By Dave Dentel
Sure it’s crass, ill-timed, and verges on bigotry. But Katherine Stewart’s recent op-ed in the New York Times blaming Christians for the devastating severity of the COVID-19 outbreak doesn’t merit returning rancor for rancor.
For one thing, Christians are used to being scapegoated. They’ve been assailed for allegedly inspiring all sorts of calamities, from the collapse of Rome in the fifth century to the gruesome mass shooting at a Florida nightclub in 2016.
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Godless despotism reached its apotheosis in the 20th century, killing millions and wreaking destruction on a scale unequaled in human history.
These crimes no doubt did much to taint the flavor of atheism associated with this murderous movement and the particular political forms in which it was manifested: fascism and communism.
From the headlines accompanying archeological findings out of Lebanon you’d think that science had finally proved the Bible was nothing more than 4,000 years of fake news.
Note: This was originally posted December 24, 2012.
By Dave Dentel
When a good friend agreed to introduce me to classic science fiction I had long ignored, I didn’t realize how quickly his generosity would deliver a brilliant pay-off.
Already I’ve encountered a Heinlein story with surprising insight into one of my favorite nonfiction topics—the intersection of science and faith.
While it’s no fable of intelligent design, Robert A. Heinlein’s 1941 tale “Universe” certainly delves into the nature of both religious and materialistic inquiry. In fact, the adventure aspect of the story serves as a backdrop for exploring how human beings comprehend reality and their purpose in it.
Truly Lost
Indeed, the point of “Universe”—which employs a now-familiar narrative about multiple generations of space colonists inhabiting a massive and drifting ship—is that these travelers are lost not only in physical space but also in how they perceive their cosmos.
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Note: This was originally posted in 2006. Dennett’s book was one of the first I read as research for my own work, The God Imperative.
To anyone familiar with his career, it’s no surprise that Darwinist philosopher Daniel C. Dennett has a problem with religion. What is surprising, however, is the ardor with which Dennett delivers what Richard John Neuhaus of First Things characterizes as a “mugging of religion” in his latest book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.
Is religion a lie? Is God an illusion caused by a virus of the mind? Several best-selling atheists authors think so. And they claim science supports them, citing in particular the theory of evolution and its implicit agnosticism.
By Dave Dentel
Last week’s debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye on the merits of creationism reminded me of a gag from the 1960s television spy spoof Get Smart.
