Category Archives: theology

A Christian tries to save my soul by answering my hard questions about religion

August 23, 2020 – 9:15 am

In 2014 I published a piece in The New Republic (click on screenshot) which, despite the title, which I didn’t choose, described ways to turn religious peoples’ debate arguments back on themselves. Part of that article involved using a “no-god of-the-gap” arguments, asking religious people to answer a series of six questions. The bit below […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in atheism, Christianity, Christians behaving badly, theodicy | Comments (116)

What is the value of theology?

June 21, 2020 – 9:30 am

Dan Barker, co-President of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, cleverly defined theology as a “subject without an object”.  That presupposes that there is no evidence for the “subject”: gods, prophets like Jesus, and so on, and I think most of us agree with that. So does the Oxford English Dictionary, which gives this as a […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in religion, secularism | Comments (63)

A short Francis Collins interview on the BBC

May 23, 2020 – 11:00 am

Here’s a short (7.5-minute) interview with NIH director and Templeton Prize awardee Francis Collins that was played on NPR yesterday but came from the BBC Newshour.  Collins answers questions about God, evil, coronavirus, and so on, but you may already be familiar with his theological views, which are at the preceding link. Collins’s interview starts […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Christians behaving badly, pandemic | Comments (43)

Egnor claims that the evidence for God is as strong as it is for evolution and the Big Bang

March 18, 2020 – 9:30 am

Christian neurosurgeon and intelligent-design advocate Michael Egnor insists that he and I are “debating” the appropriateness of prayer in response to the coronavirus (see my post here). But there is really no “debate”, just Egnor’s assertion (and my denial) that God is real and that prayer couldn’t hurt. He insists that I am “clueless” about […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in lunacy | Comments (89)

Egnor: We need to pray during this pandemic

March 9, 2020 – 11:30 am

Once again the creationist neurosurgeon Michael Egnor can’t resist scrutinizing my website and trying to find flaws in what I say. I suppose this is because he and his Discovery Institute colleagues, despite their confident assurances of two decades ago, have failed to make progress in getting the scientific community to accept Intelligent Design. So, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in creationism, Intelligent Design Creationism Watch, lunacy, theodicy, woo | Comments (97)

Science versus religion: Are they “gifts” to each other?

November 29, 2019 – 10:30 am

Reader Mark called my attention to an accommodationist essay in Aeon by Tom McLeish, described as “a professor of natural philosophy in the Department of Physics at the University of York in the UK. He is the author of Faith and Wisdom in Science (2014), Let There Be Science (2016) and The Poetry and Music of Science (2019)”. McLeish, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Accommodationism, Templeton, Templeton at it again, Templeton's shenanigans | Comments (48)

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ evidence

September 4, 2019 – 10:45 am

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “being”, once again highlights the bizarre world of theology. I needn’t expand on this, for it’s certainly true that many believers mistake “conviction” (or “revelation” or “feeling”) for evidence. And the last panel gives the whole thing a kind of ontological-argument feel:

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Jesus and Mo | Comments (28)

A philosopher at the NYT writes about the incoherence of most people’s theism

April 8, 2019 – 12:00 pm

It’s surprising that the New York Times would publish an atheistic op-ed showing that most people’s notion of God is incoherent, but the piece below (click on the screenshot), is actually Unsophisticated Atheism in at least part of its argument. And the parts that aren’t weird are old and familiar arguments. Well, perhaps believers need […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in atheism, religion, theodicy | Comments (74)

Dawkins’s Darwin Day lecture for Humanists UK: “Taking Courage from Darwin to Fight the Hubris of Faith”

February 18, 2019 – 9:15 am

Reader Michael called my attention to Richard Dawkins’s Darwin Day Lecture to Humanists UK (HUK). Richard is introduced by Humanists UK President and evolutionary biologist Alice Roberts, who was the moderator when I gave this lecture a few years ago. Richard’s lecture was just posted today, and as I write there are only 194 views. […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in atheism, evolution, lectures, ways of knowing | Comments (74)

The blind leading the bland: Nicholas Kristof interviews William Lane Craig

December 22, 2018 – 1:30 pm

When I saw the headline below in the New York Times, I wondered why the deuce Nicholas Kristof wanted to talk to William Lane Craig. But who could NOT read that article after the headline, wanting to see how Craig answered? (Click on screenshot and be prepared to facepalm.) It turns out that this is […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in apologetics, Christianity, Christians behaving badly, miracles, Sophisticated Theology | Comments (80)