The discussion this week about cognitive dissonance has gotten me thinking about creationism, a religious "theory" that virtually screams with cognitive dissonance. Let's look at how creationists game the gaps in the fossil record. Let's imagine we start with two fossils -- we'll call them A and Z to illustrate…
This zany bit really hits the mark. It's short (about 4 minutes). Enjoy!
For centuries, established religions have asserted that science should be viewed through the lens of religion. Over the past few years, scientifically-oriented writers have turned that view on its head. They have asserted that it is more appropriate to view religious practices through the lens of science.
The recent flurry of books includes the following:
Though I own each of these books, I have completely read only half of them; I’m partly through the others. They are a priority on my reading list given the high stakes of failing to understand religious practices (religious tensions and wars everywhere one cares to look).
For anyone just getting started in this area, I recommend Dennett’s 2006 work, Breaking the Spell. This book is classic Dennett: eloquent, heartfelt and clear. He works extra hard so that he is not only preaching to the choir. He spends the first one-hundred pages working to convince Believers to give him a chance. It’s quite an extraordinary opening gambit.
Most of the above books concern …
In a recent post (http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=166), I discussed God's attractive nuisance in His garden of Eden: the Tree of Knowledge. Let's take that discussion one step farther. Not only did God plant his deadly tree smack in the middle of His garden (bad garden design), not only did He fail to…
Further to my previous post about the problem of God's attractive nuisance in the garden of Eden, here are some more questions from Genesis for readers to ponder. First, exactly where did Cain's wife (in Genesis 4:17) come from? The book of Genesis never says God created her from scratch,…