The acknowledgments of J. P. Moreland’s Scientism and Secularism include a nod to colleague Garry DeWeese, followed by a parenthetical comment about how Moreland has never understood the second ‘R’. It’s a throwaway line, possibly tossed in for some private levity to break up the intense, thoughtful process of writing. Yet it helped crystallize for me how I think differently than Moreland and thus why some parts of his book clicked for me while others did not. To me, the answer is obvious: because name spelling drifts over time as parents express personal taste, conflate multiple related names (it’s Larry and Barry so why not Garry?), or simply make mistakes. Granted, I don’t know the exact details of Ma & Pa DeWeese’s thought process, but understanding some general mechanisms is adequate for me. I’m similarly not certain what kind of explanation Moreland would prefer, but based on his writing I’d guess it would involve reasoning from commonsense principles rather than starting with the brute data.
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Book Review
We Are Ahab – Both Hunter and Hunted. A Book Review of Moby Dick
Like most who are part of the academe, I consider myself a well-read person, though we all admit that the more of an expert you become in one area, the more you realize how ignorant you are in others. My focus is the 19th Century American religious environment and even when I stray from there to another research focus, I always come back because I find the century so interesting. Sometimes, to get a more complete view of the period, I will read fiction from the era since it gives a window into the period’s views about religion which theologians do not and cannot. In addition, I am just interested in literature and I listen to a lot of books during my commute time. Rarely do I intentionally put one down unfinished, though several have challenged me in that regard. One book which I started but just could not finish was Moby Dick; it was just so long, and seemed so disconnected from the tale of Ahab that I just couldn’t finish it. Consequently, I became very critical of the book; how could a book filled with so much detail about whales and whaling be considered such a great American classic? But in the best way that students can, my own hypocrisy was pointed out: how could I be so critical of book I openly admitted I had not read completely? I hate it when people point out my own inconsistencies. So, this summer I committed to reading the whole of Moby Dick, even though I had previously failed and I already knew how the book ends. [Read more…] about We Are Ahab – Both Hunter and Hunted. A Book Review of Moby Dick
Winsome Persuasion. A Teaser
This week I received a box of books from InterVarsity Press which included Winsome Persuasion: Christian Influence in a Post-Christian World by Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer (2017). In the midst of Holy Week, how does Winsome Persuasion, Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year Award of Merit – Apologetics/Evangelism, contribute to the discussion of and engagement in public discourse? [Read more…] about Winsome Persuasion. A Teaser
Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 8
Evolutionary biology is a challenging topic; the history of the Christian church’s reaction to it, doubly so. Continuing a theme running throughout When Science and Christianity Meet, David Livingston identifies the human element as a major complicating factor. After all, the church does not respond to evolutionary biology; individual Christians do. And some of those individuals are responding more to Darwin the man than his scientific contributions. And even Darwin the man had many reactions to his own work and its relationship to his own religious beliefs and perhaps subsequent lack thereof. And on and on, down the rabbit hole.
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Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 7
How would I have thought about my fellow humans had I lived 50, 100, 150 years ago? That question has been nagging me for a while now. As a biologist, my current thoughts on topics like race are influenced by my understanding of the science. I am also aware that various scientists have come to a range of conclusions on those questions over the years. With hindsight, we can see how some of those conclusions were based on flawed studies, biased reasoning, or incomplete or nonexistent data. But would I have been able to identify those issues at the time?
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