Monthly Archives: January 2009

Items of Interest

A few unrelated items: Remember the Raving Atheist? He dropped out of blogging for a while, but has now returned and changed the title of his blog—and the tone. Quite remarkably, in fact. Check out these two posts especially, and also this explanation. The agreed delay period being over, I can now post my Touchstone …

January 8, 2009 – 9:30 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Miscellanea | Comments (16)

“Spirituality: Is it all in your head?”

Neurotheology strikes again, this time in an article that begins, Jan. 4–Having a spiritual experience may be all in your head — or at least part of it. A group of University of Missouri researchers recently completed a study that claims a particular area of the brain is linked to spirituality. At the risk of …

January 6, 2009 – 11:39 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (8)

Apologies for Not Responding

In the past two to three weeks there has been a veritable storm of comments on various blog posts here, and some blog visitors have sent me emails. I’ve been traveling for Christmas, though, and when I got back home we had more family time and then I tackled a large project that’s still underway. …

January 3, 2009 – 12:35 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments Off

Colossians and the Implausibility of the Fable Theory

One version of history says that Christianity developed its community, doctrine, and practices over a period of multiple generations. In the process Jesus Christ, who may have lived some kind of extraordinary life but was certainly no God, was deified. His virgin birth, miracles, and resurrection were added back into the story of life so …

January 3, 2009 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences, The Faith | Comments (1)

Deep Social Change: Four Priorities (Condensed Reprise)

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Deep Social Change

Here in condensed and more convenient form is a reprise of four priorities for the church in 2009. I will continue to blog on all four of these throughout the year. We need deep social change. Few of us need convincing of that. It seems to me, though, that we have not taken seriously enough …

January 2, 2009 – 6:56 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Knowing God, Prayer, Service, The Faith, Thinking Christianly | Comments (1)

Book Recommendations

We spent Christmas with the Gilson side of the family this year. One of many very enjoyable conversations I had with there was about books, with a family member who has a Ph.D. in management, holds a senior leadership position at a state university, and is a follower of Christ. She told me about the …

January 1, 2009 – 1:01 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Thinking Christianly | Tagged | Comments (4)