THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL

Consider the following story line:  The mother of a couple of curious children announces to her kids that she has to run an errand and is leaving the house for a bit.  Before leaving she places a box of matches on the coffee table in the living room, points to matches, and says, “You can play with your toys but do not play with the matches.  If you light the matches you could start a fire and burn the house down.”

Right after she leaves, Lucy, a neighbor friend, stops over, spies the matches, and says, “Hey, wow, matches.  Let’s start a fire.”

SCIENTISM AS A DIRTY WORD

I have been accused of being a member of the "church" of “scientism.”  Considering the context in which the epithet was used, I understood it to be a pejorative.  But I had to look the word up to be sure.  Informally, the term refers to the idea that devotees of scientism treat science as a religion in which they place their faith, just as Christians place their faith in their religion.  At its most extreme scientism has come to mean the belief that knowledge is only attainable through science or that only scientific claims are valid ones.  In both cases I believe that the term is unfair.

NOTE ON THE HUMAN CONDITION

Recently, I stumbled across a book [David Benatar, The Human Predicament] that begins with the following: “We are born, we live, we suffer along the way, and then we die—obliterated for the rest of eternity.”  In answer to the question of the purpose of human life, the author responds that there is no overarching purpose.  In other words, “Life’s a bitch, and then you die.”  Ouch.  Not exactly uplifting.  But does this ultimate in philosophical pessimism properly characterize the human condition?  I think not.

HEAVEN BOUND

I’m not going to heaven.  But I’m OK with that because I don’t believe that heaven exists.  Christians, on the other hand, do believe in heaven.  After all, isn’t that the point of the salvation story: A reversal of the finality of death and an opportunity for eternal happiness, regardless of the challenges, pain, and disappointments of this life?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

Do you believe in magic?

As children we all start out believing in magic.  This is because we haven’t yet learned the rules by which the world operates.  We begin to lose our belief in magic as we gain experience with the regularity of nature and as we discover that reality may be different from what our senses are telling us.  It is through this process that most of us eventually learn that what is portrayed as magic is really an illusion, a deception, simply a trick.  

But not everyone.  Some continue to believe in magic, to believe that certain individuals are able to override the otherwise universal laws of nature, either because they possess a special power or because they are able to channel a power possessed by a supernatural agency, and if the supernatural agency is for good, they call it a miracle.  Otherwise they simply call it magic.

DO COMPUTERS HAVE FREE WILL?

While the great majority of people believe that humans have free will, virtually no one thinks that computers do.   But consider the following thought experiment:  Assume that technology advanced to the point that a functioning computer could be built in a lab that consisted not of silicon-based semiconductor chips but of billions of flesh-and-blood neurons, molecule for molecule and cell for cell identical to a human brain. Would such a computer have free will?

FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS: A COMPARISON

One conclusion I have come to after years of discussions with Christians is that much of our disagreement is ultimately grounded not in the differences in our beliefs or even in the differences in the logic that we rely upon but in the fundamental working assumptions that underlie our understanding of the nature of the world.

DECEMBER SNOW

Here's a brief poem, in the voice of an older gentleman, about the importance in the course of our quotidian lives to reflect upon and appreciate the simple joys.

OATMEAL

I was 10 years old, and I hated oatmeal.

DOES GOD HAVE FREE WILL?

Does God have free will?  What?!  For most Christians, the question may seem almost absurd, the answer obvious:  Of course, God has free will.  After all, he’s, well, God.  And the question may seem even sillier coming from someone who believes neither in God nor in free will.  But for those who believe in a personal, theistic God to whom they ascribe certain qualities and a certain character, I don’t believe the answer to the question is obvious.  So, in all seriousness, for those who believe in a personal God as well as for those who don’t, I offer the question as a way of reviewing the character of God and exploring the meaning of free will.

EXPERIENCING DOUBT

A surprising number of friends who were raised as Christians have confided to me or have stated publicly that they have experienced a period of doubt and soul-searching, if you will, regarding their belief in God.  In some cases the friend has overcome her doubts and gained a renewed faith in God.  In others she has come to the conclusion that she no longer believes in God.

A CLOUD THE SIZE OF A MAN’S HAND

By the fifth grade I knew that the end of the world was coming and that it could happen at any time.  The pastor of our Seventh-day Adventist church, my Sabbath school teachers, and the teachers of the Adventist school that I had attended since first grade all had done their best to explain how we were in the End Times before Christ’s Second Coming.  They explained that there were myriad signs that we were hurtling toward the end.  The world was in chaos, there were “wars and rumors of war,” and there were more and worse earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters than ever before that presaged the end.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

When it comes to answering pointed questions about philosophical or religious beliefs, Christians have it relatively easy, knowing that most fellow Americans also identify themselves as Christian. They can just say, “Oh, I’m a Christian,” or “I’m Catholic” or “Methodist” or “Lutheran” or whatever, and most everyone can relate and relax.  

Things are not so simple for nonbelievers.

GHOSTBUSTERS

A while back I came across a notice for a presentation at my local library by a group calling themselves the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee (PIM).  The notice indicated that the group would be discussing their investigations of places that were suspected of being haunted.  The presentation was open to the public, and I decided that, as a skeptic, I needed to check it out.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION: OVERLAPPING DOMAINS

Twenty years ago, the late paleontologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould argued that science and religion pursue separate and legitimate realms of inquiry and that they can coexist, so long as they each keep to their own realm. “Science,” he said, “tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings, and values—subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve.”