Why Does God Allow So Much Evil in the World?
I don’t know. That’s the bottom line, so let’s just face it now. I don’t know. And, so far as my research has taken me, nobody else does, either. But […]
Category Archives: Tough Questions
Something New
The story of Christmas is little more than one enormous fiction. So I was grimly informed in a recent conversation. Emmanuel, “God with us,” the “humble king” and all that—just […]
What is the meaning of life?
Last week I had the pleasure of engaging a Buddhist professor in a debate on the meaning of life. It took place in Rome, in a literary café close to […]
The Problem with Christians
What is wrong with Christians, anyway? I was minding my own business, perhaps only marginally paying attention, when the professor in my undergraduate Philosophy or Religion class decided to pair […]
Skepticism is blind to itself
Skeptics are finding skepticism hard to take serious lately. Take The Spectator’s recent parody of Richard Dawkins, for instance. In an article named The bizarre – and costly – cult […]
Why Jesus Won’t Heal ‘Disabilities’
“Dude, you severed my finger.” Sadly it was true. Anthony and I were moving heavy logs, in preparation for a youth camp—kumbuyah round the camp-fire. “1-2-and … STOP!”—and like that […]
An Evening of Questions
Questions were coming from the right and left, thoughtful, poignant questions. What about suffering? The infinitude of religions? The dates established by Josephus? I and the atheist next to me […]
Can Science Discover Everything?
Marcelo Gleiser, a theoretical physicist specializing in cosmology, nonlinear physics, and astrobiology, has a new book out, reviewed yesterday on NPR. I have not yet read the book but it […]
“Are You Religious?”
I get asked this treacherous question a lot, and I know I’m not the only one. The question, in its variant forms, is not only asked to those who teach, […]
Religion, Violence, and the “Higher Questions”
When my kids were younger, I would often take refuge from the delights of dragging unwilling toddlers through a shopping mall by camping out for a few minutes at one […]
Wondering Fair 