RUNNING TO EPICURUS

I only recall one comment that my teacher, Mrs. Skipper, included on my kindergarten “report card.”  She said that I was a good runner and won most of the foot races.  This was not a great accomplishment.  After all, my competition were kindergarteners.  But I did have a natural running gait and remember thinking of myself as fast.  A year later, in the first grade, I confided to my parents that what I wanted above everything else was a baseball cap that was equipped with goggles that I could flip down to keep the wind out of my eyes when I ran.  I’m guessing my parents had a good laugh over that one.  Needless to say, I did not get the hat and goggles.

ANIMAL COMMUNICATORS AND THE NATURE OF SKEPTICISM

Recently I had a puzzling conversation with an individual who stated that he had consulted with an animal communicator regarding his pet dog.  Here’s the story:

SCIENCE AS A VERB

Growing up, I was taught science as a NOUN—as a body of established knowledge.  I memorized the bones of the body, learned that water molecules consist of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, that gravity is one of four basic forces of nature, and on and on.  Essentially, we were taught science much like we were taught history (unfortunately)—as sets of rules and facts to be memorized.  I think my experience was not very different from that of most of my cohorts.

THE “MIRACLE” OF THE THAI CAVE RESCUE

I think we all experienced something of an emotional rollercoaster during the 18-day drama of the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in a remote part of northern Thailand.  We despaired of the boys’ rescue when we first learned that they had been trapped for several days by flash flooding of the cave.  Then on the tenth day we learned that, amazingly, rescuers had found all of the boys and their coach alive and in relatively good health.  But it became clear that their extrication from the cave would be extremely dangerous and could be delayed for weeks if not months because the only way out of the cave would remain flooded.  When rescuers ultimately managed to bring all of the boys and their coach out of the cave over a three-day period, the word “miracle” was tripping off the lips of millions who had been praying for their safe rescue.

WHY CREATIONISM IS LOSING THE WAR

Over the years I have had all manner of conversations with fundamentalist Christians regarding the theory of evolution.  In all those discussions I have not changed a single person’s mind regarding the reality of evolutionary processes.  Zero.  It seems that people either have already accepted the fact of evolution or they find reasons to deny it.

“GOD IS LOVE”?

“God is love.”  What does that mean, exactly?