Dr Paul Allen

Jesus is God (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Consider the story of Mark Baurelein, professor of English at Emory University . He describes his teenage conversion to atheism as beginning with nothing. One morning he looked out at the shrubbery in his front yard, and he saw nothing. The landscaping pointed simply to itself and not to a grand designer in the sky. The bushes didn’t host fairies or goblins. They had nothing to do with gods or holy books. They just were. Let’s be honest, nothing can be quite therapeutic. It’s likely that nothing has soothed your fears at some point in your life. Parents calm their children with the words, “There’s nothing in the closet.” No monsters. No boogiemen. Nothing. You can go back to bed and rest in peace: Nothing can’t hurt you. This is why the recent atheist marketing campaign caused such a stir. For many the message connected with a deep longing for ultimate freedom, “ God probably doesn’t exist. Go ahead and enjoy the rest of your life.” This...

The ascent of man?   José-manuel Benitos / Wikimedia Commons . Photoillustration by Matt Connolly. Late last week, the Texas Board of Education failed to approve a leading high school biology textbook—whose authors include the  Roman Catholic biologist Kenneth Miller of Brown University —because of its treatment of evolution.  According to  The New York Times , critiques from a textbook reviewer identified as a "Darwin Skeptic" were a principal cause.  Yet even as creationists keep trying to undermine modern science, modern science is beginning to explain creationism scientifically. And it looks like evolution—the  scientifically uncontested explanation  for the diversity and interrelatedness of life on Earth, emphatically including human life—will be a major part of the story. Our brains are a stunning product of evolution; and yet ironically, they may naturally pre-dispose us  against  its acceptance. 1871 satirical...