The Book of Judges and American Life

In the middle of the main section of the book of Judges is the famous story of Gideon who defeated the Midianites with 300 soldiers. The layers of wisdom contained in this story call for repeated readings, but right now I want to focus on the aftermath to Gideon’s triumph.
What happens, in a word, is [...]

Reflections on Progressive Education

For the Progressive theorist, education is one great, extended experiment for which society is bound to pay. Here in America the progressive experiments (it would not be just to call it a single experiment) have continued for nearly 100 years, during which the inevitable resistance and the internal contradictions of progressive theory have convinced many [...]

A Booming Baby Looks at the Ten Commandments

George Carlin is occasionally funny, is above average in his intelligence, and falls far short of anything we can call civilized. In short, he’s a lot like the baby boomers and makes a fairly good spokesman for the more tribal of them.
So when I came across a video of his on YouTube describing how to [...]

Defenders of the Natural Sciences (they might want better friends)

Analyze this argument attacking Intelligent Design and see if you can find anything logical, based on evidence, or any other way indicative of the scientific method and not harking back to mere authority or ad hominems. Let me know if you find anything.

Stalin’s Russia Remembered

This review of The Whisperers keeps alive the memory that Putin seems to want silenced. But just as we cannot forget what neo-paganism achieved through Hitler’s Holocaust, so we cannot forget what atheism achieved through Stalin’s savagery. We must not forget that we also can kill and be killed. These were human beings at both [...]

Science and Faith

This NY Times op-ed argues for some sort of theism, then chooses panentheism for some reason. I think it is because the writer, Paul Davies, a physicist, recognizes the need for a god, but doesn’t want that god to be free of the universe it made. Read it here, and comment here. I’m interested in [...]

Science and religion

I hold to the humble view that the natural sciences are in trouble and that they will build a very high tower over the next 100 or so years before they discover that it has no foundation. The following quotations offer clues as to why I believe this.
A.N. Whitehead, co-author with Bertrand Russell of Principia [...]

Polanyi on Liberty and Nihilism

Freedom of thought is rendered pointless and must disappear, where reason and morality are deprived of their status as a force in their own right. When the judge in court can no longer appeal to law and jstice; when neither a witness, nor the newspapers, nor even a scientist reporting on his expriments, can speak [...]