So it’s a myth. Now let’s go to church
A billboard outside the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC carries this message. But all of us unreasonable Christians have nothing to worry about Just today, Fox Nation broke the first of what will certainly be a nice long string of “Save Christmas!” stories. Apparently American Atheists have placed the above message on a billboard, right out [...]
Jesus and Buddha are alive and well in suburban Tokyo
Buddha and Jesus wait for the train during rush hour in suburban Tokyo. The two spiritual masters leave Paradise to spend some time in the 21st century in Nakamura Hikaru‘s manga Seinto oniisan, which, roughly translated, is Saint Young Men. In Japanese the title carries overtones of brotherliness. You can download a number of episodes [...]
Advent I: The waiting may not be, in fact, the hardest part
The annunciation to Zechariah. Gabriel stands on the left, Zechariah on the right. I’m not sure what the birds signify, but I like them. Ethiopian Orthodox icon, ca. 1700. Image source: Wikimedia Commons This is the First Sunday of Advent. Throughout this season I will be posting a small devotional-type thing like this one every [...]
Did it really have to be like this?
Tor Even Mathisen, Flowing Auroras Over Tromsø, Norway. This is today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). Clicking on the image will take you to the video. APOD is my home page and it should be yours, too I have never seen an actual aurora, but I could have, twice. The first time, I was [...]
A Christian considers the Hajj
Mamoun Sakkal, Hajj, 2000. Arabic, Diwani script. Used by permission of the artist On Friday I watched a documentary on the Hajj. For those of you who do not know, the Hajj is the annual (in a lunar calendar kind of way) pilgrimage to Mecca that is a formal requirement of every able-bodied Muslim who [...]
The majesty of the man: his palace, his serfs, his nose, his elk, his dwarf, his murder(?): exhuming Tycho (again)
Tycho Brahe’s great mural quadrant. One of the most famous images in the whole of the history of astronomy was the fresco that was painted within the arc of the great mural quadrant at Uraniborg, Tycho’s palatial observatory on the (then Danish) island of Hven. Tycho is portrayed beneath portraits of his liege-lord and in [...]
Richard Dawkins on science as religion
Some years ago, Richard Dawkins wrote an article for the Humanist. The essay addresses the question, Is Science a Religion? His answer is No, and we here at psnt.net agree with him.
There is a sense in which science can play an ultimate organizing role in someone’s view of the world. But this does not make it a religion. As a Christian, I can accept science in a certain way that I can’t accept, say, Islam.
Dawkins understands one thing many of his detractors do not: Accepting the scientific account of the world does not require religious faith. It does require believing some things that are not strictly proven in the mathematical sense, but “believing some things that are not strictly proven in the mathematical sense” is not the definition of religious faith.
This brings up a major point, a point often lost in popular accounts of science. That point is: Science is not about true and false. Perhaps some laypeople think in these terms. The press often does. Science is about (1) what works, and (2) what is probable. But scientists think in terms of probabilities of truth, not in terms of truth itself. As a scientist, Dawkins knows this. He also knows that there are varying degrees of probability. And at some point, probabilities get high enough to become, for practical purposes, truths. But the distinction remains, and all good scientists know it. This is a hallmark of science: It bears its assumptions in mind.
Operation midweek entertainment: the Möbius strip and you
It’s not an optical illusion, but it looks like one: the Möbius strip. Image created by Peter Gosling and featured among a host of fun optical illusions at Uniview Worldwide. The German mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius was born on this day in 1790. So happy 220th, August! BEFORE YOU READ THIS POST, go scare up [...]
More on depression and dark nights
Lisa Preece, Depression. See more of Lisa’s work at lisabellaphoto.com This semester I have been taking a directed study on apophatic theology. I have been overwhelmed with the power of apophasis since discovering it during my first semester at Emory. It is the only kind of theology that has ever affected me deeply. Apophatic theology, [...]
Under an Iranian sky, a Tuscan comes to mind
Babak A. Tafreshi, Crescent Pair. Used by permission of the photographer. The very old Moon and the planet Venus, both in their crescent phase, as seen over Iran’s Alborz Mountains just before sunrise last Friday. Can you see them (the Moon and Venus, not the mountains)? Look closely. Click on the image to get a [...]
