On making stuff up, featuring Michael Shermer on Colbert
When I first read this I laughed out loud. Courtesy of Jesus and Mo Once again, Jesus is right: Science is limited by its refusal to make stuff up. That is: He’s right if by “make stuff up” he means taking seriously ideas that do not have their grounding in the natural sciences. But, as [...]
McGrath and McGrath on the insufficiency of science
Alister McGrath. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Alister McGrath says a lot of things that make sense. And when he joins up with his wife, Joanna Collicutt McGrath, things get even better. Back in 2007 the couple published an utterly generous and blessedly short response to Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion. Entitled The Dawkins Delusion?, it [...]
Jules Winnfield on divine intervention
Jules and Vincent eat breakfast and talk philosophy in the famous restaurant scene from Pulp Fiction. There’s some nice dialogue about pigs and dogs before it gets into the deep stuff. Warning: Harsh language. It’s Tarantino, okay? Early last month David Lose wrote an article for the Huffington Post about the Bible. The piece recalls [...]
On prayer: Simone Weil and the excluded God
Simone Weil‘s 1935 factory identification photo. In that year she began working as a power press operator at the Alstom Company in Paris. She was highly educated and had many options but chose to work alongside those who had no power. She later wrote, “A modern factory reaches perhaps almost the limit of horror. Everybody [...]
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, we are dust
Last weekend’s tsunami washes over Sendai I will try to make this brief. Today, five things: 1. This is hell. I don’t watch TV news. And I have been busy. So I had not, until this afternoon, watched any of the footage of Japan’s earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-meltdown crisis. It is heartbreaking. The above video came from this [...]
Fr. Richard Rohr on three ways of seeing
There are three ways of seeing this sunset. Grant Erb, Calm Sunset. Click on image for a high-resolution version. See more of Mr. Erb’s work here We have just stumbled across this wonderful piece at the Huffington Post. Written by Fr. Richard Rohr, it does a beautiful job saying what we’ve been trying to say [...]
The futility of trying to base morality in science, or, Why Christian saints have always been total pains in the ass
A professor of mine once said, All true saints are pains in the ass. She was right. Mother Teresa at her Home for the Sick & Dying in Calcutta. Image source: The New Agency There’s nothing like starting off the day by reading about what a awful person Mother Teresa was. Just this morning we [...]
Hidden in plain sight
And they stood still, looking sad. Daniel Bonnell, The Road to Emmaus, oil on canvas, 48”x32”. Mr. Bonnell’s work is among the most moving biblical art we here at psnt.net have ever seen. We encourage you to peruse his paintings and drawings here, and, if you have the love, to join his Community of Patrons [...]
Richard Feynman and the malaise of science envy
What’s not to envy (I mean, besides the clothes and hair)? Feynman, a physicist who knows baloney when he sees it, chilling at a Caltech blackboard. Image courtesy of the American Institute of Physics Of late I have been engaged in a discussion with Tom and Todd about whether or not Intelligent Design (ID) is [...]
Why I am a Christian
Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938. This is my favorite image that reflects Jesus’ love for the world. Chagall was Jewish (note Jesus’ prayer shawl) and the background images show scenes form the Holocaust. Image source: The Art Institute of Chicago For those of you who are new to psnt.net, welcome. For those of you who [...]
