In this article, I share a dialogue with David MacMillan, a former young earth creationist who has since come to a very different opinion. MacMillan currently lives in Washington DC with his wife and their children, where he works as a paralegal while studying for his J.D. at Columbus School of Law. He is featured […]
creationism
Ain’t Gonna Make a Monkey Out of Me! Is Darwinism Compatible with Human Dignity?
Over the years, I’ve encountered many objections to the reconciliation of Christianity to Neo-Darwinian evolution. One of the most common and forceful objections pertains to the alleged loss of human dignity that comes with a biology of common descent. As Christian rock singer Larry Norman sang in “God Part III,” “I don’t believe in evolution. I […]
Natural Evil and Young Earth Creationism
In this short discussion (short being a relative term: it’s under ten minutes) I explain why young earth creationists have a problem of natural evil that they need to explain. Music Credit: Apero Hour Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: A Review
Abby Hafer, The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not. (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015). If you love intelligent design, you’ll (probably) hate this book. If you hate intelligent design, you’ll (probably) love this book. If you’re somewhere in-between in your assessment of intelligent design, you’ll probably find yourself somewhere […]
57. Terry Mortenson on Creationism
When I was in high school I gave my science teacher a copy of Paul Ackerman’s book It’s a Young World After All. The book aimed to show that evolution was false and the earth was a mere six to ten thousand years old. My science teacher politely received the gift and then, for all I […]
You can’t judge a book by its cover: A Review of “Death Before the Fall”
Ronald E. Osborn. Death Before the Fall: Biblical Literalism and the Problem of Animal Suffering. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014. This book suffers from a serious identity crisis. On the face (that is, the cover) of it, the book purports to provide an in-depth theological analysis of the problem of natural evil generally and animal […]
God? Science? Evolution? Historical Adam? Explore the issues with Denis Lamoureux
Great news for those of you interested in the discussion of Christianity and science generally, and evolution and Christianity in particular. My friend, Professor Denis Lamoureux (whom I interviewed on my podcast here), is going to be hosting a two hour online free webinar for those interested in the discussion on April 14th. Professor Lamoureux […]
A defense of Ken Ham’s fake Noah’s Ark
Ken Ham, that Australian-accented l’enfant terrible of North American fundamentalist Protestant 6-day young earth creationist Christianity, has achieved his goal of raising the first $14 million to begin construction on an ambitious life-size replica of Noah’s Ark for the people of Kentucky and indeed the citizens of the world. (Whew! That’s quite the opening sentence!) […]
Bill Nye the Science Guy gives very strange commentary and bad advice to creationists
Over the last few days Bill Nye the Science Guy’s two minute video of advice to creationists has gone viral. I must say I have a soft spot for Bill Nye since I watched his science guy schtick on Seattle’s “Almost Live” (which was broadcast in Southern British Columbia) back in the eighties when I […]
Should we “teach the controversy”?
In “Monkeying around with common sense” I offered a critique of Tennessee’s new bill for teaching scientific controversies in school. My critique consisted of pointing out that this kind of method would be frowned upon in other knowledge discourses like history and English. So it seems inappropriate for this bill to single out science as […]
Monkeying around with common sense: Tennessee’s anti-evolution bill
According to the Huffington Post, a bill is about to be enacted into law in Tennessee which intends to offer protection to teachers who want to encourage their students to explore “controversial” scientific perspectives. I’ll quote Huff Post quoting sections of the bill and then offer some commentary: In an effort to cultivate “intelligent, productive, […]
Was “Expelled” intelligently designed? A Review
Expelled was released three years ago to great fanfare (at least in the evangelical subculture). Here was a film hosted by a famous comedian (okay, not really; it was actually Ben Stein) which claimed to take on the evolution bullies in the name of God, intellectual freedom, and intelligent design. I did this belated review […]
