Category Archives: Origins and Science

“I, Charles Darwin: Being the Journal of His Visitation in the Year 2009″

Book Review I, Charles Darwin: Being the Journal of His Visitation to Earth in the Year 2009 by Nickell John Romjue. Through the intensest of inquiries—for my eye is as bright now as it was aboard the Beagle—I have observed many things. Thus speaks Charles Darwin at the close of his re-visitation to earth in …

February 2, 2012 – 12:32 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (8)

Discovery Institute: Indiana Bill “Bad Science and Bad Education”

A press release that just came from the Discovery Institute: Indianapolis – A bill approved today by the Indiana Senate to allow the teaching of creationism in public schools is being criticized as bad science education by Discovery Institute, the nation’s leading intelligent design think tank. [From Discovery Institute - Article Database - Leading Intelligent …

February 1, 2012 – 3:54 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)

Our Problem: Illusion or Reality?

What’s our problem? No, seriously. What’s wrong with us? Maybe nothing’s wrong with us. Sure, it seems like something’s not right with humanity, but maybe it’s just an illusion. There are modern naturalists/materialists who say consciousness and free will are human illusions. They’re not the only ones who place common-sense human experience in doubt. “Christian …

January 30, 2012 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Age, Origins and Science, Worldviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Can Science Disprove Free Will?

Premiss 1. If libertarian free will (LFW) exists, it operates such that natural law does not determine its course or its actions, nor is it a matter of chance. (Definition of libertarian free will) Premiss 2. Science’s competence (meaning the empirical, physical sciences) is strictly in the study of events and entities in conjunction with, …

January 20, 2012 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments (81)

Creation Out of Nothing

God’s work in this world is marked by at least ten crucial turning points, sovereign acts of God that make all the difference for you and for me. The creation of the universe The creation of man and woman in God’s image The Fall God’s calling of a people for himself God’s ongoing self-revelation The …

January 16, 2012 – 3:44 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Bible, Origins and Science, Religions, Worldviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (6)

Sam Harris and Lawrence Krauss Talk About Nothing, and Make About That Much Sense

Lawrence Krauss says to Sam Harris, Indeed, the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” which forms the subtitle of the book [his recent A Universe From Nothing], is often used by the faithful as an unassailable argument that requires the existence of God, because of the famous claim, “out of nothing, nothing comes.” …

January 13, 2012 – 12:13 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

Listen! You’ll Hear It! (Reductionism Fails)

There is a school of thought that says physics is the ultimate reality; that everything reduces to subatomic particles mindlessly subject to natural law. The story is told—I don’t remember where I heard it—of two young women sitting in the front row of a concert hall, holding the score for the music the orchestra was …

January 13, 2012 – 10:40 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Christianity, Science, and Materialism

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Faith & Science Podcasts 2012

“Religious people believe the most ridiculous things.” So says P.Z. Myers, the preposterous atheist of Pharyngula. He’s at least partly right: there are ridiculous religions everywhere you look. But when science gets married to atheism, such as P.Z. Myers, Jerry Coyne, and others do, the offspring of that marriage includes a lot of ridiculous beliefs as …

January 9, 2012 – 9:58 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science, Thinking Christianly | Comments (57)

Coyne Responds on Free Will

Jerry Coyne has responded to my piece (and others’) yesterday on his Free Will article in USAToday. He begins, Predictably, at his own website the Thinking Christian says that the assumption of natural laws that absolutely determine our choices is an unjustified a priori conclusion, not supported by science itself. (Nope, it’s a conclusion based …

January 3, 2012 – 11:53 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (18)

Jerry Coyne: “Why you don’t really have free will” – USATODAY.com

Jerry Coyne, who knows a lot about biology, doesn’t know nearly enough about other things on which he claims to be an authority. If what had written were only on his blog I would ignore it, but USAToday published it online: “Why you don’t really have free will.” It includes, Now there’s no way to …

January 2, 2012 – 10:04 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (169)