My brother just passed on a bit of weirdness to me, knowing I like this sort of stuff. A British psychiatrist, Imad Hassan, is promoting a Muslim blend of creation and evolution. He accepts common descent, even denouncing Harun Yahya. Humans, however, are a partial exception, and he is convinced intelligent design is the overarching … Extraterrestrial Cattle

Politically aware American nonbelievers worry a lot about religious right politics. And this worry centers on evangelicals, though conservative Catholics also have a very important part in the Religious Right. In The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church, journalist Christine Wicker suggests that we need not worry so much. Looking … The Fall of the Evangelical Nation

In a book I’m reading, I came across the story of an evangelical woman who one day realized she didn’t believe in hell. I found this interesting, particularly because a former student recently emailed me that he had come to the conclusion that there is no hell, and had in fact been drifting away not … Rejecting hell

The North Carolina Republican party is attacking Democratic candidate for the US Senate, Kay Hagan, for ties to that ultimate evil in US politics, atheists. Much of it is political misrepresentation, because Hagan, by all appearances, fits most standards of devoutness American politicians are measured against. She did, however, meet with representatives of a “Godless … Godless in North Carolina elections

There is a species of apologetic moves that I seriously dislike, mainly because they seem so empty on the face of it that when intelligent people say such things, I wonder if there is any point to the conversation any more. I run into these moves coming more from thoughtful, liberal religious people than from … Of Love and Unknowns

Tomorrow, I give one of my occasional talks about Intelligent Design, in Columbia, MO. I stay away from religious questions at such events, unless someone in the audience explicitly brings one up. Evolution and ID are not religiously neutral topics, but whether Darwinian evolution succeeds as a scientific explanation and what this implies about the … Speaking on ID