Presently in our global situation, science is playing a crucial role in helping to squash the pandemic. Some, however, are skeptical of scientific expertise and tend to favor fringe ideas and conspiracy theories. In this episode, we wanted to take a step back and talk about the relationship between science and faith more broadly. It seems that many of the scientific skepticism flows downstream from a rejection of evolution, climate change, and other scientific consensuses....
In this episode, Amber Bowen and John Anthony Dunne discuss Critical Theory with special guest Dr. Scott Coley, who is Lecturer in Philosophy and Director of the Global Encounters program at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Over the course of the conversation we address the history and origin of Critical Theory, including its chief aim to upend Modernity’s conviction that empirical science is the ultimate arbiter of truth, splitting apart all statements into...
I’m currently participating in an extracurricular reading group with students here at Bethel Seminary. We just finished reading through the first five books of St Augustine’s Confessions. It’s been a blast to read and discuss, and I thought I’d share one of my reflections so far. As I was reading the beginning of Book V, I was intrigued by St Augustine’s theological engagement with the Manichean sect that he was a part of for some time...
Computer generated illustration of two orbiting black holes emanating gravitational waves. (Image: Henze/NASA) Have you ever came across a news feed or article about something phenomenal and didn’t have a clue about it? You might begin to wonder whether or not you live under a rock or something… For me, one of the things that I found very fascinating (and over my head) was this news about gravitational waves. The fascinating part wasn’t necessarily the context,...
In Plato’s Gorgias, the character Callicles argues that morality is a device of the weak masses to limit the power of the truly strong who are their natural superiors. In this we get a ‘might makes right,’ ethic and is in a sense a proto-Nietzsche or Raskolnikov (from Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment). Callicles, who is an orator and who has no time for useless philosophy, does not care about truth, or nature, or the right...
I’m realizing how narrow my vision is. I get so busy in seeing the urgent problems in front of me, that I forget to step back and see the bigger picture in what is actually happening. For example, since I work in Purchasing, and it’s currently nearing the fiscal-year end, we’ve had a high volume of orders come in the last couple of weeks. In the hecticness, it’s easy to get easily stressed and overwhelmed,...
*Spoilers ahead* ‘We are the bridge!’ ~ Cooper I had been reading Nietzsche for my Christmas/New Year ‘holiday’ reading this year, and when I heard the above line when I caught the last showing of Interstellar (as highly recommended by Jamie Smith earlier on this blog) in the cinema, I had somewhat of a shiver down my spine. It reminded me of Nietzsche’s metaphor in Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Prologue, 4): Man is a rope stretched...
Last week Deseret News put out an article on how various religious groups would respond to the discovery of life on other planets. It’s an interesting article and you should check it out here. A religious survey was conducted by Prof. David Weintraub who teaches astronomy at Vanderbilt. Among the highlights of his study is the conclusion that Buddhists would be particularly comfortable with the discovery of life on other planets, whereas evangelical Christians would...
Fellow Christians, our enemy is not evolution, it is naturalism. Please, please, please recognize the difference. Ray Comfort, well-known evangelist and co-founder of The Way of the Master along with Kirk Cameron, has produced a new apologetics video entitled, “Evolution vs. God.” Here it is below. It is only 38 minutes long so if you have time you should check it out. I must say that there are things that I appreciate about this video,...
“How is it they live for eons in such harmony the billions of stars when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.” -St. Thomas Aquinas The other night, Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars. Engineers screamed and shouted inside the Mission Control Center in Pasadena, CA. Chants of “Science! Science! Science!” rang out over the crackle of the EDL leader announcing touchdown. We...
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