Monthly Archives: March 2008

Frequent Topics

FDT: “Frequently Discussed Topics” Some questions and topics come up often here, and I’ve found it helpful to keep a resource base on them handy. These include links within Thinking Christian as well as references to some of the best web-based information I’ve seen elsewhere. Unconnected links are for pending topics. Spirituality and Life Outcomes …

March 31, 2008 – 4:58 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in | Comments Off

Further Effects of “Child Abuse:” Spirituality Is Major Contributor to Children’s Happiness

Richard Dawkins is famously trying to convince the world that it’s abusive to raise children in a religious tradition–any religious tradition. It’s an ironically unscientific opinion, not just unsupported but actually contradicted by research. Mike Gene points to yet another instance of that: Spirituality — defined as an inner belief system — accounted for eight …

March 31, 2008 – 12:29 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences, New Atheism | Tagged , | Comments (7)

“Inside Higher Ed” on PZ Myers and Expelled

Inside Higher Ed has a “Quick Take” today on PZ Myers jumping in uninvited on a conference call last week. Scroll down the page for the paragraph beginning: A tightly managed conference call with Ben Stein and producers of the upcoming documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” became the scene of yet another clash between proponents …

March 31, 2008 – 11:18 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Tagged , | Comments (1)

I’ve Arrived!

Blogspotted by Panda’s Thumb! I’m so excited! What more could a blogger ask? Here’s what they said: Today we sat in on a conference call with the Expelled frauds. PZ has his story up, and others will probably follow. However, some people, including the producers of Expelled, have already taken to accuse us of crashing …

March 28, 2008 – 8:48 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Unfiled | Tagged , , | Comments Off

P.Z. Myers Crashes “Expelled” Again?

Update 8:45 pm: regarding accusations from Panda’s Thumb that this is a lie, please see here. At this moment there is a telephone conference call underway with Ben Stein and the producers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It is an invitation-only conference. The call was interrupted by someone representing himself as P.Z. Myers, a Minnesota …

March 28, 2008 – 5:17 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Tagged , | Comments (28)

Links

Albert Mohler on Is Belief in God Just a Natural Phenomenon? Barry Carey on Jesus Without the New Testament Rather technical but helpful for those who do this kind of thing: State of the Debate: Rowe, Wykstra, and Plantinga on the Evidential Argument From Evil (Hat Tip to Johnny-Dee)

March 27, 2008 – 10:38 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences | Comments (1)

Dawkins’s Aesthetic Argument for Evolution

An “aesthetic argument for evolution”–I hope it’s obvious to you, just by looking at it that this is self-contradictory. When arguing from some fact to a worldview, one ought to be pointing toward a worldview that can accommodate the fact. Richard Dawkins apparently takes an aesthetic argument as valid, yet as reported by Matt and …

March 27, 2008 – 7:56 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Ethics, Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

“Apprehending Beauty”

For those of us who have debated whether morality is objective, this blog post takes it to another level: beauty is objective, too. One reader, responding to Gene Veith’s post on Aesthetics & American Idol, writes, “Learning to subjectively like what is objectively good at first bounced off of my 3am quick-read blog-scan. But then …

March 26, 2008 – 9:41 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Tagged | Comments (97)

EXPELLED Controversy Top Issue in Blogosphere

Something amazing happened yesterday. The controversy around Premise Media’s upcoming movie Ben Stein’s EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed became the hottest topic in the blogosphere. According to BlogPulse, a service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the issue held the number one slot throughout the day on Monday, March 24th (http://www.blogpulse.com). There were also over 800 results on Technorati …

March 26, 2008 – 5:44 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

Views of Truth

This talk on Views of Truth was given on March 9 to the Chapel at Kingsmill. I regret that I had no control over the recording method–the microphone was far from the front of the room, so there’s room noise. It’s still audible and listen-able in spite of that, though.

March 25, 2008 – 3:06 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)