thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
July 28th, 2016
This page in brief For years I had a self-coded HTML website with a blog attached. Late last year I made the decision to make it entirely built on WordPress, which necessitated converting about a hundred HTML pages to WordPress pages, and solving quite a few problems along the way. I am not a professional […]
July 19th, 2016
Mark Bauerlein is Professor of English at Emory College. He has written books on modern culture, and written articles for several popular American magazines. He has been called one of the Independent Women’s Forum’s “favorite intellectuals”. And five years ago, after more than three decades as a comfortable atheist, Mark converted to christianity. What happened?
July 4th, 2016
A lot of christians struggle with the idea of biological evolution because it seems to leave God out of creation. But I think evolution points to God if we consider some of the findings of neuroscience and psychology.
June 21st, 2016
It is good, every now and again, to reflect on what we believe and why, and to review if there is any reason to change our minds. I think it is good, too, for a blog author to remind their readers of what the blog is all about. So here’s my summary – what I […]
June 12th, 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his poem Maud wrote: Ah yet, we cannot be kind to each other here for an hour; We whisper, and hint, and chuckle, and grin at a brother’s shame; However we brave it out, we men are a little breed. Most of us, upon reading that, would probably smile ruefully and […]
June 5th, 2016
Most of us have experiences, both positive and negative, about religion and God. In each of our lives there have likely been religious people and institutions that have left a positive impression, and others that have hurt us. And if we look at the world around us, now and through history, we can easily form […]
May 27th, 2016
I have a growing interest in neuroscience. I wouldn’t like to poke around in brains with probes, still less dissect a brain. But I’m finding so much that is fascinating and helpful in the latest findings of neuroscience. One of the interesting researchers is Andrew Newberg, who I’ve briefly written about before, and who researches […]
May 11th, 2016
Most of the scholars who write about Jesus would be considered to be New Testament historians. But there are other historians interested in that period. There are classical historians, who study the history of Greece and Rome. Christianity is very important for this study, because it was a major movement that eventually affected the entire […]
May 2nd, 2016
Bithi started work in a Bangladeshi clothing factory when she was 12. Abject poverty and a sick father forced Bithi’s family to send the two oldest daughters to the garment factories to sew designer clothes sold mainly in North America. It was either that, or watch the girls slowly starve. Now 15, Bithi helps create […]
April 22nd, 2016
For millennia people have prayed to God, or the gods, for healing. No-one really knew if people were truly healed as a result, and there wasn’t really any way to check. But in recent decades medical scientists have tried to test whether prayer assists healing or can change the course of a disease or injury. […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.