Archive for "Mar 2010"

It’s only evolution, but I like it

Charles Darwin, 1863 I don’t know very much about evolution, really. But I fully support it. Does this make me hypocritical? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Here are five reasons why. (1) Biologists that I know. I have had the pleasure of knowing a number of biologists. They tell me that it’s a great [...]

Dream on

It’s a crazy dream, like finding the Theory of Everything: finding the Universal Theology, or some such. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, to reconcile all faiths once and for all, at some incomprehensibly deep level? Well, it’s not going to happen. A Sufi dhikr ceremony. These guys really have it going on. Photo by [...]

Put this in your pipe and smoke it

Speaking of being lost in the cosmos, here’s something for you to bear in mind. This is a video called The Known Universe. It is a beautiful thing. It is in some ways like the cosmic portion of Charles Eames‘s famous Powers of Ten, but the big difference is that in this case all the [...]

A tale of two apologetics

Back in 1990 I committed myself to a life of following Jesus. I’m not sure how well it has gone. Like Anne Lamott, I like to describe myself as “a Christian but not a very good one.” (Those of you who know me can keep the jokes to yourselves.) Anyway, back in 1990 the first [...]

It’s not about me

I must make a confession: I love traditional stained-glass windows. They remind me that I didn’t invent Christianity and that it will be around long after I shuffle off this mortal coil. As the chair of the physics department at the college I used to get lots of junk mail with some really entertaining stuff [...]

You are a rarity. So is Mars

Ask any astronomer what the universe is made of, and the answer will be: Hydrogen.* Press the astronomer more and she will say, Oh yes, and some helium. How about all the other stuff? You know, the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and all those? There are only trace amounts of them. Also, smaller traces of neon, [...]

Nobody’s home. What a relief

The more I learn about Islam the more I believe something obvious: Religions are not the same. I don’t mean that Islam and Hinduism and the others do not point their adherents toward the one God (or “ultimate reality,” or whatever). I just mean that they do this in really different ways, ways that often [...]