy Darwin Day! A chance for all to remember intellectual courage and scientific brilliance. For me, a chance to remember how evolutionary biology was used to treat Paisley and retrieve her from oblivion, 5 years ago this week. Paisley is perfect today. Thanks to all the docs, thanks to all the nurses, and thanks to Charles.
[Read more on Paisley’s remarkable story]
Last week my oldest son, Jack, had a high school project that involved making text/graphic description of himself and his life. Among the many points of identity and culture in the project, there was a section in which he was supposed to talk about his religion. My wife told me that Jack had simply put himself down as an atheist. That’s not surprising, as he has been pretty open about being non-religious among his friends. In this case, however, he included two graphical illustrations to go along. One was an internet meme about believing in “one god fewer,” and the other was my infamous Easter Infographic. Jack didn’t mention it to me, of course, because Jack strides a mellow sort of cadence through life that doesn’t usually dip a toe in dramatic waters.
[Read more…]
The near brush of death leaves upon us an indelible mark. So much more the case, when the noose of jeopardy closes upon a child. Our daughter Paisley hazarded that scaffold just twelve days after being born. This was three and a half years ago.
Medical intervention was swift, bending a potent light upon her affliction. As she fought to live, our church family rallied around us, lending full force to our plight. Much prayer was lifted on her account, and friends gave selflessly to help and to comfort us in whatever way they could. It was a darkness driven back by creeds, both Hippocratic and Christian. [Read more…]
Some friends have considered that my departure from Christianity must be due to a misplaced emphasis of the sources that I have consulted. That is, perhaps I spent too much time reading “the wrong people”, and so came to bamboozlement. This is a legitimate concern, and I suspect that it may be more broadly held than I would hope. It struck me as incorrect on first blush, but I did go back and actually catalogue my sources by worldview.
Taking only the major written works that I read (a few dozen), the statistics sum as shown in the first chart. As can be seen, theist sources dominate the atheist/agnostic sources by 3 to 1. Neutral sources included generic information without direct bias or commentary on Christianity one way or another, while the mixed category denotes resources like “multi-view” type books.
If the net is cast more broadly and extended to include all resource types – including shorter articles, book reviews, Wikipedia entries, and the many debates and lectures that I have watched – the percentages shift as shown in the second pie chart (130+ total).
For myself, I can find no intrinsic indictment in these statistics, nor a visible dereliction of duty, nor an inundation of dreaded atheistic slant. Rather, the collection represents a range of viewpoints, and it favors Christian-biased sources more heavily than any other segment.
Yes, I must maintain, it is possible to become convinced that Judaism and Christianity face intractable problems as a result of a well-rounded, detailed, and broad-based research effort. My conclusions have not been for lack of consulting Christian scholarship. After all, that was my fortress of first retreat. But the vanguard within those walls sadly could not answer…
See the Review of Sources and the Bibliography for detailed lists.
The final page of the Journey has now been finished. This page was certainly one of the more difficult to write, which is the primary reason for the delay in publishing since the prior page.
Section 11, “Faith Card”, has been published. This section details a rearward evaluation of whether faith is a viable mechanism by which to discern truth and falsehood – i.e., whether it is a way by which we come to know truth or not.
Section 10, Retrospective, has been published to the Journey, a rearward autobiographical evaluation of my path to date.
Resources are the most important component of any inquiry. My thanks to the many scholars who make true inquiry possible.
See “Reading the Wrong People” for a pie-chart breakdown of resources by worldview.
Lectures
Interviews
Broadcasts
Debates
Where The Eagles Fly . . . . Art Science Poetry Music & Ideas
Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Reflections of a Francophile
My Quest to ride through all 254 Texas Counties
A skeptic's quest for books, science, & humanism
I don’t want to start a class war; it started a long time ago and, unfortunately, we lost.
Jericho Brisance 